200 Years of Illinois Roads

David Clark shares how construction began on the National Road in 1820. This was a thoroughfare of stone surfaces and bridges that would run from Cumberland, Maryland, to the Mississippi River. By the time road crews began working in Illinois, funding was so scrace, that the National Road became a path. Trees were cut down to 15-inch stumps, creating a path so Conestoga wagons and their 18-inch clearance could use. 

This presentation is a collaboration with the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest and the Oak Park Public Library.