Projected to transport troops and munitions of war between the forts at Detroit and Mackinac in the Territory of Michigan, and also to encourage settlers, the road from Detroit to the Saginaw River and Bay was authorized by Congress on March 2, 1827. A survey signed on June 7, 1827, laid out the route in 1828. It was completed to the Flint River settlement, Flint, in 1833, and United States Government work ended in 1835 at a point about five miles north of the Flint River. Major Gen. Alexander Macomb and Col. Charles Gratiot, U.S.A., were chief engineers, and Lieut. E.E. Sibley, U.S.A., was superintendent of construction.