Category: Blog posts
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Bicycle Month
May 1, 2025 by Tom Ewing May 2025 has been designated by the Governor of Virginia as “Bike Month” with a proclamation that echoed many themes from cycling history over the past century. This year’s governor’s proclamation cited the importance of cycling for transportation, recreation, fitness, and fun, the efficiency of cycling for daily transportation,…
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Virginia Creeper Trail
April 25, 2025 by Tom Ewing The podcast episode on Damascus was researched, written, and recorded in August 2024. One month later, on September 27, 2024, the remnants of Hurricane Helene unleashed catastrophic rainfall and flooding across western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia. The community of Damascus was directly impacted by the rain and flooding,…
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Gunpowder Incident 1775
April 17, 2025 by Grace Kostrzebski With the battles of Lexington and Concord, the British soldiers and American militias had “draw[n] the sword… [and] burn[ed] the scabbard” as one colonial newspaper noted. These two battles have long been recognized as the starting points for the Revolutionary War. However, Virginians reacted harshly to the news of…
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Earth Day
by Tom Ewing April 10, 2025 Fifty years ago, President Gerald Ford signed a proclamation declaring March 21, 1975 as Earth Day. This statement continued national efforts to sustain the momentum begun five years ago, when the first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970. Bicycles have always been part of earth day celebrations.…
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Lexington and Concord, April 1775
April 3, 2025 by Grace Kostrzebski April 19, 1775 marked a turning point in American history: the “shot heard around the world” at the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. Tensions between the British authorities and American colonists had been brewing behind the scenes for some time – with moments of violence like the…
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Aline Black and the Struggle for Equal Rights
by Grace Kostrzebski March 27, 2025 African Americans fought and died for their country during both world wars – yet, at home they had fewer legal rights than white Americans. In southern states, including Virginia, segregation divided all schools into two systems – one for white students and one for Black students. In theory, the…
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Give Me Liberty
by Tom EwingMarch 20, 2025 Fifty years ago, in March 1975, America celebrated the 200th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s most famous speech with dramatic readings and costumed re-enactments. This week, in March 2025, Americans are celebrating the 250th anniversary of this speech with dramatic readings and costumed re-enactments. The headline from the Richmond Times on…
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Women’s Rights and Bicycles
By Grace Kostrzebski March 13, 2025 Bicycles offered a route to freedom – in more ways than one, especially for women. In the nineteenth century, American upper and middle class women were expected to stay at home, raise children, and keep house. The transportation available to women at the time discouraged their travel. While trains,…
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Civil Rights along Route 76
By Tom Ewing February 20, 2025 The US Civil Rights Trail is a national effort to connect locations central to the history of efforts to end segregation and establish racial equality. In Virginia, Route 76 and the Civil Rights Trail intersect once, north of Richmond, as the north-south direction of the Civil Rights Trail runs…
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Booker T. Washington at Christiansburg Institute
February 6, 2025 In February, Bike 76 VA will recognize Black History Month with a series of posts exploring themes along Route 76 related to the experience of African Americans along Route 76 and across the centuries. Booker T. Washington, one of the leading African American public figures of the early twentieth century, has several…
