This land brings together a long history of travel, conflict, architecture, industry, and conservation in southwestern Pennsylvania. Trails first formed through the mountains by people and wildlife were improved by Delaware Chief Nemacolin and Thomas Cresap, and George Washington traveled Nemacolin's Path in 1753 to confront the French. During the French and Indian War, that route became Braddock's Road, while the war itself began in the summer of 1754 with a battle at Fort Necessity; the conflict among French, English, and American Indian people and cultures helped set the stage for the American Revolution. British Major General Edward Braddock later died from wounds received while trying to capture Fort Duquesne, and his remains were eventually reinterred here after their original unmarked burial site was rediscovered fifty years later. The same corridor evolved into the National Road, the first federally funded road in America, which reached Ohiopyle in 1811 and later, with adjustments, became U.S. Route 40. The area also includes Laurel Caverns, the largest cave in Pennsylvania, the largest sandstone cave in the world, and the largest natural bat hibernaculum in the northeastern U.S., with later owners maintaining a commitment to preservation. In the twentieth century and beyond, it became home to major destinations including the Summit Inn, developed in 1907 as one of America's last remaining Grand Porch Hotels; Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob, both celebrated expressions of his organic architecture; Ohiopyle State Park, encompassing about 20,500 acres along the Youghiogheny; and Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, developed from a late 1940s summer home into a 2,000-acre resort. Together these places reflect how water routes, mountain paths, and later roads shaped the movement of people and the development of the region.