This structure was part of The National Road. It was a gate and
served to close this road during severe weather conditions. The
National Road or Cumberland Road was one of the first major
improved highways in the United States, built by the federal
government. Construction began in 1811 at Cumberland, Maryland, on
the Potomac River, and the road reached Wheeling, Virginia (now
West Virginia) on the Ohio River in 1818. Plans were made to
continue through St. Louis, Missouri, on the Mississippi River to
Jefferson City, Missouri, but funding ran out and construction
stopped at Vandalia, Illinois in 1839.
A chain of turnpikes connecting Baltimore, Maryland, to the
National Road at Cumberland was completed in 1824, forming what is
referred to as an eastern extension of the National Road. In 1835
the road east of Wheeling was turned over to the states for
operation as a turnpike. It came to be known as the National
Pike, a name also applied to the Baltimore extension.
The approximately 620-mile (1000 km) road provided a connection
between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and a gateway to the West for
thousands of settlers. It was the first road in the U.S. to use the
new macadam road surfacing. Today the alignment is mostly followed
by U.S.Highway 40. The full road, including extensions east to
Baltimore and west to St. Louis, was designated "The Historic
National Road", an All-American Road, by U.S. Secretary of
Transportation Norman Y. Mineta in 2002.
Please do not exchange signature items (Wooden Nickels, Business
Cards) for swag. If you want to leave your signature item and take
other signature item for your collection, feel free. I do not
consider signature items as a swag item. So please do not take swag
if you do not have swag to offer. Also please never leave liquids
(bubbles) in any cache as they freeze, bust and ruin the
cache.