National Road, also known as Peacock Road, is located off of
U.S. Route 40
U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America, is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid-Atlantic States. As with most routes wh ...
between
Cambridge and
Old Washington,
Ohio. The road was placed on the
National Register on 1985-08-23.
History
The
National Road was authorized by
President Thomas Jefferson on March 29, 1806 and reached out to
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. The road was later expanded to stretch to
Jefferson City,
Missouri. The road closely followed
Zane's Trace, an earlier path, and came through the
Guernsey County
Guernsey County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 38,438. Its county seat is Cambridge, and it is named for the Isle of Guernsey in the English Channel, from which many of the county's earl ...
area around 1838.
The road currently known as Peacock Road contains original brick sections of 1918 construction. However, due to costs, parts of the road were left unpaved until
World War II, when the road was used for war shipment. Local inmates were used as a cost saving method to brick up the sections. When Route 40 was diverted north of this section, the old road was unknowingly saved for posterity.
Peacock Road
Part of the National Road in Center Township retains its early twentieth-century appearance. Virtually no changes have been made since the 1920s, including the pavement; the bricks laid in 1918 remain in place. This section of the road runs approximately east-west between
Old Washington and
Cambridge, a distance of .
[Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 557.]
References
External links
Guernsey County Tourism
{{National Register of Historic Places
Transportation in Guernsey County, Ohio
National Register of Historic Places in Guernsey County, Ohio
1806 establishments in Ohio
Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio