National Road earns government designation
Officials enthusiastically welcomed the National Road’s recent designation by the federal government as an All-American Road, which could provide a national marketing tool for the highway and the opportunity for federal funding for projects. “At the minimum, it validates the value,’ said Donna Holdorf, executive director of the National Road Heritage Park of Pennsylvania. “We all know – those who champion the cause of the road – that this really was the road that built America.’
The National Scenic Byways Program, established by Congress in 1991 and run by the Federal Highway Administration, manages a discretionary grant program that makes about $25 million available annually for planning as well as enhancing and promoting the byways.
According to information from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the National Scenic Byways Program was created to preserve and protect the nation’s scenic byways and, at the same time, promote tourism and economic development.
Participation in the program is voluntary and may encompass any public road or highway. The National Scenic Byways Program emphasizes local involvement.
The National Road enters impressive company in its All-American Road designation, a standard more difficult to meet than the National Scenic Byway designation that is also available. Both designations, however, elevate these roads as “uniquely American places that make this nation great,’ according to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta.
The U.S. Department of Transportation released a complete list of the America’s Byways collection, and the National Road is the only one that runs through Pennsylvania.
The road, which has the distinction of being the nation’s first federal highway, runs 90 miles along present-day Route 40 in Somerset, Fayette and Washington counties in Pennsylvania. But, the National Road actually begins in Cumberland, Md., where work began in 1911, and runs through six states to Vandalia, Ill. – about 600 miles. The road in all six states received this designation, making it the first entity to run through so many states in the National Scenic Byways program, Holdorf noted.
In its heyday, the National Road brought thousands of pioneers westward in Conestoga wagons, stagecoaches and by horseback. In Fayette County, the road runs through a region where the first battle of the French and Indian War was fought by George Washington at Fort Necessity. In later days, the road lost its importance to the coming of the railroad but it became popular once again with the invention of the automobile.
In Fayette County, the National Road has been a place traveled or visited by the famous, including presidents Andrew Jackson, Warren G. Harding, Benjamin Harrison, James Polk, Andrew Taylor and, more recently, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both of whom appeared at Nemacolin Woodlands in Farmington.
Also, George C. Marshall, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his plan to revitalize Western Europe after World War II, grew up along the National Road in Uniontown.
Other famous visitors to the National Road included statesman Henry Clay, singer Jennie Lind and showman P.T. Barnum, who traveled the area by stagecoach. Mount Summit Inn in Chalk Hill can claim such famous guests as Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, President Harding, Thomas Edison, H.C. Frick, J. Pierpont Morgan and Cornelius Vanderbilt.
The State Theatre in Uniontown, now known as the State Theatre Center for the Arts, has hosted through the years such performers as Cab Calloway, the Dorsey Brothers, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Conway Twitty, Waylon Jennings and the Statler Brothers.
Nemacolin Woodlands has been visited by celebrities that range from comedian Bill Cosby to golf great Tiger Woods.
The state recognized the importance of the National Road when it created the National Road Heritage Park in 1994 to preserve the history and culture of the road while also seeking to spur economic development.
Holdorf, who joined the heritage park as executive director, last year made the application for the National Road in Pennsylvania to become an All-American Road. Each of the six states made its own application, but they worked together through the National Road Alliance.
Holdorf also noted that every federal lawmaker in the six states signed on to the proposal, with U.S. Sens. Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter and U.S. Rep. John Murtha becoming the first to do so.
“To be named an All-American Road, you have to prove multiple intrinsic qualities: archeological, cultural, historical, natural, recreational and scenic. And it has to be nationally significant, offering a one-of-a-kind feature that doesn’t exist anywhere else,’ Holdorf said. “It must be considered a destination unto itself. It must provide an exceptional travel experience. The primary reason for the trip is to drive the byway. We have all these qualities at some level.’
In comparison, a National Scenic Byway must possess only one of those six qualities and be of regional significance.
As an All-American Road, the National Road will be included on special maps released by the Federal Highway Administration that are expected to be available by Labor Day weekend.
National exposure is already available on the National Scenic Byways Web site at www.scenicbyways.org.
Also, the organization is holding a National Scenic Byways Weekend over Labor Day weekend and will include any local activities on its Web site. Holdorf is working to contact local officials.
National Scenic Byways also has its own magazine, Vista, and it is expected to start a national “See America’s Byways’ campaign.
Grantwise, the National Road can apply for a $25,000 seed grant for the first five years to advance the management action plan, which is being revised, and will begin seeking public comment in the fall.
The National Road Alliance will attend a three-day workshop with the National Scenic Byways Program in September to learn ways to maximize its designation. That includes understanding how to use the $25 million annual grant program to make improvements on the road and see if it’s possible to work toward making the National Road Festival a six-state event.
“This designation in no way places further restrictions on what happens on the byway. It says to communities at large, ‘You have a responsibility to protect the intrinsic qualities that got you this designation.’ It doesn’t mean it will limit growth. It means smart growth.’
The designation of an All-American Road also could have more importance in the aftermath of Sept. 11, Mineta pointed out at a Washington, D.C., ceremony.
“Since that horrible day, Americans are taking the time to look around, to uncover what it is that truly makes us American,’ he said.