The National Road crosses six states from Baltimore, Maryland, to East St. Louis, Illinois. It fulfilled the dreams of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson for an all-weather route across the Allegheny Mountains linking the Eastern Seaboard with the Midwest. Conceived by Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson, and authorized by Congress in 1806, it became the nation's first federally funded interstate highway and opened the West to the movement of people and goods. Construction began in 1811 in Cumberland, Maryland, extending an earlier route from Baltimore. By 1818 it reached the Ohio River, by 1833 it was completed to Columbus, Ohio, and in 1850 it extended west to Vandalia, Illinois. The road was an engineering marvel, with graceful stone arch bridges crossing streams and rivers, while inns and taverns served travelers. Many of the bridges and buildings from its early days still stand in towns along the route, much of the historic road remains part of U.S. Route 40, and several original segments can still be explored. The longest section still found in Ohio covers 237 miles from Bridgeport to the Indiana state line.