The Casselman River Bridge in Grantsville, Maryland, on the National Road, is one of the oldest surviving bridges in the nation and began its third century after carrying 200 years of hooves, boots, sleigh runners, and wheels of every kind. In 1806, the United States Congress commissioned David Shriver Jr., a Cumberland civil engineer, to locate, plan, and construct the National Road, including the bridge, and he personally directed construction beginning in 1813. The stone arch was built 26 feet wide, 3 feet thick, and 80 feet from end to end, designed to accommodate C&O Canal boats if they ever crossed the Alleghenies. When it opened to traffic in 1817, it was the largest single-span stone arch bridge in America. Among those who crossed it were Presidents James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, James Polk, Zachary Taylor, and then-Congressman Abraham Lincoln. After a new bridge and nearby Route 40 were completed, officials closed it in 1953 to all but pedestrian traffic. In 1957, the State Road Commission acquired several acres west of the bridge and, with assistance from the Department of Forests and Parks, developed the surrounding park and picnic area. In 1964, the Secretary of the Interior and the National Park Service declared the bridge a National Historic Landmark. In 1972 and 1993, the State Highway Administration transferred portions of the site to the Department of Natural Resources. The bridge is now the focal point of the four-acre Casselman River Bridge State Park, and Harry C. Edwards and DeCorsey E. Bolden helped save it from destruction through their leadership in the Maryland House of Delegates, Edwards in the 1950s and Bolden in the 1970s.

Photo: National Park Service, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Photo: National Park Service, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Photo: Devry Becker Jones

Grantsville, Maryland · USA