America’s First Highway
Photographs by Melissa Farlow
Article by William R. Newcott
Looking west, an infant nation dared envision an overland link to its growing frontier. In its heyday the National Road—today’s U.S. Route 40—teemed dawn to dusk with loaded wagons and livestock. It also conveyed an essential idea: that even as they spread across the continent, far-flung individuals could remain united.
Weaving among the hills of western Pennsylvania, the National Road follows old Indian trails. In 1794 farmers of this region balked at paying an excise tax on liquor and took up arms. This so-called Whiskey Rebellion, and the threat of losing settler’s allegiance to British and Spanish influence to the north and south, strengthened President George Washington’s resolve to establish a federal road to Ohio—a dream later championed by western Pennsylvania landholder Albert Gallatin, Thomas Jefferson’s treasury secretary. It was built between 1811 and 1838, connecting the port of Baltimore to the Mississippi River.
NGM 1998/03