Historical highway markers

Jamestown Ferry

Historical highway marker K-301 · Surry County

Near this site on February 26, 1925, the ferry Captain John Smith began the first automobile ferry service crossing the James River. Captain Albert F. Jester was the inaugurator and owner/operator until it was sold to the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1945. This ferry system provided an important link for the Maine-to-Florida traveler through Surry County to Jamestown Island, the site of the first permanent English settlement in America.

Department of Conservation and Historic Resources, 1987