National Road
Garrett County, Somerset County, Maryland
Marker Inscription
Our first national road; fathered by Albert Gallatin. Begun in 1811 at Cumberland, Md.; completed to Wheeling in 1818. Toll road under State control, 1835-1905. Rebuilt, it is present U.S. Route 40.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
The National Road was the nation's first federally funded highway, championed by Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin as a link binding the young country to its western territories. Construction began at Cumberland, Maryland, in 1811 and reached Wheeling on the Ohio by 1818, carrying settlers, freight, and mail deep into the interior. After 1835 the states ran it as a toll road for seventy years, and in the automobile age it was rebuilt as U.S. Route 40.
Why it matters
As America's first great national highway, the road embodied the federal commitment to internal improvements and opened the door to the settlement of the trans-Appalachian West.
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Related people
- · Albert Gallatin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
National Road
South Union Township, PA · est. 1996
Authorized in 1806, the National Road was the nation's first federally funded highway, carrying settlers, freight, and mail west across the Appalachians toward the growing Midwest. For nearly half a century, until railroads eclipsed it in the 1850s, thousands crossed Chestnut Ridge here in southwestern Pennsylvania. The village of Hopwood, founded in 1791, thrived as a busy resting stop for travelers moving in both directions.
Somerset County
Somerset, PA · est. 1982
Formed in 1795 from Bedford County and named for an English shire, Somerset County took shape along the Forbes Road, the military route cut across the Alleghenies in 1758. Settlers followed that road westward, and the county seat was incorporated in 1804. Its high, cool farmland later became famous for maple syrup.
Uniontown
Uniontown, PA · est. 1946
Uniontown traces its founding to Henry Beeson, who raised a blockhouse here in 1774 on the very ground where the county jail would later stand. For decades it was a modest frontier settlement, but its fortunes turned when the National Road pushed through after 1811. As the great highway threaded the mountains, Uniontown became a busy waystation on the route west.
Uniontown
South Union Township, PA · est. 1946
Uniontown traces its founding to Henry Beeson, who raised a blockhouse here in 1774 on the very ground where the county jail would later stand. For decades it was a modest frontier settlement, but its fortunes turned when the National Road pushed through after 1811. As the great highway threaded the mountains, Uniontown became a busy waystation on the route west.