NATIONAL HISTORY

Beginning in Baltimore, Maryland the National Road crosses six states and more than 700 miles, past historic landmarks, forested mountains, fertile farmland and pastures, industrial towns and modern cities to the Mississippi River and the Eads Bridge in St. Louis, Missouri.

Alberty Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson, developed the concept of the National Road, alternately now known as Route 40. Authorized by Congress in 1806, it became the nation’s first federally funded interstate highway opening up the country and facilitating America’s westward expansion.

In 1811, a contract was awarded to build the first 10 miles of road in compliance with strict requirements regarding the road’s width, surface and elevations. By 1818, the road had crossed Pennsylvania and western Virginia (now West Virginia) reaching as far as the Ohio River at Wheeling.

“There were sometimes twenty gaily painted four-horse coaches each way daily. The cattle and sheep were never out of sight. The canvas-covered wagons were drawn by six or twelve horses. Within a mile of the road the country was a wilderness, but on the highway the traffic was as dense as in the main street of a large town.”

Debate over the constitutionality of internal improvements served to delay extension of the road for several years. By the 1830s, the federal government had conveyed the  responsibility for maintenance of the road to the states through which it runs. The National Road soon became a toll road as most of the states erected toll gates and toll houses to collect fees from those using the road.

As work on the Road progressed, a settlement pattern of towns and villages developed that is still visible to travelers today. The Road became Main Street in these early settlements, earning the nickname “The Main Street of America.”

Mile markers were an important component in early National Road travel. These markers lined the road serving to tell travelers how far they were from their destination and became an important icon in early National Road travel.

The 1840s were peak years for travel along the Road. Taverns and inns enjoyed brisk business and the National Road was celebrated in song, story, painting and poetry. Stage lines transported many famous persons along the nation’s “Main Street,” including presidents and future presidents, such as Monroe, Jackson, Polk, Taylor, Harrison, Fillmore, Van Buren, Buchanan and Lincoln, as well as notables such as Lafayette, Albert Gallatin, Henry Clay, Sam Houston, Daniel Webster, Davy Crockett, Chief Blackhawk, Jenny Lind, and P.T. Barnum. Huge Conestoga wagons hauled produce from frontier farms to the East Coast, returning with staples such as coffee and sugar for the western settlements.

By the middle of the 19th Century, a new form of transportation, the railroad, overshadowed the National Road and the prominence and prosperity of the Road was overtaken by the “iron horse.”