National Road
Buffalo Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania
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
Championed by Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin, the National Road was the young nation's first federally funded highway, begun at Cumberland, Maryland, in 1811 and reaching Wheeling on the Ohio River by 1818. It opened a reliable overland artery for settlers, freight, and mail streaming toward the western frontier, and was later maintained as a state-run toll road from 1835 to 1905. Rebuilt in the automobile age, its route survives as U.S. Route 40.
Why it matters
As America's first national road, it launched the idea of federal investment in infrastructure and helped bind the expanding West to the eastern states.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1800s, the young United States faced a stubborn problem: the country was growing westward far faster than it could be reached. Beyond the Appalachian Mountains lay fertile land and rising settlements, but the roads to get there were poor, slow, and often impassable. Binding the West to the eastern states was not just a matter of convenience — it was a question of whether the nation would hold together.
The answer, in this case, was a road built and funded by the federal government itself — a novel idea at a time when Americans argued fiercely about how large a role the national government should play. Construction began in 1811 at Cumberland, Maryland, and by 1818 the road had reached Wheeling, on the Ohio River, opening a dependable overland path toward the frontier.
This marker stands in Buffalo Township in Washington County, in the Pennsylvania stretch of that historic route. It sits along the corridor that carried a generation of westward movement, in the era when the country was learning to invest in its own infrastructure.
People & events
The figure the marker names is Albert Gallatin, remembered here as the National Road's father. As the nation's Treasury Secretary, Gallatin was a leading champion of using federal resources to build roads and canals that would knit the country together, and the National Road became the great early example of that vision.
The road's story is one of steady, ambitious construction: begun at Cumberland in 1811, pushed westward over difficult mountain country, and reaching the Ohio River at Wheeling by 1818. Along its length grew taverns, inns, and towns that lived off the traffic of settlers, freight wagons, and mail streaming west.
Later the road passed under state control and was maintained as a toll road from 1835 to 1905 — travelers paid for its upkeep at tollgates along the way. In the automobile age it was rebuilt for a new kind of traffic, and its route survives today as U.S. Route 40, still carrying travelers along the path first surveyed two centuries ago.
Its place in the American story
The National Road matters far beyond the wagons and travelers it once carried. It was the country's first federally funded highway, and in building it the young nation took a concrete stand on a lasting question: that the national government could and would invest in the infrastructure binding the states together.
That precedent echoes through American history, from later canals and railroads to the interstate highways of the twentieth century. The idea that connecting the country is a shared national project — worth public money and effort — has deep roots, and this road is one of its earliest and clearest expressions.
Just as important was what the road did on the ground. By opening a reliable artery westward, it accelerated settlement, commerce, and communication across the mountains, helping to tie a rapidly expanding frontier to the established East. It was infrastructure as nation-building, in the most literal sense.
If you visit
The remarkable thing about this marker is that the historic route is still very much alive beneath your wheels: much of the old National Road survives as U.S. Route 40. When you visit the marker in Buffalo Township, Washington County, you're standing on a living piece of history rather than a relic behind glass.
As you travel this corridor, watch for the road's long story written into the landscape — the old alignments, the towns that grew up to serve travelers, and the sense of a route that has carried people west for two centuries. It's a place best appreciated in motion, from the seat of a car following the same general path as the wagons that came before.
For a road trip, this marker is almost made to order: it invites you to keep driving and to see the highway itself as the attraction. Pair it with the historic towns and waypoints strung along Route 40, and let the miles remind you that this ordinary-looking road was once the cutting edge of connecting a nation.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Albert Gallatin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
"S" Bridge
Buffalo Township, PA · est. 1947
This stone bridge carried the National, or Cumberland, Road, the first federally funded highway in the United States. Authorized in 1805 and pushed westward to Wheeling by 1818, the road became the great artery of early national travel. Across spans like this one rolled countless Conestoga wagons and stagecoaches carrying settlers, goods, and mail between the settled East and the growing West.
Washington
North Franklin Township, PA · est. 1947
Founded in 1781 by John and William Hoge on the site of the Native Catfish Camp, Washington grew from a frontier plat into a borough (1810) and later a city (1923). Its fortunes were tied to the National Road, the federally built highway that funneled settlers and commerce westward through southwestern Pennsylvania. Named for George Washington, the town became rich in historic buildings and associations as traffic streamed past its doors.
Washington County
Washington, PA · est. 1981
Formed in 1781 from Westmoreland County and named for General George Washington, this southwestern county sat at the heart of frontier unrest. From 1791 to 1794 it became a hotbed of the Whiskey Rebellion, when backcountry farmers rose against a federal excise tax on their distilled grain. The county later straddled the National Road, the great highway that carried the nation west and became U.S. Route 40.
Washington
South Strabane Township, PA · est. 1947
Laid out in 1781 by brothers John and William Hoge, the town of Washington rose on ground long known as the Indian Catfish Camp, a Native gathering place in the Ohio Country borderlands. Chartered as a borough in 1810 and a city in 1923, it became a hub on the National Road — the young republic's great westward artery — and filled with the fine buildings of a thriving crossroads. Its name honored George Washington, whose reputation as a surveyor and soldier had already touched this frontier region.