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Exact sub and supersonic soliton solutions of the one-dimensional Westervelt equation are presented, describing the propagation of pressure waves with high amplitude or frequency in nonlinear acoustic media. The sub and super-sonic waves only exist on a pedestal, in the absence of which the excitations propagate at the same speed as the small amplitude waves. For nonzero background, the soliton velocity is dependent on the linear acoustic properties such as, ambient density and sound speed, as also the nonlinearity coefficient. The nonlinearity coefficient is known to vary significantly with pathological conditions of tissue, often modeled by Westervelt equation, and hence these nonlinear characteristic excitations may find application in tissue tomography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]