The National Road and Friendship Hill

As you’ll recall from my Fort Necessity post, Washington had originally set out to build a road (not start a war). The other half of the exhibits at Fort Necessity covers the history of what would eventually become the first National Road.

The National Road, today called U.S. Route 40, was the first highway built entirely with federal funds. The road was authorized by Congress in 1806 during the Jefferson Administration. Construction began in Cumberland, Maryland in 1811. The route closely paralleled the military road opened by George Washington and General Braddock in 1754-55. Eventually the road was pushed through central Ohio and Indiana reaching Vandalia, Illinois in the 1830's where construction ceased due to a lack of funds. The National Road opened the Ohio River Valley and the Midwest for settlement and commerce.

I traveled down U.S. 40 for a few miles to find Braddock’s grave. After George Washington's defeat at Fort Necessity the British decided to take matters more seriously and simultaneously attack many French forts in North America. So a year after the Fort Necessity battle Washington came back through the area with Braddock to attack Fort Duquesne. Braddock decided to follow the road Washington had blazed over the mountains on his way to Fort Necessity. Along the way the regiment encountered Indians and Braddock was mortally wounded and died a few days later. Washington feared that if his body was found the Indians would desecrate it so it was buried in the middle of the National Road and wagons were rolled over top of the grave site to prevent his body from being discovered and desecrated.

It was still pretty early in the day and I was sick of driving in the snow so I decided to head south to West Virginia. Sure enough, by the time I hit the state line there was no snow to be seen and the sun was out. I took the back roads into Morgantown, WV and ended up at an Ace Hardware using my 50% off coupon for Christmas presents. There wasn’t much else to do in West Virginia so I drove back up into PA and went to Friendship Hill. Here is another place that I had never heard of but was amazed at what I learned there.

Friendship Hill is the home of Albert Gallatin so here’s the Wikipedia version of who he was:

Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, politician, diplomat, congressman, and the longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury. Born in Switzerland, Gallatin immigrated to America in the 1780s, ultimately settling in Pennsylvania. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1793, but was removed from office by a 14–12 party-line vote after a protest raised by his opponents suggested he had fewer than the required nine years of citizenship. In 1795 he was elected to the House of Representatives and served in the fourth through sixth Congresses, becoming House Majority Leader.

He also helped found the House Committee on Finance (later the Ways and Means Committee). In 1831, he founded the University of the City of New York. In 1896, this university was renamed New York University and is now the largest private university in the United States. His biggest accomplishment (in my mind) was that he managed to reduce the national debt by half during his tenure (while still managing to buy the Louisiana Purchase!) and thanks to his policies his successors were able to reduce the national debt to $0-the only time that's been done in history!!

Friendship Hill National Historic Site was the home of Albert Gallatin and it overlooks the Monongahela River. Once again, I was the only person on the grounds. I followed the sidewalk up to the home and was greeted inside by a lovely, informative lady who gave me a 10 minute talk on the history of the place. I was then shown a DVD that was basically a hologram of old Albert talking about his home. Then the ranger took me through the house and showed me how to get around (it had been added onto many times and was quite confusing). She then left me to explore on my own. I was enraptured with all the history when Jess called me. Because it was a massive old home and I was the only visitor I spoke to her in hushed tones, trying to appear reverent of history. Jess was having none of it and accused me of being a miserable bore and hung up on me. Typical.

The exhibits were great and very informative although my only quibble was with the time lines. The wall was covered with interesting anecdotes (see above) but there was no discernible rhyme or reason so one minute I was reading about his second marriage, then his immigration, then his death, then his first marriage. I managed to get the gist of it though. I couldn’t believe Gallatin was a massively influential person who did all these amazing things and yet I had never even heard of him. Actually, I had but I never knew it. When I was In Wyoming, outside of Yellowstone, I saw the Gallatin mountain range and the Gallatin River. Now I know the man behind the name!

After finishing my tour I went outside to the gazebo that overlooked the Monongahela River and then continued on a trail to see the grave of Gallatin’s first wife. Here’s a tragic story for you: Gallatin was married to Sophia for less than a year when she fell ill and died. She specifically requested that he tell no one where he buried her. He said "There lies one of the best and purest women God ever made. I would have erected a monument to her memory only she requested me not to do so, preferring that her grave should not be marked. She said that I would know where she was laid, and to the rest of the world was of little importance". Awww