National Road

This is Searights Tollhouse, on U.S. Route 40 in Fayette County, PA. Long before we had EZ Pass, travelers would stop at buildings such as this to pay their fares. This section of Route 40 is also known as Alternate Route 40, Cumberland Pike, the National Pike, and the National Road. The U.S. Government built this road as its first major federal highway project in the early 1800’s. The original road is partly shared with today’s modern Route 40, but they also diverge in several locations.

In 2006, on our way home from our honeymoon, Jonathan got nostalgic and decided to take Alternate Route 40 / the National Road north to Pennsylvania from Maryland. We had fun tracing the path of History. We stopped for lunch at a small diner with good food and prices. We saw small towns with historic buildings. Then the road ended abruptly in a driveway in Southwestern PA. Luckily, modern-day Route 40 was within eyesight of this dead end. Yesterday I found this map of suggested PA driving tours. I wish that I had some way to add a comment to the map that it’s not actually possible to drive down the length of the old National Road. That’s okay. It’s not possible to drive down the complete, original Lincoln Highway either. I read that it ends randomly in a movie theater parking lot in Eastern PA.

A year ago, I travelled past Searights Tollhouse on Route 40 during my tour of the haunted Mon Valley. Here is my account of that trip. I visited the estate of Albert Gallatin, a former Secretary of the Treasury and (according to the below DCNR link) the “father” of the National Road.

Today I found this fascinating blog about an Ohio native’s adventures traveling the National Road to his hometown.

Here are some links about the original Route 40:

http://www.nationalroadpa.org/

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/brc/heritageparks/nationalroad.aspx

http://www.nationalroadpa.org/tollhouses_bridges.html

http://www.nationalroadpa.org/national_pike_festival.html