Virginia Historical Highway Markers
Stafford County
J 92
Aquia Landing
This marker was on Route 608 (Brooke Road) near the entrance to the park at Aquia Landing, but now it's missing. When I was younger, Aquia Landing was called Aqua Po Beach. This is where Aquia Creek and the Potomac River meet. It was given it's original name back in the 1990's. The pilings from the Civil War wharves are still there posing a boating hazard. There is a link on the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries page about Aquia Landing at http://www.dgif.state.va.us/vbwt/site.asp?trail=1&loop=CFB&site=CFB01. There is a map of the park on Stafford County's web page at http://www.co.stafford.va.us/Parks/Park_Maps_and_Directions/asset_upload_file974_9449.pdf.
The sign reads:
The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad was extended to its terminus here at Aquia Landing in 1846. By steamboat and railroad, travelers from Washington, D.C., to Richmond could complete in 9 hours a journey that took 38 hours by stagecoach. In May-June 1861, Confederate batteries at Aquia Landing exchanged fire with Union gunboats. The first use of nautical mines ("torpedoes") in the war occurred here on 7 July 1861 against the U.S.S. Pawnee. After the Confederates abandoned the site in 1862, the Union army built new wharves and storage buildings for supplies. The army burned them in 1863, when it pursued the Confederate army into Pennsylvania. The railroad was extended across Aquia Creek in 1872.
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