Indiana definitely has some cool old alignments of the National Road and US 40, all of which I shared on Monday. But if there were an old-alignment contest on the National Road, Ohio would win. When the road was new in the early 1800s, especially in the rough, hilly terrain east of Zanesville, it had little choice but to snake its way along. But in the 20th century’s middle years, the road was leveled and straightened. It left a whole bunch of old alignments behind.
This one is known locally as Peacock Road, and it’s just a short distance west of Old Washington. These bricks were laid in 1918 to make the National Road suitable for military transport. More than 75 continuous miles of brick was laid on Ohio’s National Road, making it the longest brick road in the nation at the time. The road is 16 feet wide with six-inch concrete curbs on each side. But you can hardly tell – thanks to being bypassed for decades now, Mother Nature is slowly taking over.
Last updated on 23 February 2020 by Jim Grey
That is a beautiful old road. You captured the charm in your picture.
Thanks! It was a quiet, peaceful place.
The bricks are really cool Jim thanks for sharing.
Thanks Bernie!
This sure is an inviting path to go down. You captured it well. 75 miles of brick road would be quite a feat.
Can you imagine laying that much brick road? They had to put each brick down by hand!
Thats looks lovely, the bricks make it so quaint. How far can you walk this stretch in total?
I’d say this stretch is about a half a mile long. It’s still accessible to cars, too. Here’s a link to it on Google Maps.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/40%C2%B001'46.5%22N+81%C2%B029'44.2%22W/@40.029588,-81.495602,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0
Holy crap! Jim is back! You know what I mean :-)
Not happily. I want the new theme to work for -everybody-.
I want to save the entry! Maybe someday visit there!
The map link I shared in an earlier comment will show you just where to go!
My grandpa Armstrong and his father and uncles worked as bricklayers on the Road.
Cool! Thanks for sharing this tidbit of info.