The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1938-06-16


Service.
The National Pike, or Cumberland
Road as it was legally known, stands
first in the list of transcontinental
roads in the United States in a num-
Der Of important particulars. 1t will
be interesting to trace the relation of
its location to the topography and
soil Of the country.
In New England, the towns grew
up about islands of fertile soil as nu-
cleuses.
In the first place, this historic
Cumberland Road follows the shortest
practicable path connecting the head
of navigation of the Potomac River at
Cumberland, Maryland, with the Ohio
River watershed at Brownsville, Pa,
formerly known as Red Stone Old
Fort, on the Monongahela River, 72
miles distant. This old portage path
had been followed by the wild animals,
then the Indians, and later by the
white trappers, traders and colonists
Another jewel to be added to its
crown is that this old road preserved
the Union by providing a connecting
link across the Allegheny mountain
barrier between the thirteen original
states, along the Atlantic seaboard,
and the growing settlements in the
West, in what are now the States of
Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana
and Illinois. General George Washing
ton perceived this peril of disunion
when, after the close of the Revolu-
tionary War, he made an exploration
of the Ohio country and declared, "The
Western States stand as it were upon
a pivot" and might turn either to
Spain on the south or to England on
the north.
A third mark of distinction for the
Old National Pike is that it was the
first road to be built by the govern
ment of the United States with the
aid of funds appropriated from the
Federal Treasury. 1t is true that these
funds were advanced" by the United
States with the understanding that
they were to be rapaid later from the
revenue derived from the 1.-TWO per
cent fund" resulting from the sale OF
fertile public lands in the Ohio terri
tory as provided for in the Ordinance
of 1887. Nevertheless, when the sale
of the public lands failed to raise the
necessary funds to carry on the work
on the road the government continued
to finance the construction under the
guise of an advance of funds. AT the
beginning of the nineteenth century 1t
was the prevailing opinion that Con-
gress did not have the power to ap-
propriate funds for internal improve
ments. Later, President Monroe's veto
of an appropriation for the Old Cum
berland Road, in 1922, debated over
many years by such celebrated men as
CLAW. Calhoun and Webster, estab-
lished the right of the Federal Gov
eminent to appropriate money for i'm
provements of a national character.
Lastly, the Cumberland Road is an
enduring monument to the engineer
ing genius of the United States Army
engineers and civil engineers who To-
Gated and built it. Rising and falling
over the hills and traversing the
plains of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, by
a series of straight courses of greater
length than are to be found on any
other road on this continent, this
gleat national road was planned to
span a distance of GIT miles between
its point of origin at Cumberland,
Maryland, and a proposed terminus on
the left bank of the Mississippi River
between St. Louis and the mouth Of
the Illinois River At Cumberland, at
its eastern extremity, the National
Pike was designed to connect with the
l39-mile turnpike leading from Bal
timore through Frederick to Cumber-
land and financed by the bankers OF
Baltimore, as early as 1896, in order
to stimulate trade with the West.
Furthermore, the massive stone
arches built over the waterways, many
of which are in use to this day, DEM
onstate the permanent qualities which
were incorporated into the construc-
ton of this historic thoroughfare. The
engineers employed every available