1928 Weaver Family drive on the National Road back to Ohio from Washington DC - With Edna and Paul Henry - Tom and Gladys Roehm and Son.

After visiting the east coast, and Washington DC, Noah Elwood Weaver's 1928 album included snap shots of their trip back on the National Hiway, or National Pike as it was in the time which went through the Cumberland Gap to the Ohio River basin.

from http://www.nps.gov/fone/historyculture/nationalroad.htm
The National Road, today called U.S. Route 40, was the first highway built entirely with federal funds. The road was authorized by Congress in 1806 during the Jefferson Administration. Construction began in Cumberland, Maryland in 1811. The route closely paralleled the military road opened by George Washington and General Braddock in 1754-55.
By 1818 the road had been completed to the Ohio River at Wheeling, which was then in Virginia. Eventually the road was pushed through central Ohio and Indiana reaching Vandalia, Illinois in the 1830's where construction ceased due to a lack of funds. The National Road opened the Ohio River Valley and the Midwest for settlement and commerce.



From wiki "The National Road (Cumberland Road) was the first major improved highway in the United States to be built by the federal government. The approximately 620-mile (1,000 km) long National Road provided a connection between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and a gateway to the West for thousands of settlers."

From http://www.cumberlandroadproject.com/

Welcome!

The year 2011 marks the 200th Anniversary of the start of construction on the Cumberland Road / National Road, America's first federally funded interstate highway. Construction began at "a stone at the corner of lot No. 1, in Cumberland, near the confluence of Will's creek and the north branch of the Potomac river" in May, 1811 and ended in Vandalia, Ill. in 1839.

Over its venerable history, the road has gone by various names... The Cumberland Road, The National Turnpike, The National Road, The National Highway and US Route 40, to name but a few. The original Road has been "realigned" and "redirected" in some places over the years, fueled by our need for speedy automobile travel, but, for the most part, the old road lives on.

The history of the Road itself, the planning, construction and politics has been well documented over the last 200 years. The grand purpose of the Cumberland Road Project, instead, is to document the history of the people, families, businesses, towns and cities that grew alongside. What I hope will evolve is cloth woven of personal and family histories, stories of towns, cities and businesses prospering and, sometimes, fading away and observations of travelers, both past and present, of life along the road.

I invite you to share your family histories, information, photographs, references and observations. Your contributions will enhance our collective knowledge of a most important part of America's past.
~ Steve Colby, Cumberland, MD  (I am sending Steve an email to perhaps include some of these photos which need location identification support

 

Town Hill Mountain, with Tom Roehm leaning on the sign at the left.   Town Hill Hotel at the right. 1928 by Noah Elwood Weaver. page 85 of Album

 

From the site www.cumberlandroadproject.com - Town Hill Mt is the second ridge west of Hancock MD.
 

 Camp Site, not labeled.  In the album after Town Hill.

"Imperial"  "Gulf" observation gas station.  Paul H Weaver, my father in front with the two Ohio cars on the right.  Page 85 in album

From Steve Colby "

Photo "b" on your blog is Yonkers Store and observatory that used to be atop Polish Mt. East of Flintstone, MD. (The I-68 cut destroyed the Site.) http://www.cumberlandroadproject.com/maryland/allegany/photo-pages/polish-mtn-photos2.php "

 Tom Roehm, son step son Laurence, and wife Gladys,  with Paul Henry and Edna Eicher Weaver on top of viewing tower in Maryland.Polish Mt view east of Flintstone MD.Page 85

Casselman Bridge - Note the large span...

from page 85 of the album by Noah Elwood Weaver

Info from website -

http://www.cumberlandroadproject.com/maryland/garrett/sesquicentennial-casselman-bridge.php

Capt. Hoye on the Casselman Bridge

Bridges and culverts on the Cumberland Road were well built of stone. One of the most noted of the bridges was at the Little Crossings over the Casselman River, then known as "Little Youghiogheny." This 80 foot span was the largest stone arch in America when constructed in 1813. It is said that it was built larger than needed to carry the river water in order that the proposed C. & O. canal might pass under it. A public celebration was held on the day the supporting timbers of the bridge were removed. But people who had seen the arch under construction said it would collapse when the supports were removed. So the superintendent, David Shriver, with a few laborers, on the night before the celebration, quietly removed the "key" of the supporting timbers. The bridge stood without support, as it stands today. It carried the traffic of a great highway for 120 years, until the present iron bridge was built in 1933. ~ Capt. Charles. E. Hoye: The Glades Star, September 30, 1947

Noah Elwood with his straw hat, Big Savage Mt Sign. Photo page 86, likely  by his son Paul Henry Weaver

From Steve Colby

Tom,

The photo taken atop Big Savage is the Big Savage Hotel (and other names). This page in the Postage library of CRP shows the hotel and a camp: http://www.cumberlandroadproject.com/maryland/garrett/garrett-photo-pages/big-savage-mtn-photos1.html

Noah Elwood and Edna Eicher Weaver stopping for a water break. Page 88 album  Near Uniontown PA. Watering Trough Four Miles East of Uniontown....PA

From Steve Colby

The two people drinking from the trough is most like the Watering Trough on the West side of Laurel Mt. East of Uniontown, PA. http://www.cumberlandroadproject.com/pennsylvania/fayette/fayette-photos/farmington-and-west-pa-photos.php  - 

Described here as "The Watering Trough - Four miles east of Uniontown"

Tom's step son Laurence Reichelderfer, Tom Roehm, Edna E Weaver and Tom's wife Gladys , lunch break on wooden fence. Page 86

 Long wavy bridge with cars. Steve Colby thought it S bridge was in Ohio. Page 88 in album In my on line search I found the site: /www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/06nov/02.cfm  On Public Roads.
They posted this low res photo with the ID from ""S" bridge west of Hendrysburg, OH."

Another view, straight on of the "S" bridge west of Hendrysburg, OH- note the brick like surface.P 88

 

From the www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/06nov/02.cfm, site- Labeled

"As late as the 1930s, U.S. 40 included this National Road "S" bridge west of Hendrysburg, OH. The bridge was replaced with an arch bridge during reconstruction of the highway in 1933. "

Long wavy bridge without cars.National Road, 1927-28 West of Hendrysburg, OH by NEW p88

 
Noah Elwood Weaver took this close up of the S Bridge West of  Hendrysburg, OH, likely in 1928 as is is posted on page 89 of his travel album I am scanning here in 2014.


From page 43 Ohio National Road Travelers Guide Copyright 2010 by the Ohio National Road Association, Inc. "S Stands for Bridge S-bridges are a unique feature of the National Road. Folklore abounds as to why they were built. One story suggests the s-shape forced drivers to slow their horses, reducing the chance of accidents. Some said the bridges were originally built around huge trees, while others claimed they were the result of inebriat- ed bridge builders. However, there is a logical explanation for Ohio’s crooked bridges. The National Road seldom encountered streams and rivers at a direct 90-degree angle. In order for bridges to be constructed so as to cross these bodies of water at 90 degrees while maintaining the direction and location of the Road, an S-shaped design was select- ed as the solution. The S-shape easily accommodated slow-moving droves of animals and horse and oxen-drawn wag- ons, but with the advent of higher-speed automobile traffic they became a hazard. Most were soon bypassed, although at least one — near Hendrysburg — was straightened in 1933 and continued in use for several more years."

 

Found this old image of the "Crooked" S Bridge in Hendrysburg Ohio. on Line

Below "Tom"'s son and wife at the opening to a mine with tracks. Page 88 of the Album.

Venture to Washington DC Spring time 2014

 Arrived at National (Reagan) airport along the Potomac in VA around 11 AM.  David Frye my host in DC, works at the SEC Building around the corner from Union Station, where I took the Metro Red Line transferring from the Yellow that I hopped on at the airport.   Here is a view from the cafe where we had lunch in the Station.  Doing repairs after an earthquake a couple of years ago

 

Went to the nearest Smithsonian Museum the National Postage Museum at the old main PO just across the street from Union Station.   I always loved the hobby of stamp collecting and shared by many over the world.  I was struck by who has been stamp collector.  3rd photo is John Lennon with his dad.....all these photos on my iphone that is new....My other camera holds many, and I forgot to bring the cord attachment. 

John Lennon, another stamp collector, with his dad.

The word Exchange, to me, implies a balance, a back and forth.  How mail is exchanged...in the past, letters were shared over time.  My collection of stamps as a kid allowed me to exchange stamps of the US and United Nations with other kids in the 1960's.   I had friends in New Zealand, Australia, Southern Rhodesia, Czechoslovakia, Tanganyika, during my teenage years...

 Being a long term philatelist since childhood, many of you may know I collected stamps from Taiwan, the only "China" we could recognize in the 1960's.  I have many stamps from Taiwan and more recently from PRC..

 Here is the card introducing the Exhibit at the National Postage Museum

 Here is the colorful inviting poster of our two nations, China and US Mail History...

From the exhibit......

For me, The Republic of China (on Taiwan since 1949, and mainland China, Peoples Republic of China,  was "red China".  In 1971 the connection of our two countries, mainland, the People's Republic of China began to thaw with the Ping Pong players from the US were game to go there...

 I remember in 1971, when I went to the Soviet Union when relations started thawing.  Here in the April 26, 1971 cover of Time Magazine.. see  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping-pong_diplomacy
Ping-pong diplomacy (Chinese: {{{3}}} Pīngpāng wàijiāo) refers to the exchange of table tennis (ping-pong) players between the United States and People's Republic of China (PRC) in the early 1970s. The event marked a thaw in U.S.–China relations that paved the way to a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon.

 Covers of TV Guide with Nixon and Zhou Enlai....and Chairman Mao shacking hands..

 

The history of Chinese immigration to the US of A - Mail as a life line between people and families.

 From my collection...1939 envelope

 

Dr Sun with Lincoln First Day Cover 1959 (Got this when I was 12)  my collection

 1960, World Boy Scout Jamboree First Day Cover. my collection

"Thunder Tiger" Aerobatic Team first day cover from Taiwan, Tainan cancellation...Feb 1960.my collection

 I sat on the grass at the National Mall and took a few photos of the  same Smithsonian Buildings that my dad and grandparents visited in 1928.  Closed for a remodel.  I did visit the Air and Space Museum next door crowded with curious young people, and then walked into the Castle where I got some maps and a bottle of hard cider as the temp was such that liquid refreshment was important!

 

The Arts and Industry Building in 2014.  Looking from a similar view that was in 1928.

see   http://prairielakesjourneystwospirit.blogspot.com/2014_03_01_archive.html

 

The Castle, the original building donated by Smithson.  I was led to go inside from the garden in the back....

 

I noticed the four young men walking this way, and I was led to go in here, and have a nice cool cider......at the visitors center..

http://www.si.edu/Museums/smithsonian-institution-building 

 

From the Castle I walked to the other side of the Mall..A highlight for me, was the visit to the National History Museum where I made a bee line to the basement to take in Julia Child's Kitchen.  They have a loop of many of her TV show with other cooks that are just hilarious. Such a great teacher!   I hoot.  I sat there for nearly an hour and just took in the comments of the variety of people from all over the world! 

 I view of the kitchen as it was in Cambridge MA

On my wall back up the Mall to go to Union Station to meet David, I stopped at this pool and really liked this shot! Warm spring day. 

 

David and Paige had lived in Takoma Park on the DC side and took me too a small Korean American Cafe in downtown Takoma in MD.   A fish like box of food with a local MD porter beer.  Very sweet to have the local fare.... 

Here is a cherry tree beginning blossoming in front of Union Station as I neared David's office at the SEC Building. 

 

History of Union Station.  In front of Thurgood Marshall Building and then the SEC Building in the back where David, my host works.  

My friend Paree I know from MKP International, who promised me a special view of Washington DC.  Here he is with his great smile as we walk over the bridge on the MD side of the Potomac at the Great Falls...Thanks Paree.

 Paree's photo of me on one of the bridge at the Great Falls of the Potomac.   Olmstead Island....

 View of the Great Falls of the Potomac as led by Paree...who has lived in DC for 21 years...

 

DC license plate....the 3 stars and 2 stripes are part of the Washington Family Crest.

 

Now I can visit the Library of Congress.  Thanks to Paige for her suggestion that is might draw me back in the next two years..

1960's American First Day Covers - Education on an Envelope!

 During the 1950's and 60's I was raised in a household where collecting stamps was something my parents did, through having international friends who did exchange, as well as the free First Day Covers my MD father got through Ayerst Labs, a pharmaceutical company. In any case, I learned a lot about the culture of the US of A, through what the US Postal Service issued. I learned to anticipate the new issues and notice the designs, and colors.  My parents subscribed to Linn's Weekly Stamp News and my dad purchased the new stamps at the Post Office in Faribault and also exchanged the US and United Nations Stamps with people all over the world.  I am so grateful to have been raised by parents who had a far reaching vision and who supported my education beyond just having a "career" Notes below each First Day Cover

The microscope and stethoscope here in colors, to learn about cancer.  Ironic that both of my parents developed significant cancers.   Dad, died at the young age of 71, with colon cancer with metastases to his liver.   I sense inhaling the smoke from his beloved pipe, added risk to his developing cancer.  He began smoking his pipe (often a symbol of learned intellectuals in the 20th century) during his years at Antioch college.   My mom's Memoir describes Pete's love of his pipe in 2 sections

1) Medical Family History p148 "Paul H. WEAVER m. Margaret M. Glessner, 1935
irregular heart beat, angina pectoris & high blood pressure, age 67; pipe smoker for 50 years;
drank wine and scotch; colon cancer, age 71; d. age 71 +1 mo."

2) p104 "Not long after we had moved to Pelican, Pete noticed that he had an irregular heart beat, arrhythmia, which didn't seem to present any acute problem until the evening of August 10, 1978, when he had angina and I drove to Nisswa to pick up a prescription of nitroglycerin. The following day he had an EKG (electrocardiogram), on August 19 going to the hospital for five days of heart monitoring, where he was attached to an apparatus that recorded his heart beats. Again in 1980, he was in the hospital for heart monitoring, this time for ten days. I found staying alone in the woods with no neighbors a bit scary. When I was asked out to supper, I hesitated to accept, a bit fearful of coming home to an empty house. Of course I hoped it would be empty! It was! That year, besides his heart problem, a siege of pseudogout gave him a swollen, painful knee causing him to use a cane. Then a painful deer fly bite on his ankle again put him on a cane and finally on crutches. Pete's health was not doing well.
Because of his heart problem, reluctantly he gave up smoking his pipe, which he had enjoyed since he began at Antioch College. I decided it would be a good time for me to give up my cigarette-smoking, which I had started in college some forty-six years before. We empathized and encouraged each other. I had my last cigarette on August 27, 1978! 'T wasn't easy giving up my nervous habit,    discovering that I quickly gained predicted weight with the substitution of munching for smoking."

Peg also was self disclosing about her cancers and health, p148  "Margaret M. GLESSNER low blood pressure; cancer of uterus,age 49 - no chemo- or X-ray-therapy after surgery; brisk walk & stretching exercizes after age 71; cancer of head of pancreas, age 74 - no chemo-or X-ray therapy after surgery; cataract surgery, age 76 & 78;cigarette smoker for 48 years (1/2-1 pack a day); drank wine and scotch until 1986, now a glass of wine before dinner;

And lessons in history, Patrick Henry from Virginia, "Give me Liberty or give me death"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Henry

Here in 1962, my grandmother Inez Chase Glessner, hand addressed this cover to me for the 1962 -50 Year anniversary of Arizona Statehood.  Many winters my grandparents stayed in and around Phoenix...

This first day cover, I remember being a surprise issue.   With the orbital flight of the first American, John Glenn in 1962. I remember the excitement of knowing a guy from the US had orbited around the earth as a teen of 15 years......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x15_stamp.html

John Muir is a well known natural history advocate who lived in California and advocated for protection of natural sites.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir

In 1965 is the 5 cent commemorating the Sokol movement in the US of A.   The discus thrower, as an art form.



 



1965 commemoration of the Magna Carta singed in Britain.   750th Anniversary to look at the written history of human rights...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta

1966 with Ladybird Johnson, the wife of President Lyndon Banes Johnson, encouraged planting beautiful trees and gardens with this issue.    The cherry blossoms on the reflection pond of the Jefferson Monument in Washington DC are featured. 
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/homaro-cantu/the-significance-of-the-c_1_b_3832895.html
"The cherry blossom tree is truly a sight to behold, especially when it is in full riotous bloom. There are several varieties of the cherry blossom tree, and while most of them produce flowering branches full of small pinkish-hued flowers, some of them produce actual cherries.
In Japan, the cherry blossom is more than just a beautiful flowering tree. There are thousands upon thousands of cherry blossom trees in Japan, and each year the Japanese people closely anticipate and follow the blossoming of the trees. When the trees are in bloom, people come in large groups with their families and friends to view the flowers and to enjoy festivals with food, drink, and music.
The significance of the cherry blossom tree in Japanese culture goes back hundreds of years. In their country, the cherry blossom represents the fragility and the beauty of life. It's a reminder that life is almost overwhelmingly beautiful but that it is also tragically short."
http://www.nps.gov/cherry/cherry-blossom-history.htm

1968 First Day Cover of Walt Disney, native of Marceline Missouri...."Its a small world after all"