Cumberland Road - Business in United States of America

The Event: Building of a toll-free road, with federal funding and planning, to link the eastern seaboard with the western territories
Date: 1811-1818
Place: From the Potomac River at Cumberland, Maryland, to the Ohio River at Wheeling, later in West Virginia
Significance: One of the first toll-free highways in the United States, the Cumberland Road offered Americans overland passage and access to new markets. A stable road surface made the route attractive for entrepreneurs looking to transport people and goods to the expanding western frontier.
As early as 1802, the U.S. Congress discussed the need for a federally maintained road to connect the eastern seaboard with the expanding western territories. Existing overland routes were in need of repair and expansion, and they lacked connections to other turnpikes. The growth of population in the territories that became the states of Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), and Illinois (1818) further spurred the need to connect the east with the west.
With President Thomas Jefferson’s support, in 1806, Congress approved an act to construct a road from the Potomac River in Cumberland, Maryland, to the Ohio River in Wheeling, in what later became West Virginia. The act specified that the road would measure 4 rods (about 66 feet) in width, with a raised surface of stone, earth, gravel, or sand, and with drainage ditches on either side. Congress appropriated $30,000 for the cost of construction. Jefferson appointed three commissioners to direct the project. The commissioners assembled a surveying team to plot the route of the road, and in 1808, the six-member team completed its expedition.
Construction of the road began in 1811 near Cumberland. Two years later, the first 10-mile section opened to travelers. Road builders erected massive stone arches to traverse rivers, streams, and valleys. By 1818, the road, which stretched approximately 130 miles, reached the Ohio River in Wheeling.
The Cumberland Road provided an important overland link between the centers of commerce in the east and the expanding markets on the western frontier, long before the advent of railroads. Although the path was treacherous in places, it was not as unreliable as canal and riverboat routes, and attracted multitudes of settlers, business owners, and explorers to the western frontier.