Breaking the Appalachian Barrier: Maryland as the Gateway to Ohio and the West, 1750-1850

By John Hrastar

In 1750 the Appalachian Mountains were a formidable barrier between the British colonies in the east and French territory in the west, passable only on foot or horseback. It took more than a century to break the mountain barrier and open the west to settlement.

In 1751 a private Virginia company pioneered a road from Maryland to Ohio, challenging the French and Indians for the Ohio country. Several wars stalled the road, which did not start in earnest until after Ohio became a state in 1803. The stone-paved Cumberland Road--from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, Virginia--was complete by 1818 and over the next 30 years was traversed by Conestoga wagons and stagecoaches. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad--the first general purpose railroad in the world--started in Baltimore in the 1820s and reached Wheeling by 1852, uniting east and west.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1476670447
• ISBN13: 9781476670447
• Release Date: February 2018
• Publisher: McFarland & Company
• Length: 263 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.9" x 9.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher