WESTWARD MIGRATION 
The National Road

Wikipedia tells us that, “the National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road) was the first major improved highway in the United States to be built by the Federal Government. About 620 miles long, the National Road connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and was a gateway to the West for thousands of settlers. When rebuilt in the 1830s, the Cumberland Road became the first U.S. road surfaced with the macadam process pioneered by Scotsman John Loudon McAdam.

photo: Brant Jones “Mile Marker along the National Road, Columbus, Ohio”

“Construction began heading west in 1811 at Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River. It crossed the Allegheny Mountains and southwestern Pennsylvania, reaching Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), on the Ohio River in 1818. Subsequent efforts pushed the Road across the states of Ohio and Indiana. Plans were made to continue through St. Louis, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and to the territorial capital of Jefferson City of the Missouri Territory (previously the old Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and the later part of which became the State of Missouri), upstream on the Missouri River. After the Financial Panic of 1837 and the resulting economic depression, however, Congressional funding ran dry and construction was stopped at Vandalia, Illinois, the territorial capital of the Illinois Territory, northeast of St. Louis and the Mississippi River. Today, much of the alignment is followed by U.S. Route 40, with various portions bearing the Alternate U.S. Route 40 designation, or various state-road numbers (such as Maryland Route 144 for several sections between Baltimore and Cumberland).”

If you have ancestors who traveled west on the National Road in its 1820–1835 heyday, the following websites will help you feel like a pioneer, too:

The National Park Service has an historical overview with a fine map and good illustrations at
 http://www.nps.gov/fone/learn/historyculture/nationalroad.htm.

Legends of America devotes a page to the National Road at http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-nationalroad.html.

The Federal Highway Administration site has a “Highway History” section with an article about the National Road at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/back0103.cfm.

RESEARCH TIP: Don’t forget to use Cyndi’s List as your best “online links” source. Cyndi has 12 links devoted to the National Road at http://www.cyndislist.com/migration/national-road/.