National Road: America’s First Interstate

[rangerrebew]

National Road: America’s First Interstate
 
By Rich Jensen
February 2019 • American History magazine
First federal infrastructure project cut a path to the future

TODAY VEHICULAR TRAFFIC whips effortlessly in both directions across the Appalachian Mountains, which separate the Eastern Seaboard from the American heartland. In early colonial times, however, that low-lying cordillera, though ancient and worn, nonetheless functioned as a near-impassable barrier. With plenty of land still available east of the mountains, only those traveling light and most determined to go west—Native Americans, trappers, traders—traversed the Appalachians.

However, in 1754, Austria’s rulers, the Habsburgs, decided to grab back Silesia, a province in what is now Poland, that Prussia had snatched. The resulting conflict ignited the Seven Years’ War, a European contest that spilled into the world at large. France sided with Austria. Britain sided with the Prussians. Each saw in that continental conflict a chance to evict the other from North America’s Ohio River Valley, which both Britain and France claimed.

http://www.historynet.com/national-road-americas-first-highway.htm

[corbe]

   Interesting Article @rangerrebew Thanks for posting, I think the Spaniards had him beat by some 60 years though.

In 1690, Spanish explorer Alonso de León, following various Indian and buffalo trails, crossed the Rio Grande on his way to East Texas to establish missions, effectively blazing the Old San Antonio Road. In 1691 (the generally accepted "birth year" of the road), Domingo Terán de los Ríos took additional missionaries to East Texas following much the same course as traveled by De León. In 1693, Gregorio de Salinas Varona further defined the course of the road while bringing relief supplies from Monclova.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_San_Antonio_Road