Capon Bridge, WV

Capon Bridge sits on the Cacapon River along U.S. 50 in eastern Hampshire County, between the Allegheny ridges and the Virginia line. Before the town had a bridge, travelers crossed here by ferry; the settlement was first known as Glencoe and was incorporated in 1902. The name comes from the bridge over the river, while Cacapon carries a Shawnee-derived meaning associated with medicine water. U.S. 50 still follows the old turnpike corridor toward Winchester and Romney.

The river remains the town's strongest thread. The current bridge carries daily traffic over the Cacapon, and its 1933 steel truss structure was built on the site of an earlier covered bridge. Local businesses, the town library, artists, farmers, and visitors moving along the Northwestern Turnpike fill in the human side of the map. The surrounding watershed brings fishing, boating, wooded slopes, and mountain roads close to the village. Capon Bridge is a place named for a crossing, and the crossing still organizes how people arrive, work, shop, and head back out.