National Road

Historic highway running west from Cumberland, Maryland, and eventually extending to St Louis, Missouri. Authorized in 1806, it was the main route for trans-Appalachian migration in the early 19th century. It played a major role in the settlement of the Great Plains, but declined in importance after the advent of the railways in the 1850s.

The first section of the National Road, the Cumberland Road, was completed in 1818. This followed the route of ‘Nemacolin's Path’, a trail blazed by a Delaware chief in 1749–50 between the Potomac and Monongahela rivers, and used during the French and Indian wars. After reaching the junction of the Redstone Creek with the Monongahela (near modern Brownsville, Pennsylvania), the Cumberland Road proceeded to Wheeling. The route was paved with crushed stone. In the 1820s the road was extended from Wheeling through Cambridge, Zanesville, Columbus, and Springfield, Ohio, to Vandalia, Illinois, and finally all the way to St Louis. Individual states took over its operation. Nowadays, highway US 40 roughly follows the route taken by the National Road.