The National Road

2015 New England and MidWest, Pennsylvania, Road Trip, States

The National Road has quite a  history. In 1754 a 22 year old George Washington was charged by the British Army with clearing a road into to territory that is now southwestern Pennsylvania. Funding for a road from the East into the lands west of the Alleghenies was authorized by Congress in 1806, the first federally funded highway in US history. It took decades to stitch together various trails and roads to form the highway from Cumberland, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois  it opened the lands west of the mountains for settlement. Today US-40 roughly follows the path of the old road. This morning we followed the exact route past the Petersburg Toll House where countless toll keepers lived, with their families, through the community of Addison PA and back to the modern highway. Yes, we got a couple of geocaches along the way!    

No, there is no connection between this toll house and Toll House Cookies!

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