Untitled[edit]

What railroad was finished in 1839? Nothing in the area! This 1848 map shows only proposed stuff. --SPUI (talk) 21:34, 24 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Info from PRR Chronology[edit]

--SPUI (talk) 05:07, 25 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Distances[edit]

total ~620 --SPUI (talk) 08:50, 26 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

State highway numbers[edit]

— Preceding unsigned comment added by SPUI (talk • contribs) 06:54, 6 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

US 40 relationship[edit]

I just removed the US40 thumb with caption "The National Road is now included as part of U.S. Highway 40" from the article. There's no source given, and I don't see how it can be a true statement as written. What would that mean, exactly? Perhaps something else could be stated, such as the US40 now follows approximately the route of the National Road, if that is true and if a source supporting it can be identified. doncram (talk) 00:00, 5 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Start Date of the Cumberland Road[edit]

Please bear with me, I'm new to Wiki editing...
The actual date construction started on the Cumberland Road, in Cumberland, is, at this point, debatable. There are two dates currently floating around, June 11, 1811 and Nov. 20, 1811. I have yet to see documentation to substantiate either of these dates. Contrary to the Nov. 20 date cited in the Wiki article, the June 11 date would seem more credible.

Henry McKinley was awarded the contract to build the first two-mile section of the road on May 8, 1811. It doesn't make sense McKinley would wait until the onset of winter to start the road... Especially since the preparation of the roadbed was done by hand. [2]

David Shriver's report to Congress of Jan. 14, 1812 states The leveling and shaping the bed of the road is complete (with a few exceptions) for about five miles; the stone for the pavement laid on a greater part thereof, and about four miles broken so as to be nearly complete. Such being the present state of the work, the probability is that the ten miles will be completed within the time limited by contract, (the 1st of August next.) [3]

Based on Shriver's report and the Nov. 20 start date, approx. five miles of road would have been completed in two months during the usually somewhat harsh winter months of Western MD. (Over Haystack Mountain).

Finally, the original sections of the road were not macadam. The McAdam system was first used in the US in 1822-23 in Boonsboro, MD, more than ten years after the start of construction on the Cumberland Road.

--Steve Colby (talk) 14:02, 16 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The American Pageant APUSH book (by Kennedy, Cohen and Bailey) says that "the War of 1812 interupted construction...but the thoroughfare was belatedly brought to its destination in 1852 by a combincation of aid from the states and the federal government." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.175.113.231 (talk) 00:42, 24 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Road completion dates in Ohio[edit]

"[It] was completed to Columbus, Ohio, in 1838 and Springfield, Ohio, in 1838." That's about 45 miles today, but both dates are the same. Can both be correct? DaveCrane (talk) 09:30, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

America's Highways Reference[edit]

It may be of interest to the maintainers of this page to know that I recently posted a PDF copy of the 1977 Federal Highway Administration book "America's Highways 1776-1976" at the Internet Archive. This is a primary source used by most of the historical accounts of the US highway system. --BenFranske (talk) 06:54, 16 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks!  — LlywelynII 12:58, 16 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

So... did it work or not?[edit]

The fact that the federal gov't eventually felt the need to foist it off on the local leadership suggests not and that, in the end, the early Democrat opposition to such infrastructure projects was warranted (in at least this instance). But is that really true? or could we get some commentary on the economic value of the road's trade or regional development? — LlywelynII 12:58, 16 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Original route near LaVale[edit]

Until the 1830s, the road left Cumberland on Greene Street and Braddock Road (MD 49). The alignment near LaVale is sketchy. Old topos don't show the present Braddock Road between Vocke and Winchester Roads, and several pages state that it used Macy Drive and probably followed Vocke to Winchester. But 1933 plats (sheets 1, 2, 3) show realignments made at that time, and there was already an alignment of Braddock Road west of Vocke that was bypassed (it can be seen on a 1946 aerial). I suspect that the road originally went here, but it was abandoned at some point (hence it doesn't show up on topos). --NE2 17:19, 26 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Still no "Technology" section?[edit]

How many layers of materials the road had under the brick/stone layer? Macadam, concrete blocks (yes, it was possible, concrete is thousands-years-old), etc? Did it have ditches on the sides? How many lanes it had, of what width? What was the price per kilometre both in original prices and adjusted to inflation? What were safety standards during this construction (probably no standards at all)? How many people have died during it? 93.185.27.247 (talk) 10:33, 12 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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