Toll House
Addison Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
One of the six original toll houses on the Cumberland or National Road is on the hill opposite. Built after the road was turned over to the State in 1835 by the U.S. Restored and preserved by the D.A.R.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
When the federal government handed the National Road over to the states in 1835, tolls became the means of paying for its upkeep, and small toll houses sprang up to collect from passing traffic. The one recalled here was among just six original toll houses on the Cumberland Road, standing on the hill opposite to gather fees from the wagons and stagecoaches rolling west. Preserved and restored by the Daughters of the American Revolution, it survives as a reminder of the road's toll-keeping days.
Why it matters
Modest toll houses like this reveal how a young nation financed and maintained its first great highway, and how patriotic preservation later rescued these landmarks of everyday travel.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
National Road
Garrett County, MD · est. 1947
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.
Great Crossings
Henry Clay Township, PA · est. 1947
This bend of the Youghiogheny had served as a fording place since Native peoples first traced paths through the mountains. In 1754 young George Washington's Virginia troops camped here on the eve of the frontier clashes that opened the French and Indian War, and the next year Braddock's ill-fated army tramped through on its march west. Decades later, in 1818, the National Road threw a bridge across the water at this very spot, cementing its role as a great gateway through the Alleghenies.
Braddock Road (Twelve Springs Camp)
Henry Clay Township, PA · est. 1952
On June 24, 1755, General Braddock's army made its eighth camp here as it struggled toward Fort Duquesne, with Chestnut Ridge — the last mountain barrier before the descent toward the Ohio — looming on the western horizon. To move supply wagons and artillery over the ridge, Braddock's axemen widened an existing Indian path into a rough military road. It was slow, backbreaking work that set the army's crawling pace.
Mount Washington Tavern
Wharton Township, PA · est. 1946
Built in 1816, this tavern once bustled with travelers along the National Road, the young republic's first federally funded highway west. Stagecoach passengers, teamsters, and drovers crowded its hearths for a meal and a bed on the long haul over the Alleghenies. It stands beside Great Meadows, land once owned by George Washington, and today serves as a museum preserving the age of the great road.