Historic National Road (IN)

The National Road, today US 40, was our nation’s first federally funded interstate highway.  In 1806, President Thomas Jefferson approved the funding, and in 1811 construction started in Cumberland, Maryland westward to Vandalia, Illinois. By 1834, Indiana’s section of the Road was completed. Thousands of settlers used the Road to move west.  By the 1850s, the traffic included families in covered wagons, stagecoaches, and farmers moving their livestock to market.

In 1994, the Indiana National Road Association was created to assist in designating the National Road as a National Scenic Byway, which was obtained in 1998.  Later in 2002, the National Road was designated an All-American Road.  This designation is reserved for Byways that are of great national significance.