Birthplace of Confederate Civil War hero Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and now a national center for law enforcement biometric data analysis, Clarksburg (pop. 16,743) is a tidy railroad town sitting on a branch of the Monongahela River. The downtown area is a sampler of turn-of-the-20th-century commercial buildings, great for taking pictures of old signs and brick walls, and the town’s large Italian population, estimated at around 40 percent, supports numerous good restaurants like Minard’s Spaghetti Inn (304/623-1711), 813 E. Pike Street on old US-50, at the Joyce Street exit off the US-50 freeway. Another good old-fashioned place to eat is the Ritzy Lunch (304/842-7388), at 465 W. Pike Street, selling famous chili dogs since 1933.
On the east side of Clarksburg, US-50 climbs a steep hill before becoming suddenly busy at Bridgeport, which straddles the I-79 freeway, around which the highway is lined by a two-mile sprawl of motels and fast food.
