The Goshen Road was one of the earliest roads in Clinton County and was traveled by its first settlers. Originally blazed by wild animals and Native Americans, its first recorded use was in 1808, when early pioneers of Southern Illinois mapped its course. Early settlers of Illinois used the road to travel from the Saline salt works near Shawneetown to the Goshen Settlement near present day Edwardsville. It entered Clinton County in the southeast corner near Centralia and ran northwest, crossing the Kaskaskia River at Carlyle by way of the General Dean Suspension Bridge, where it merged with the Vincennes Trace, another major road in the county's history. The two roads continued together through Frogtown and across a toll bridge on Shoal Creek north of Breese before splitting, with the Goshen Road leaving Clinton County at the northwest corner. Before the bridge was built, travelers crossed the Kaskaskia River by ferry or mud bridge, but increasing demand led to construction of the General Dean Suspension Bridge between 1859 and 1861 at a cost of about $46,000. The contract was awarded to Griffith D. Smith of Pennsylvania and required a durable bridge with a 280 foot span from thirty-five foot towers. For sixty-five years the bridge carried the Goshen Road across the Kaskaskia River. After U.S. Route 50 was built three hundred feet downstream, the bridge fell into disrepair, but funds were secured in 1951 and it was renovated. Although the Goshen Road no longer exists and its exact route is unknown, land formations and sites such as the General Dean Suspension Bridge still recall its importance to the early settlement of Clinton County.