National Road toll house photograph   Save
Norris Schneider; National Road/Zane Grey
Description: A toll house along the National Road in Pennsylvania. In this image, three young children stand in front of a picket fence that runs along the front of the toll house. 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. In 1835, when the federal government gave the states control over the National Road, Pennsylvania made its segment a toll road. The toll house in this image was one of six in Pennsylvania. 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 advent of the automobile in the twentieth century renewed the popularity of the National Road's route. The National Road crossed the state of Ohio along what is now U.S. 40. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05818
Subjects: Cumberland Road--History; Toll roads--Pennsylvania--History; Ohio Economy--Transportation and Development
Places: Pennsylvania