For nearly fifty years before 1914, the National Road, known as the pike, had received almost no maintenance. By the early 20th century, bicyclists, automobile owners, the postal service, and the trucking industry were pressing for better roads. Eagles Nest marks the experimental paving of a 29-mile section of the National Road from Zanesville to Hebron between 1914 and 1916. Arch W. Smith of the Ohio State Highway Department called the newly paved highway "the model concrete road of the world." Chiseled into the granite are renderings of a Conestoga wagon, an early automobile, and the distances to Columbus and Cumberland, Maryland. The road had originally been built in 1825 and was rebuilt in 1914 through the efforts of Governor James M. Cox of Ohio. Demand for improved roads led the federal government under the Taft and Wilson administrations to help states finance experimental paved roads. The national government contributed $120,000, Licking and Muskingum counties contributed $240,000, and the State of Ohio added $80,000. Federal support depended on rebuilding the road in concrete rather than brick. Brick manufacturers in Zanesville, who employed more than 1,000 men, protested the decision, but concrete met the federal cost limit of $16,000 per mile and brick did not.