between the eastern seaboard States over the development of the lands beyond the Ohio River.
The seaport cities in particular feared the advantage that a Government-financed road might give in competition for the western trade. Strict constructionists of the U.S. Constitution denied that the Federal Government had the authority to build roads at all, except possibly in the territories. Proponents of Federal roadbuilding on the other hand, asserted that authority to build roads was implied under the “general welfare” clause of the Constitution.
In the end, the issue was decided by those of both parties who felt strongly that the bonds between the East and the West should be strengthened in the interest of national unity, and the act passed the House by a narrow margin. At least one representative from every State voted in favor of the road.
President Jefferson lost no time in selecting the three commissioners and in applying to the legislatures of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania for permission to build the road within their boundaries. The first two States gave their assent without restriction, but Pennsylvania held back and conditioned its approval on the road’s passing through the towns of Uniontown and Washington.[1]
It took the commissioners 4 years to select the route, and another 8 years to push the construction through from Cumberland to Wheeling, Virginia, the head of low-water navigation on the Ohio River. This road was 30 feet wide, with the central 20 feet paved by the Tresaguet method, that is, with several layers of small broken stone placed over a foundation of 7-inch stones. It was cleared 66 feet wide, ditched, and provided with drains and bridges. The cost, paid out of the Ohio 2 percent land fund, was about $1.75 million, or an average of $14,000 per mile.[N 1][2]
From the time the first section was opened in 1813, the Cumberland Road came under heavy traffic, so heavy in fact, that the stone surface was worn away almost as fast as it was built. The commissioners were unable, with the funds available, to provide the systematic and continual maintenance required by broken stone roads; and they were without power to protect the road from the depredations of travelers and local residents.[N 2] Consequently, the condition of the road steadily deteriorated, despite efforts to repair the worst damage.
- ↑ This cost included maintenance during the 8-year construction period.
- ↑ Freighters ripped up the shoulders by descending the steep hills with locked wheels. Local inhabitants fenced in parts of the right-of-way, dug into the banks, dragged logs over the road, and even stole broken stone from the road bed.[3]
Old Cumberland Road at Wills Creek just west of Cumberland, Md.
To provide a regular source of funds for maintenance, Congress in 1822 passed an act authorizing the collection of tolls from users of the road. President
20
