After the Revolutionary War, George Washington advocated construction of a road linking cities in the United States from east to west, and in 1806 Thomas Jefferson signed legislation authorizing it. The National Road, the nation's first federally funded highway, was intended to link Cumberland, Maryland, to St. Louis, Missouri. A provision in the Enabling Act of 1802, which led to the creation of the State of Ohio, allowed some money from the sale of federal lands to be used for construction of the road to Wheeling on the Ohio River. Contracts were given in 1811, and the road was completed through Columbus by 1833, but construction stopped in Vandalia, Illinois, because of the popularity of canals, increased railroad use, and lack of funds. The 591-mile corridor passes through Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Tolls were charged to pay for maintenance, and toll houses designed by the Army Corps of Engineers were modeled after lighthouses and placed about every ten miles. In Ohio, stone mile markers were placed every mile to show the distance to Cumberland, Maryland, and the nearest cities and their distances east and west. The road was also known as the Cumberland Road, the Old National Road, and the Old National Trail. With the establishment of a national numbered highway system in 1925, it was designated U.S. Route 40, and in Columbus it enters from the east on Main Street toward High Street, then goes north on High Street to West Broad Street and continues west to the Ohio border.
