HISTORIC
NATIONAL ROAD
It was the dream of George Washington, the plan of Albert Gallatin, and the stroke of Thomas Jefferson's quill pen that created America's first federally funded highway. President Jefferson signed legislation in 1806 allowing a three man commission to study the feasibility of constructing a road from Cumberland, Maryland to the Ohio River. The hope was to unite the civilization of the east coast with what was then the western frontier. The final plans called for the road to intersect each state or territorial capitol to Illinois. Gallatin, Jefferson's treasury secretary, commented in 1808 that "good roads and canals will shorten the distances, facilitate commercial and personal intercourse, and unite, by a still more intimate community of interests, the most remote quarters of the United States." Born in Switzerland, Gallatin was perhaps the strongest voice in Washington, D.C. promoting the National Road. Work began in 1811 and the trail was originally named the Cumberland Road but it later became known as the National Road. Historians agree that it was truly "the road that built a nation." Goods, mail, and settlers used the road that eventually traversed six states: Maryland, Pennsylvania, an area that would later become West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The Conestoga wagon, prominently featured today in the logo for the National Road Association of Illinois, was the settlers' favored mode of transportation.
Joseph Schriever started surveying the Illinois section in 1828. Construction, supervised by William C. Greenup, began in 1830 and by 1836 the road had reached Vandalia, the Illinois capitol. However, a loss of federal funding brought a halt to the project in 1838. There were numerous debates on whether the National Road should have continued to Missouri through St. Louis or Alton, Illinois. The issue was never resolved although the route to St. Louis had been recommended. By the 1850s, railroads supplanted the National Road as the primary method of transporting people and goods from east to west.
The emergence of the automobile prompted the government to consider the need of a multi-state paved road. Using the National Road path developed one hundred years earlier, Route 40 became a major thoroughfare in the early 20th century. Today, the National Road in Illinois covers 164 miles from Marshall and the Wabash Valley to East St. Louis and the Mississippi River. Seven counties---Clark, Cumberland, Effingham, Fayette, Bond, Madison, and St. Clair---are home to the National Road.
For more information on the National Road call 618-234-5292.
*Declared a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark (1976)
*Designated a National Scenic Byway by the federal government (2000)
*Awarded the prestigious All American Road status (2002)
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