Virginia State Route 53
State highway in central Virginia, US

State Route 53 (SR 53) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known as Thomas Jefferson Parkway, the state highway runs 18.32 miles (29.48 km) from SR 20 near Charlottesville east to U.S. Route 15 (US 15) in Palmyra. SR 53 connects the county seats of Albemarle and Fluvanna counties. The state highway also provides access to the community of Lake Monticello and Monticello, the estate of Thomas Jefferson. The route of SR 53 became a state highway in 1930; the highway receives its present designation in 1947.
Route description
SR 53 begins at an intersection with SR 20 (Scottsville Road) a short distance south of SR 20's interchange with Interstate 64 in Albemarle County just south of the independent city of Charlottesville. The state highway heads east and begins to ascend Carters Mountain, which is part of the Southwest Mountains. Just west of Michie Tavern, SR 53 winds as it continues to its summit between Monticello to the east and Montalto, also known as the Mountaintop Farm and Patterson Mountain, to the west. A two-way ramp connects SR 53 with the Monticello access road, which passes over the state highway.
SR 53 has a few more curves as it descends the mountain to the hamlet of Simeon, where the highway intersects SR 795 (James Monroe Parkway).
The public source identifies “Virginia State Route 53” as state highway in central Virginia, US. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Virginia, State and Route.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Virginia State Route 53”, the useful work is to connect “state highway in central Virginia, US” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 30, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2507704. VIAF identifies the subject as 315163479. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930 and 1947.
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This entry incorporates text from “Virginia State Route 53” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.