|
National Road photograph
|
|
|
 | Subjects: Cumberland Road--History; Toll roads--Pennsylvania--History; National Road; Transportation--Ohio--History; Ohio Economy--Transportation and Development;
Collection: Norris Schneider; National Road/Zane Grey
Source: P 199; Box 1, folder 15
Item ID: OHS: AL05820.tif
Description: This photograph is a view of a horse-drawn buggy seen from the back. The buggy is traveling along a badly rutted section of the National Road. Ahead of the buggy, on the right, is a low building (or cluster of buildings). Telegraph poles and wire fencing line both sides of the land bordering the road.
The National Road (also called the Cumberland Road or the U.S. Road) was the first federally sponsored roadway. The U.S. Congress commissioned the National Road in 1806 as a conduit to the West, linking the Potomac River and Cumberland, Maryland, to St. Louis, Missouri, and the Mississippi River. The road opened Ohio and the Northwest Territory to settlement and trade with the eastern U.S. By 1838 the Cumberland Road had reached Springfield, Ohio; three years later it reached Vandalia, Illiinois, where construction stopped due to a funding shortfall. By this time the railroads had attracted travelers and business shipping away from the National Road, and the project was abandoned. The National Road crossed the state of Ohio along what is now U.S. 40.
Width: 2816 pixels
Height: 1965 pixels
|
|
|
|
Back to results
