Created by an act of Congress in 1810, this highway entered Georgia at Augusta and passed through Warrenton, Sparta, Milledgeville, Macon, and Knoxville to Coweta Town (Columbus). It was formerly known as the Stage Coach Road. In 1848, a telegraph line, the first to connect New Orleans with Washington, D.C., was erected, and its wires paralleled this road between Columbus and Macon, giving this section of the old highway the name Federal Wire Road. This telegraph line was also the first one erected in the State of Georgia.