Political Quotes

“I rise today to recognize the importance of investment in our national infrastructure on the occasion of the bicentennial anniversary of the National Road. On May 7, 2011, Americans will gather in Cumberland, MD, to celebrate the bicentennial of the groundbreaking for the construction of this first federally financed road. Congress approved The National Road in 1806 and construction was completed in 1818, connecting Cumberland, MD, with Wheeling, WV, located on the Ohio River. This road would connect East to West, allowing for economic growth and opportunity as a young nation sought to unite a diverse country and facilitate the flow of people, goods, services, information, and Federal authority in new territory. The National Road's completion created a flow of goods and people to and from the Port of Baltimore, along privately developed turnpikes to Cumberland, and across the mountains to the Ohio River Valley. The road was extended to Vandalia, IL, in the early 1840s. For more than a century, The National Road was this Nation's only federally funded interstate highway, making its importance to commercial and political enterprise unparalleled. By the 1850s, the lure of trade and migration to the West led to the development of the ``horseless carriage,'' running parallel to the road, connecting the Port of Baltimore to the West right through Cumberland, MD, over the mountains and westward.…”