Americans have long been an adventurous people who used many forms of travel to keep moving and reshaping their lives. George Washington envisioned a highway linking east and west, and in 1806 Thomas Jefferson authorized a road from Cumberland, Maryland, to Ohio despite risking his presidency. The next generation built the United States Road, a thirty-foot-wide crushed-stone highway that crossed rivers, traversed mountains, and opened America’s western frontier to the Mississippi. Merchants, travelers, traders, and families from around the world followed this route to claim land, expand markets, and create new lives. Built in the early 1800s as America’s first federal project, the approximately 800-mile National Road remains visible in many places through historic milestones.

Grantsville, Maryland · USA