Authorized by Congress in 1806, the Cumberland, or National, Road was intended to connect the populated East and the navigable waters of the Atlantic with the Ohio River. Construction began at Cumberland in 1811 and reached Wheeling, Virginia, now West Virginia, in 1818, covering 132 miles and largely following the earlier Nemacolin's Path and Braddock's Road. This section became the nation's first federally funded and designed road and interstate highway. When the road opened through Frostburg in 1812, early settler Josiah Frost had already laid off the town along its route and was offering lots for sale, and as the community grew it became known as Frost Town after the 1812 founders, Meschach and Catherine Frost. Stagecoach service through Frostburg on the National Road began in 1818. Construction west of Wheeling began in 1825 and continued to Vandalia, Illinois, the road's western terminus. In 1926 the new national highway numbering system made the National Road part of U.S. Route 40, later known as Alternate Route 40, and Interstate 68, dedicated on August 2, 1991, now parallels much of the original route through Maryland.
