At first, the National Road climbed west from Cumberland up and over Haystack Mountain. In the 1830s, when the road was rebuilt, a new route was chosen. It was a mile longer, but the grade was substantially decreased so that horse teams could pull twice the weight. The new route took advantage of the Narrows, a natural gorge cut by Wills Creek between Haystack Mountain and Wills Mountain. Traffic along the National Road grew rapidly when the new route was completed in 1834 and a new bridge opened in 1836. When the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached Cumberland in 1842, National Road travel to and from the west increased even more, and the region prospered. Railroad tracks were soon laid through the Narrows, and two short line railroads connected Cumberland to the growing Georges Creek Valley coal region. Ultimately, travel by rail eclipsed that of the National Road, and traffic declined substantially in the years that followed. The invention of the automobile brought a revival to the old road as motorists enjoyed sightseeing in the Narrows. A local legend says that when a young Indian princess and her lover were forbidden to marry, they leapt to their death from the cliff above the Narrows.