| Here are two pleasing pastoral scenes from Manassas Gap in the Blue Ridge four miles east of Front Royal. Commissioned by Governor William Berkeley, John Lederer, with five Indian guides and nine English horse, passed thru this gap on August 24, 1670, and made the first official exploration of the Shenandoah Valley. In 1854 the Manassas Gap Railroad (Southern) was constructed thru the gap and now John Marshall Highway passes thru on an almost imperceptible grade, which puts Front Royal within seventy miles of Washington. The gap was of much strategic importance during the Civil War. |
