Portions of this trail system pass through the Great Meadows, where George Washington and his troops fought a large French and Indian force on July 3, 1754. The Braddock Road Trace is the remnant of the road built by Washington in 1754 and improved by General Braddock's army the next year. Before the completion of the National Road, this road became one of the major transportation routes from the east. The trails wind through mixed deciduous forest. When Washington and his men passed through this area, the forest had never been logged, and the trees were large and well spaced, with little undergrowth because of their shade. The stand of pine the trail passes through is the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930's. Although changed over time, the park still offers explorers an opportunity to imagine an earlier time.