Where the Road Began

The National Road began here as the country’s first federal road building project, a vision of George Washington to develop the continent and unite the country, championed by Thomas Jefferson and authorized by Congress in 1806. In the early 19th century, Cumberland, nestled in the Allegheny Mountains, stood on the edge of the frontier, where the eastern continental divide hindered westward expansion and trade in the Ohio Valley even as pioneers pushed onward. Completed as a government project from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, then in Virginia and now in West Virginia, and linked with older roads from Baltimore, Frederick, and Hagerstown and later with newer lines west of the Ohio River, it became the shortest and most natural road route from Chesapeake Bay tidewater to St. Louis, Missouri, at the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. In 1916, Robert Bruce traveled the road and produced a guidebook with detailed maps and historic points of interest, helping illuminate the significance of a highway that for many years was a vital factor in the life, politics, and industry of the country.

Cumberland, Maryland · United States