...Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways. However, 2006 also marked significant anniversaries of several other special events in highway history, including the 200th birthday of the National Road, the 90th anniversary of the Federal-Aid Road Act, and the 80th anniversary of historic Route 66. Over the past 3 years, a number of Public Roads articles have chronicled the story of the Interstate System, but these other historic stories deserve to be told as well.

This year of anniversaries is an opportunity to take a look at some of the most significant events in the history of highways in the United States.

The National Road--1806

On March 29,1806, President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation authorizing him to appoint three commissioners to build a road from the Potomac River at Cumberland, MD, to the Ohio River at Wheeling, WV (then in Virginia). With rivers being the fastest means of travel among the States, the first National Road would provide a land bridge connecting the Potomac and Ohio Rivers for settlers bound for the public lands on sale in the new State of Ohio. The road also would facilitate trade and bind the States in what Jefferson called a "union of sentiment."

Congress had to think innovatively to get the road underway. Instead of using tax revenue, the 1806 law applied 2 percent of the revenue from the sale of Ohio's public land to building the road. To address the belief that the Government did not have the constitutional authority to build a road on land owned by the States, President Jefferson was required to secure con--sent from the three States through which the National Road would pass. Maryland and Virginia quickly consented, but Pennsylvania delayed until its representatives won a commitment that the road would be built through its towns of Uniontown and Washington, thus ending the Nation's first interstate highway routing dispute.

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President Jefferson's three commissioners took 4 years to select the route. Beginning in May 1811, contractors cleared a roadway 20 meters (66 feet) wide with a 9-meter (30-foot)-wide stone surface. The first section opened in 1813 and immediately saw heavy traffic as contractors worked to extend the 209-kilometer (130-mile) road to Wheeling, which the road reached in 1818.

Under pressure from Ohio and newly admitted Indiana (1816) and Illinois (1818), Congress passed legislation in 1820 authorizing funds to lay out...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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