The National Road-America's First Highway, March, 1998 National Geographic Magazine

America's first highway, the historic National Road, is a tapestry of different eras and a tribute to small town life. Settlers headed west in wagon trains in the early 1800s got stuck on muddy, rutted mountain roads and inched along barely negotiable trails in the flatlands. Thomas Jefferson put surveyors to work and construction began in Cumberland, MD in 1811 running through six states. Towns sprouted up along the road which became known as "Main Street."
The death of...
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America's first highway, the historic National Road, is a tapestry of different eras and a tribute to small town life. Settlers headed west in wagon trains in the early 1800s got stuck on muddy, rutted mountain roads and inched along barely negotiable trails in the flatlands. Thomas Jefferson put surveyors to work and construction began in Cumberland, MD in 1811 running through six states. Towns sprouted up along the road which became known as "Main Street."
The death of the road was caused by the steam engine. Work stopped in Vandalia, Illinois where farmers dug up the bricks and planted crops where the roadbed cut through their fields.
The invention of the bicycle in the 1880s revived an interest in the road as the American Wheelmen lobbied to have better paths for their big-wheeled bicycles.
Then came the automobile, and the resulting car culture with motels and diners. In no time, Americans wanted to drive everywhere and faster. When the interstate highway system took shape in the '50s, ninety percent of the traffic left the old road.
Traveling along the road today you may find fruit and vegetable stands, a reminder of a time when wagons loaded with much needed commodities crowded the road in the 1800s. Stagecoach inns now serve as wedding chapels and the old buildings seem to draw those who don't want to forget local history.
Stone bridges spanning 80 feet still stand as architectural marvels of the time. Today, wagons rattle along during reenactments of the period, but these "settlers" stop for hot coffee at McDonalds.
The road and the communities along it are still in flux. Some towns continue to decline. Others, also isolated by their distance from interstate highways and suburban sprawl, now reap the benefits of having the opportunity to preserve and revive old churches and other historic buildings.
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