The National Road — the first federally funded highway, authorized under Thomas Jefferson in 1806 — ran from Cumberland, Maryland, across the Appalachians to the Ohio River and eventually deep into the Midwest. This history follows the corridor from its Native American and frontier precursors (Nemacolin’s Path and the routes of Thomas Cresap, Christopher Gist, George Washington, and Edward Braddock) through its construction, its golden age of taverns, tolls, and Conestoga traffic, its decline before the railroads, and its modern revival as an All-American Road.
For Lewis and Clark, the road matters as the realization of the East–West link Jefferson and Albert Gallatin pushed for in the very years of the expedition — and because its precursor, Braddock’s Road, was the route Meriwether Lewis himself took from Harpers Ferry to Pittsburgh in the summer of 1803.
This summary is provided for reference on the Lewis and Clark Research archive; the full article by Lorna Hainesworth is available at the source link.
