OH -- 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_071123_005.JPG: Brick section of the old National Road. US 40, the modern successor of the National Road, is paved with concrete instead so you only see these spots where the traditional National Road was abandoned in favor of a slightly adjusted US 40 route.
- NRD_071123_020.JPG: The Salt Fork S Bridge. Built around 1828.
- NRD_071123_080.JPG: Birthplace of William Rainey Harper (1856-1906).
William Rainey Harper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Rainey Harper (July 26, 1856 - January 10, 1906) was a noted academic who helped to organize the University of Chicago, and served as its first President.
Born on July 26, 1856 in New Concord, Ohio1, William Rainey Harper established himself as one of America's leading academics of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Very early in life, Harper displayed skills years ahead of other children his age and was labeled a prodigy. By the age of eight, Harper began preparing for college level courses; at the age of ten he enrolled in Muskingum College in his native New Concord, Ohio; and at the age of fourteen he graduated from Muskingum. In 1872, Harper enrolled in Yale University to begin his post graduate studies, which he completed in 1876. Throughout his academic life, Harper wrote numerous texts. A strong supporter of life long learning, Harper was also involved with the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY, and its programming.
In 1891 at the age of thirty-five, John D. Rockefeller selected Harper to assist in the organization of the University of Chicago, and shortly thereafter, Harper was named its first President. In staffing the University and selecting students, Harper set the standards very high. Harper elevated the compensation of academic professions above that of school teacher, and by doing so attracted the best and the brightest to the University. While his critics called this policy imprudent, Rockefeller called the move one of his best investments.
In addition to encouraging the establishment for the first department of Sociology in the United States, Harper ensured the establishment of the University of Chicago Press. Harper also instituted the first Extension Service in America designed to bring classes to those who could not attend regular classes because of work or other conflicts. One of Harper's ideas, that students should be able to study the first two years of college in their own communities to be better prepared for the rigors of college, helped lead to the creation of the community college system in the United States. Harper College, a two-year college in Palatine, Illinois, is named after him.
Harper died on January 10, 1906 of cancer at the age of forty-nine. There is also an elementary school in Cleveland, Ohio named after him.
Notes:
Note 1:The original log cabin that was William Rainey Harper's birthplace is located in New Concord, Ohio across from the main gate of Muskingum College. The building has been preserved and currently houses an antique store.
- NRD_071123_104.JPG: Fox Creek "S" Bridge. Runaway slaves would hide underneath during the Underground Railway days.
- NRD_071123_139.JPG: The house on the hill in the distance is apparently that of Robert West Speer, a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad.
- NRD_071123_167.JPG: See the previous sign for an explanation of this shot. I wish it had been earlier in the day!
- Description of Subject Matter: Historic National Road - Ohio
Ohio
Length: 227.87 miles / 366.7 km
The Historic National Road was the nation's first federally funded interstate highway. It opened the nation to the west and became a corridor for the movement of goods and people. Today, visitors experience a physical timeline, including classic inns, tollhouses, diners and motels that trace 200 years of American history.
The National Road is the Road that built the nation. Commissioned by Congress in 1806, 2006 marks the bicentennial of its initiation. Ultimately, the Road ran from Cumberland, Maryland, to Vandalia, Illinois, and was constructed through Ohio during the 1820s and 1830s. Today the route is defined by Highway 40. Visitors to the National Road can see the evolution of the U.S. from stagecoach to railroad, automobile, and even airplane.
The construction of the National Road through Ohio opened the state and much of the Northwest Territory to settlement. The Road also provided access for Ohio products to eastern markets. As a result, there was a continual flow of people both east and west along the route. This hubbub spurred town and village development, complete with taverns, inns, and blacksmith shops to serve travelers' needs.
Send as postcard
Relive the journey today as you cross original bridges and visit remaining historic buildings. See stone S-bridges, a unique feature of the National Road, at Blaine Hill, Salt Fork, and Fox Creek. The Blaine Hill Bridge served National Road travelers for well over 100 years. It is Ohio's oldest bridge and was recently named the state Bicentennial Bridge. Stop in at the Pennsylvania House Museum, a restored tavern. Travelers ate and relaxed here after a long day on the Road in a rickety stagecoach or alongside livestock headed to market.
The impetus of the railroad drew people from the National Road until the turn of the twentieth century when the advent of the automobile sparked a new interest in the route and fostered a new round of building construction. Service stations and motels, diners and drive-in movie theatres gradually sprang up. Today they and the remaining historic taverns and inns provide a concrete manifestation of the route's evolution, as well as a living history of America's growth and change over time.
Find a timeline of the National Road at the National Road/Zane Grey Museum in Norwich. The museum also highlights the region's art pottery tradition and the life and works of famous Zanesville author Zane Grey. Alternately, stop by the Heritage Center of Clark County, which features a National Road Gallery that highlights the history of the Road and its impact on Clark County through a multitude of artifacts and interpretive panels.
The automobile wasn't the end of transportation evolution related to the National Road. Modern travel in airplanes began in Dayton, where the Wright Brothers changed the world forever. See the Huffman Prairie Flying Field and the 1905 Wright Flyer III at the Dayton Aviation Historical Park. The National Park hosts various museums and self-guiding tours.
From foot to flight, the National Road is a road of advancement and evolution, growth and expansion. It maps the development of the United States from its early years to today, when its borders extend far beyond Ohio.
The above was from http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/2278/
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Brick sections:
In 1918, the Federal government concluded that in order to win World War I, more supplies were needed overseas. After investigating various alternatives, the National Road was chosen as the best means of transporting goods overland. However, before the Road could accommodate the heavily loaded trucks, it had to be improved. Using convict labor, the government paved over 75 miles of the National Road in eastern Ohio with brick, creating the longest continuous stretch of brick pavement in America.
"S" Bridge:
Where the road crossed a creek at an angle, a stone arch bridge was built at right angles to the stream flow. "S" shaped walls were then built to guide traffic around the job from the direction of travel across the bridge and back onto the road line. An arch parallel with the stream flow and in line with the road would have been more difficult and costly to build.
Fox Creek "S" Bridge:
One of a series of such bridges which lined the path of the National Road. All but a handful were destroyed during the construction of U.S. Route 40. The National Road, completed here in 1828, "opened wide the doors to the West." Every township crossed by the Road doubled its population in a decade. The entire National Road from Cumberland, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois, was bricked during World War I to accommodate military traffic. The Fox Creek "S" Bridge was the last section to be bricked. The photo below records this event in 1919.
[Near the bridge is the house] of Robert West Speer, a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. Speer was a Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter). His denomination, as well as the Associate Presbyterians (Seceders) and the Associated Reformed Presbyterians made the Fox Creek / Crooked Creek area a bastion of Abolitionists before and during the Civil War.
Zane's Trace:
Although "it was a tight fit for a fat horse," thousands of settlers journeyed down Zane's Trace to build settlements at St. Clairsville, Cambridge, Zanesville, Somerset, Lancaster, and Chillicothe. With the construction of the "New State Road" (authorized in 1804 to improve Zane's Trace) and the National Road (completed through New Concord in 1828), Ohio's overland commerce and communication steadily improved. From this point, one can see the five major routes into Ohio: Zane's Trace, the National Road, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, U.S. Route 40, and Interstate 70,.
- 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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