Last week, I drove from Baltimore Maryland to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. I used Interstate 68 across the Maryland Panhandle and Route 40 into Southwestern Pennsylvania. I have driven this route many times. Occasionally, I deviate off of the new Interstate 68 and drive along the old Route 40 that still parallels 68 across the Appalachian Mountain Chain, known locally as the Allegheny Mountains.
Unlike the newer Interstate 68 that sweeps through the mountain ridges on spectacular road cuts and soars over the valleys on lofty bridges, Route 40 labors its way deep into the valley bottoms, crosses the mountain streams on narrow bridges and snakes its way up the slopes of the mountains. It takes much longer to drive along route 40, but the scenery is beautiful.
As I slowly wend my way through these beautiful mountains, I always recall that Route 40 used to be called the National Road. Before that, it was known as the Wilderness Road or Braddock's Road. Even earlier, it was known as Nemocolin's Trail or the Wilderness Trail. This road has a great history that extends back to the mid 1700s and before.
The old Wilderness Trail, as it was called by the early English colonists in the 18th century, probably existed for hundreds of years before any European settlers came to the American Continent. It was a warrior's trail that traversed the Appalachian Mountain Range from the Eastern Seabord to the Ohio Valley of the Great Mississippi Basin. Indian hunters and warriors used it to traverse the mountain range. Nomadic clans used it to migrate across the mountains.
In the early 1700s, British adventurers, fur trappers and traders used the Wilderness Trail to penetrate the Appalachian Mountains and enter the great Ohio River Basin beyond. It was one of the main portals to the wilderness lands beyond the great mountains. In 1752, a fur trader named Thomas Cressap along with a Delaware Indian Chief named Nemacolin, blazed a trail that followed the old warrior's path across the mountains. This quickly became known as Nemacolin's Trail.
In 1754, a young Lt Col. George Washington led a small army of Virginia Militia across Nemacolin's Trail to force the French forces to abandon their Fort at the Forks of the Ohio, the present site of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. An incident involving the killing of a French officer precipitated an attack on Washington's forces at the Great Meadow where he had constructed his tiny Fort Necessity. The subsequent defeat of the Virginia Militia was a great embarassment to young George Washington and is considered the incident that precipitated the Seven Years War, known also as the French and Indian War.
The following year, 1755, General Braddock was dispatched from England with two regiments of British soldiers and a detachment of artillery. His assignment was to construct a military road accross the Allegheny Mountains and to sieze the French Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio. He was accompanied by George Washington and a company of Virgina Militia as well as Thomas Cressap, Daniel Boone and many other renown frontier explorers. They began to expand Nemacolin's Trail into a full road capable of transporting wagons, cannons and troops across the mountains. It took a great deal of effort, but Braddock succeeded in completing the road all the way from Maryland to the Ohio Valley Basin.
On July 9 General Braddock, with over 900 British army regulars, several cannons and several hundred colonial militia approached the French Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio. Nine miles to the east of the fort, he encountered a small French force of less than 100 soldiers accompanied by nearly 700 local Indian warriors. In the ensuing battle, the British forces attempted to use standard military tactics, while the Indians fired upon them from concealed positions in the forest. It was a catastrophic defeat for the British. General Braddock was mortally wounded and nearly 500 Britsh soldiers were lost.
The remains of the British forces retreated along their newly constructed road, and General Braddock died near the site of the ruins of old Fort Necessity in the mountains. He was buried in the middle of the Wilderness Road where wagon tracks would obliterate all trace of his grave, to prevent the Indians from digging up and mutilating his corpse. Thereafter, Nemacolin's Trail become known as Braddock's Road. It was later improved and became known as the National Road and finally as Route 40.
As I travel Route 40 today, I can see the route taken by Braddock, by Washington, by Nemacolin and by countless Indian warriors over the ages. I follow their footsteps. I pass Fort Necessity and Braddock's grave. There are historical markers at the various camps where Braddock's army paused during their road building forray. This old road is a history lesson of the early colonization of the North American continent.