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Show WAS LONG FAMOUS HIGHWAY Cumberland Pike a Well-Traveled Road In the Early Days of the Country. j When the immigrants traversed the Santa Fe trail, when they went overland over-land to the Golden Gate, when they J traversed the prairies in every direc- I tion, they did not travel in trek carts, ( says Dan Beard in Boys' Life. They :i traveled in what were known as prai- J rie schooners, and the prairie schooner was a direct descendant of the cones-toga, cones-toga, and the conestoga wagon was the freight wagon that carried all the freieht over the old Cumberland road. or the Old Pike, as it was sometimes I ca'led. This was the first good road I from Wheeling, W. Va., to Fort Cum- " - berland now Cumberland, Md., a pret- ' v ty little town delightfully situated on a branch of the Potomac river. There were two routes to the Ohio valley, one over the famous Boone trail to Cumberland Gap blazed on the trees In 1775. The other route was over the Braddook road to the Youghiougheny, and it was in th general direction of this road that the Cumberland pike was built, a splendid road of stone ' covered with gravel that passed over great arched bridges thrown across the ravines and water courses. The Cumberland road was laid out by an Indian guide and in 1S48 it was ac- ' knowledged to be the greatest traveled highway in America. ' |