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54 each state through which the Cumberland Road was to be built; Pennsylvania, only, made any condition, hers being that the road touch the towns of Washington and Uniontown.

The first contracts were let on the eleventh and the sixteenth of April, 1811, for building the first ten miles west of Cumberland, Maryland. These contracts were completed in the year following. More were let in 1812, 1813, and 1815; and two years later contracts for all the distance to Uniontown, Pennsylvania were let. In 1818, United States Mail coaches were running between Washington, D. C. and Wheeling, Virginia. The cost of the road averaged $9,745 per mile between Cumberland and Uniontown, and $13,000 per mile for the entire division from the Potomac to the Ohio. Too liberal contracts is the reason given for the heavy expense between Uniontown and Wheeling.

A flood of traffic swept over the great highway immediately upon its completion.