A Story by Melissa Farlow

America’s First Highway | The National Road, National Geographic

America’s first highway, the historic National Road, is a tribute to small town life and a tapestry of different eras.

Settlers heading west in wagon trains in the early 1800s were often stuck on muddy, rutted mountain roads or inching along barely negotiable trails even across the flatlands. Thomas Jefferson put surveyors to work in 1806 to chart the course of a national road.

Construction began in Cumberland, MD in 1811 and work had progressed to Wheeling, West Virginia by 1818. Through six states, this project encouraged settlement and exploration. Towns sprouted up along the road, which became “Main Street” and a center of small town activity.

The steam engine led to the death of the road. Train travel became so popular for …

America’s First Highway | The National Road, National Geographic

By Melissa Farlow

America’s first highway, the historic National Road, is a tribute to small town life and a tapestry of different eras.

Settlers heading west in wagon trains in the early 1800s were often stuck on muddy, rutted mountain roads or inching along barely negotiable trails even across the flatlands. Thomas Jefferson put surveyors to work in 1806 to chart the course of a national road.

Construction began in Cumberland, MD in 1811 and work had progressed to Wheeling, West Virginia by 1818. Through six states, this project encouraged settlement and exploration. Towns sprouted up along the road, which became “Main Street” and a center of small town activity.

The steam engine led to the death of the road. Train travel became so popular for long distances that more roads were not needed. Work stopped in 1852, in Vandalia Illinois, and the brick road fell into disrepair. Sections are still visible, but farmers sometimes dug up the bricks and planted crops where the roadbed cut through their fields.

The invention of the bicycle in the 1880s revived an interest in the National Road. The American Wheelmen lobbied to have better paths for their big-wheeled bicycles.

Then came the automobile, and the resulting car culture with motels and diners. In no time, Americans wanted to drive everywhere and faster. When the interstate highway system took shape in the ’50s, ninety percent of the traffic left the old road.

Traveling along the road today you may find fruit and vegetable stands, a reminder of a time when wagons loaded with much needed commodities crowded the road in the 1800s. Stagecoach inns now serve as wedding chapels and the old buildings seem to draw those who don’t want to forget local history.

Many generations have been shaped by the westward migration. The ancestors of one Centerville, Indiana farm family were headed west long ago in a covered wagon when a wheel broke and it took three weeks to for materials to arrive to make the repairs. In the mean time they looked around Centerville and decided it wasn’t such a bad place to stop. Four generations later, the family is farming the same land.

Stone bridges spanning 80 feet still stand as architectural marvels of the time. Today, wagons rattle along during reenactments of the period, but these “settlers” stop for hot coffee at McDonalds.

The road and the communities along it are still in flux. Some towns continue to decline. Others, also isolated by their distance from interstate highways and suburban sprawl, now reap the benefits of having the opportunity to preserve and revive old churches and other historic buildings.

Read The Full Story
Sunday church dresses double as bathing suits for the young sisters below the Casselman River Bridge near Grantsville, Maryland. Now closed to all but foot traffic, the bridge was built in 1811. The 50-foot arch, like a lone cathedral rib, was designed to clear a canal that never came.
Wagons and horses roll out of McDonalds in a thick fog as a wagon train plods toward Pennsylvania. An annual reenactment brings westward bound caravans to the Pike Festival, although early settlers did not stop for fast food coffee along their way past Keyser’s Ridge, Maryland. The route passes through some of the most mountainous terrain in Maryland and reaches an elevation of 3,700 feet on nearby Negro Mountain. Early travelers feared Keyser’s Ridge—even with the road—because of the harsh weather conditions.
A bicycle enthusiast dresses in clothes of the the 19th century era as he pedals ahead of an Indiana thunderstorm. When the road fell into decline, bicyclists banded together and The League of American Wheelmen was formed in 1880. They demanded potholes to be filled which began a revival of the National Road Construction began in Cumberland, MD in 1811 on the National Road, America’s first highway built with federal funds. Reaching Wheeling, West Virginia in 1818, it ended more than 600 miles west in Vandalia, Illinois in 1852. What began as a wagon train road to settle the West is now Main Street to many towns. Communities sprang up through Ohio, Indiana and IL during the beginning of a prosperous automobile era. As the railroad developed, the road’s importance diminished. Bypassed later by the Interstate, many towns began to decline. The road today is a tapestry of different eras–old stone taverns and a few historic remnants from early years.
Smoke fills the air and dramatic shadows mark the street as a steam engine moves through the center of Cumberland, Maryland. Some 40,000 train buffs take the scenic, 16-mile  trip up the mountain to Frostburg, Pennsylvania. The Western Maryland Railroad locomotive named “Mountain Thunder” was originally built in 1913 for the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  Rail travel all but doomed the National Road when the Baltimore and Ohio line reached Wheeling, West Virginia. A century later, cars elbowed the train aside.
A fruit and vegetable seller takes shelter under his produce at a roadside stand west of Scenery Hill, when a summer thunderstorm blows through the area. Farmers were early beneficiaries of the National Road as they found markets beyond nearby towns. At its peak in the mid-1800s, the road allowed farmers to transport wagonloads of goods  while today, motorists on the old road pass by organic farms, small markets, and wineries.  
Car lights streak by today but at an earlier period in history, wagons lined up twenty deep at Searight’s Tollhouse, one of six built in Pennsylvania in the mid-1830s.  When the U.S. turned over the road, and its expense, to the state, tolls charged for traveling on the road were based on the number of animals and type of vehicle. Every score of sheep and pigs cost only 6 cents, but cattle cost 12. A person traveling on horseback was charged 4 cents, and a stagecoach with two horses and four wheels cost 12 cents. Tolls were collected until 1905. The tollhouse’s namesake, William Searight, owned a prosperous roadside tavern and was a contractor who worked on the National Road who was later appointed commissioner of the Pennsylvania section (but had no connection with the tollhouse itself).Designed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the tollhouses resembled lighthouses. The historic building is lit up at dusk on US-40 west of Unionville, PA.    
Wagons and horses roll slowly up a steep hill passed by modern day trucks in rain and fog as the wagon train heads west. An annual reenactment of a westering caravans during the Pike festival, although the first settlers didn’t stop for fast food coffee along their route. The route passes through some of the most mountainous terrain in Maryland and reaches an elevation of 3,700 feet on nearby Negro Mountain. Early travelers feared Keyser’s Ridge—even with the road—because of the harsh weather conditions.
Wet snow blankets the ground along the National Road in an early April snowstorm where the historic road passes through the center of this small western PA town. No phone poles line the rural highway but  the yellow center line added in modern day dates the photo in a modern era. This two mile stretch near Addison, PA, between Youghiogheny Lake and the Maryland border, is one of the more historic parts of the road. A tollhouse marks the east entrance to the town. Construction began in Cumberland, MD in 1811 on the National Road, America’s first highway built with federal funds. Reaching Wheeling, West Virginia in 1818, it ended more than 600 miles west in Vandalia, Illinois in 1852.
A ring bearer, flower girl and bridesmaids huddle together on a chilly rainy day before a wedding begins outside the Century Inn in Scenery Hill, PA. The historic inn, once known as Hill’s Tavern, was considered the oldest in continuous operation (since 1794) until a fire destroyed it in 2015. The history marker on Route 40, the old National Road, proclaims the continuous operation but it now has a 2 1.2 year gap between fire and restoration. The detailed repair work was accurately done so the building still qualifies for the National Register of Historic Places.  The village of Scenery Hill is unincorporated and has many antique shops in historic buildings and homes.
The first federal highway in the United States is “Main Street” in many small towns. Centerville, Pennsylvania  got its name because it was halfway along the National Road between Uniontown and Washington, PA. The aerial photograph made after a winter snow shows the old road (now called Old National Pike) fronting houses and the Centerville United Methodist Church, a Queen Anne style church built in 1872. A bypass running parallel moves faster-paced traffic around the small pike town.
Ghostly riders in the fog talk through a wet field as the wagon train halts for a break during an annual reenactment of a westering caravans for the Pike festival. The first settlers didn’t stop for fast food coffee at Keysers Ridge, Maryland along their route. The route of the National Road passes through some of the most mountainous terrain in Maryland and reaches an elevation of 3,700 feet on nearby Negro Mountain. Early travelers feared Keyser’s Ridge—even with the road—because of the harsh weather conditions.
A car passes through the hilly terrain of a rural section of the National Road in Western Pennsylvania. The aerial shows farm land a few miles east of Scenery Hill. Construction began in Cumberland, MD in 1811 on the National Road, America’s first highway built with federal funds. Reaching Wheeling, West Virginia in 1818, it ended more than 600 miles west in Vandalia, Illinois in 1852. What began as a wagon train road to settle the West is now Main Street to many towns. Communities sprang up through Ohio, Indiana and IL during the beginning of a prosperous automobile era.
Hutterite children join hands to circle a large tree in the forest in the Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Two Bruderhof communities are surrounded by rolling hills where members of the community are located along the Old National Road near Farmington as it cuts through the state. The Hutterian Brethren are from an Anabaptist movement. They live in community and trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the early 16th century. George Washington hastily built nearby Fort Necessity at the time of the French and Indian War. Also nearby is the grave of British Major General Edward Braddock, the leader of an ill-fated expedition to capture Fort Duquesne.
A father dons a white hat and stoops to watch horses with his daughter in the barn located in central Illinois along the Old National Highway.
Brothers load a wagon with rocks to help clear a farm field. This family’s ancestors headed west in a covered wagon on the National Road and were passing through Centerville, Indiana when a wheel broke. It took three weeks for the materials to arrive to make repairs, and while they waited they looked around Centerville and decided it wasn’t such a bad place to stop. Four generations later, the family is farming the same land.
An antique car drives through modern day Columbus, Ohio on a weekend evening. The National Road goes through the center of small towns and cities from Maryland to Illinois. 
On a sultry night after a summer thunderstorm, a car races west on the National Road near Chalk Hill, PA. The historic road passes through the center of this small, desolate western Pennsylvania town which was by passed by Interstate highways.
An audience with lawn chairs and blankets listens to Friday night summer concerts in the town square on Main Street in Marshall, Illinois.  The multi-generational Marshall City Band plays John Phillips Sousa marches and other music from the brightly lit, nineteenth-century bandstand after a weekly pie sale.When the concert ends, fans in their cars that are parked on the street toot their horns in appreciation. Marshall was officially organized in 1835, eight years after the National Road entered the eastern Illinois community.

Find a Photograph

TIP: Use this to find a stock photo in the OlsonFarlow stock archives. Enter a name, region, country, activity or keyword phrase, For example: “Alligator, Okefenokee Swamp”

Subscribe To Newsletter

"*" indicates required fields

Hidden
Name
Hidden
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

© 2024 olsonfarlow.com. All rights reserved. Images are protected under the U.S. DMCA.

To Top ▲