PA -- Historic National Road:
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- NRD_010609_04.JPG: I presume this is the carcass of a roadkilled deer
- Description of Subject Matter: The National Road was the first federally-constructed highways. It connected Cumberland Maryland with Vandalia Illinois. In 1833, the federal government returned the road to the seven states through which it passed. The states erected tollgate houses at 15-mile intervals to shelter the keepers. The rates varied somewhat from state to state. They were in part based on how much damage the traffic would cause the road. For example, a score of sheep or hogs would be charged 6 cents while a score of cattle would be 12. Wagons with thin wheels (4 to 6 inches wide) were charged 3 cents but wider wheels (6 to 8 inches wide, which cause less damage to the road) were charged 2.
There's a good write-up about it at http://www.route40.net/history/national-road.shtml . The following description is from that site:
For almost 800 miles west from Baltimore, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois, the National Road served as one of the most significant predecessor roads for Route 40.
The National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road, Cumberland Pike, National Pike and Western Pike) was created by an Act of Congress in 1806 and signed by President Thomas Jefferson. The act called for a road connecting the waters of the Atlantic with those of the Ohio River. Although the Act mentions a road from Baltimore, federal funding began in Cumberland in western Maryland. Turnpike roads in Maryland connected Cumberland an Baltimore. Depending on who you ask, the National Road began in either Baltimore or Cumberland. When the road reached Wheeling on the Ohio River, the road was extended into Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. There were plans to extend the road into Missouri, however funding ran out about the time railroads appeared.
The National Road runs from Baltimore, through western Maryland, across the southwest corner of Pennsylvania and West Virginia northern panhandle, and through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. In western Maryland and Pennsylvania, the road roughly follows Braddock's Road. In eastern Ohio, it follows Zane's Trace. The road officially ends at the old statehouse in Vandalia, Illinois.
In the early part of this century, groups formed to promote transcontinental highways. A group was formed to promote the National Old Trails Ocean-to-Ocean highway which ran from New York City to Los Angeles. This road followed a significant portion of the National Road and other historic paths. Later, the highway's route was altered somewhat with Washington, D.C. as the starting point.
In the late 1920's, the Federal Highway System came into being and the National Road was folded into the design for U.S. Route 40. (It should be noted that the exact path of the original roads is very hard to follow in that highway construction has so drastically altered the landscape. A careful review of the roadscape, however, periodically reveals traces of the original path.) There was an attempt to make the National Road, the most historic road in America, U.S. Route 1, however doing so would corrupt the system's numbering scheme.
The first alignment of Route 40 between Baltimore and Vandalia followed the National Road. Over the years, Route 40 and the National Road have become synonymous. Even in places where Route 40 has been relocated to newer roadways, people still refer to Route 40 as the National Road.
- Wikipedia Description: National Road
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Road or Cumberland Road was one of the first major improved highways in the United States, built by the Federal Government. Construction began in 1811 at Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River, and the road reached Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) on the Ohio River in 1818. Plans were made to continue through St. Louis, Missouri, on the Mississippi River to Jefferson City, Missouri, but funding ran out and construction stopped at Vandalia, Illinois in 1839.
A chain of turnpikes connecting Baltimore, Maryland, to the National Road at Cumberland was completed in 1824, forming what is somewhat erroneously referred to as an eastern extension of the National Road. In 1835 the road east of Wheeling was turned over to the states for operation as a turnpike, and came to be known as the National Pike, a name also applied to the Baltimore extension.
The approximately 620-mile (1000 km) road provided a portage between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and a gateway to the West for thousands of settlers. It was the first road in the U.S. to use the new macadam road surfacing. Today the alignment is followed by U.S. Highway 40 with only minor realignments. The full road, as well as its extensions east to Baltimore and west to St. Louis, was designated "The Historic National Road", an All-American Road, by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta in 2002.
History:
The Braddock Road had been opened by the Ohio Company in 1751 between Cumberland, Maryland, the limit of navigation on the Potomac River, and the forks of the Ohio River (a site that would later become Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). It received its name during the French and Indian War when it was used in the Braddock expedition, an attempt to assault the French Fort Duquesne by General Braddock and George Washington.
Construction of the Cumberland Road (National Road) was authorized on March 29, 1806 by President Thomas Jefferson. The Cumberland Road would replace the Braddock Road for travel between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers, following roughly the same alignment until east of Uniontown, Pennsylvania. From there, where the Braddock Road turned north to Pittsburgh, the Cumberland Road would continue west to Wheeling, West Virginia (then part of Virginia), also on the Ohio River.
Construction of the new Macadam road began on November 20, 1811 at Cumberland, and the road reached Wheeling on August 1, 1818. On May 15, 1820 Congress authorized an extension to St. Louis, Missouri, connecting it directly to the Mississippi River, and on March 3, 1825 to Jefferson City, Missouri. Work on the extension utilized the pre-existing Zane's Trace between Wheeling and Zanesville, Ohio, and was completed to Columbus, Ohio, in 1838 and Springfield, Ohio, in 1838.
On April 1, 1835 the section east of Wheeling was transferred to the states, which made it a turnpike. The last Congressional appropriation was made May 25, 1838, and in 1840 Congress voted against completing the road, with the deciding vote cast by Henry Clay. By that time railroads were proving a better method of transportation; the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was being built for the same purpose - connecting Baltimore via Cumberland to Wheeling. Construction stopped in 1839, and much of the road through Indiana and Illinois remained unfinished, later transferred to the states.
In 1912 the National Road was chosen to become part of the National Old Trails Road, which would extend further east to New York City and west to San Francisco, California. Five Madonna of the Trail monuments were erected on the old National Road. In 1927 the road was designated part of U.S. Highway 40, which still follows the National Road with only minor realignments. Most of the road has been bypassed for through travel by Interstate 70, but between Hancock in western Maryland, and Washington, Pennsylvania, I-70 takes a more northerly path to reach the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Breezewood. The later Interstate 68 follows the old road from Hancock west to Keysers Ridge, Maryland, where the National Road and US 40 turn northwest into Pennsylvania. The whole of I-68 in Maryland has been designated the National Freeway.
One of the original toll houses is preserved in La Vale, Maryland, and another in Addison, Pennsylvania. Many of the old arch bridges also remain on former alignments. Notable among these is the Casselman River Bridge near Grantsville, Maryland; built in 1813-1814 it was the longest single span stone arch bridge in the world at the time. The Wheeling Suspension Bridge across the Ohio River, opened in 1849, also stands along the old road.
The following structures associated with the National Road are listed on the National Register of Historic Places:
* Several milestones in Maryland on former Maryland Route 44 and Maryland Route 165, US 40, Alternate US 40, and Scenic US 40
* Inns on the National Road in Cumberland, Maryland and Grantsville, Maryland
* Casselman's Bridge, National Road in Grantsville, Maryland
* Petersburg Tollhouse in Addison, Pennsylvania
* Searights Tollhouse, National Road in Uniontown, Pennsylvania
* S Bridge, National Road in Washington County, Pennsylvania near Washington, Pennsylvania
* Mile markers 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, and 14 in West Virginia
* National Road Corridor Historic District in Wheeling, West Virginia
* Wheeling Suspension Bridge in Wheeling, West Virginia
* A segment in Cambridge, Ohio
* Huddleston Farmhouse, in Mount Auburn, Indiana
* James Whitcomb Riley House in Indiana
* Old Stone Arch, National Road near Marshall, Illinois
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