Late Travel in Virginia: A Cautionary Tale

When I was in the Navy my wife and I had an apartment in Norfolk, VA, but our families were from Indiana, so whenever I could get leave we would drive home for a week or so then travel back to Virginia.

Not liking to deal with the D.C. area traffic we planned out trip so that we cruised through about 1 am when traffic was light. I noted that the gas tank was getting low but I figured to get into Virginia and then look for a gas station.

We had traveled down interstate 70 from Pennsylvania and took 495 on the west side of D.C. and then took interstate 95 south toward Richmond then I realized I better take the next exit in search of fuel .

The next exit came and I ran down the ramp expecting to fine the usual array of gas stations and motels, but instead I found myself in the middle of woods with a small road running through. The other thing I soon noticed was there is not a ramp to get back on to the freeway. By now my wife is ready to kill me. So I traveled a mile and came to a 4 way stop, thankfully there is a police officer with a car pulled over just to the left, past the intersection.

After the officer got back to his car I walked over and asked for directions to the nearest gas station. The officer laughed and told me in a southern drawl that was straight out of the movies ” if ya go down this here road for about 2 miles and take a left that will be Pohuck road, go about 3 miles and you will come to an intersection with a gas station. But you’re going to have to be real careful the bridge is kind of narrow but I think you can make her.” With that he drove off. I kept thinking to myself, what is the big deal about a narrow bridge?

I soon found out! Pohuck road was dirt, very narrow and after about a mile I stopped and looked upon the scariest bridge I had ever seen in my life. It looked to be about 400 feet long and about as wide as a Volkswagen beetle and to top it all off this thing had no guard rails, none at all. And here I am in my full sized GMC pickup truck.

So I open my door and my wife opens hers so we can see the edge of this bridge under the truck and I inch my way out onto the thing, my wife warning me when I stray too far to her side and I am watching my side trying to keep from dropping a wheel over the edge and falling to certain death in the middle of nowhere. After what seemed like hours and was actually maybe 10-15 minutes we made it across expecting something out of deliverance for a gas station but as we came to the intersection we found a brand new 7-eleven. And sign that pointed the way back to 95 in 15 miles.

We gassed up and bought some snacks and headed for Norfolk as fast as we could never to forget the bridge at Pohuck road.


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