 From Lynchburg east to Suffolk, the highway was built closely following the main line of the Norfolk and Western Railway (now Norfolk Southern), in many places.Legend has it that William Mahone (1826–1895), builder of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad and his wife, Otelia Butler Mahone (1837–1911), traveled along the newly completed Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad naming stations.Otelia was reading "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott.