‘’Americans in the early 1800s were a people on the move, as thousands left the eastern coastal states for opportunities in the West. Unlike their predecessors, who traveled by foot or wagon train, these settlers had new transport options. Their trek was made possible by the construction of roads, canals, and railroads, projects that required the funding of the federal government and the states. In 1811, construction began on the Cumberland Road, a national highway that provided thousands with a route from Maryland to Illinois.’’(258) The National Road, or Cumberland Road, was the first highway built by the federal government. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, economic expansion spurred the building of canals to speed goods
