Skip to main content

The National Road - Ohio - Belmont County

US 40 - Bridgeport, OH (Doug Kerr)
Us 40 through Eastern Ohio traverses a changing landscape.  It enters the state at Bridgeport, a town with a strong industrial background.  It continues west into smaller cities like St. Clairsville and then onto the rural towns of Fairview and Old Washington.  This segment of the old National Road and US 40 has a little bit of everything from old alignments containing original brick pavement, stone 'S' Bridges, and a dead end at the foot of a modern Interstate 70.  US 40 is truly a backroad as it parallels and is often times forgotten by the hustling traffic along the Interstate.

The historic Belmont County Courthouse (Mike Austing)
St. Clairsville is one of the many Ohio towns that the old highway serves as 'Main Street'.  St. Clairsville is the Belmont County seat and the historic Belmont County Courthouse is located on US 40.  The visible landmark was built in the mid-1880s and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.  St. Clairsville is also home to the National Road Bikeway.  The bikeway is a 2.5 mile rail-trail that runs north-south and tunnels underneath Route 40.  The bike trail opened in 1998.

Belmont County Road 40W near Lloydsville. (Mike Austing)
Throughout Belmont County, there are numerous old alignments of the National Road and Route 40.  One of these old paths bears off of the highway near Ohio University's Belmont Campus.  Known as Belmont County Route 40W, this narrow and forgotten road leads to Lloydsville, a town younger than the road that runs by it.  Lloydsville was incorporated in 1962.  However, Lloydsville has at least been known of as far back as 1920. (1)  To reach this old alignment of US 40, leave I-70 at Exit 213  and head west on route 40.  About 1/4 mile past the OU-Belmont Campus, turn left towards Lloydsville, and you'll be on County Route 40W, former US 40! 

1964 Rand McNally showing an incomplete I-70.  Where the proposed I-70 meets US 40 west of Morristown is where US 40 dies into I-70.
Just west of Morristown, the original US 40 is literally stopped by a hillside and a pond.  When Interstate 70 was completed in the area in the 1960s, US 40 was moved onto the freeway from this location to Old Washington.   What is left of the four-lane US 40 is immediately disrupted by the hillside that carries the Interstate.  This Google Satellite image shows I-70, US 40, the retaining pond that sometimes floods the old alignment, and the old road ending into the embankment.  Below, a photo of the old and partially abandoned 4-lane US 40 ending at the hillside that carries I-70. 

Old US 40 west of Morristown. (Mike Austing)
The Interstate was built directly on top of I-40 to just east of the current-day OH 800/Hendrysburg interchange.  It is that point where the original US 40 can be found on the south shoulder of I-70 arcing its way to OH 800 where Route 800 meets I-70.  This Google Satellite image shows the old four lane US 40 just east of Hendrysburg.  The eastbound lanes still remain usable; however, the old westbound highway has been reduced to gravel or weeds or is used as a parking area for local residents and trailer loads.

Old US 40 Eastbound (Belmont County 102) at I-70. (Mike Austing)

The former westbound lanes of US 40 are now either overgrown or used for parking. (Mike Austing)

Old US 40 West approaching I-70 and Hendrysburg. (Mike Austing)
Old US 40 follows OH 800 on a two lane bypass of Hendrysburg.  The original National Road runs through the town.  Hendrysburg was founded in the 1820's by Charles Hendry, whose parents settled near the town in 1797.  William Boyd, better known as Hopalong Cassidy, was born in Hendrysburg in 1895.

A quiet National Road through Fairview. (Mike Austing)

If you were to exit of the Interstate at Exit 198, you are able to access the Village of Fairview.  Because of the heritage of the National Road, Fairview survives in spite of being bypassed by nearby Interstate 70.  The main thoroughfare through Fairview is the original National Pike and what once was Route 40.
 
Belmont County Road 967 - a true country gravel back road.  (Mike Austing)
It is easy to trace the National Road out of Fairview, east or west.  Continuing east, follow County Route 40-A.  County Route 967 takes you out of town to the west.  County Road 967 varies from gravel to paved.

Site Navigation:
Sources & Links:
  •  (1) Gibson, Denny. "The National Road in Ohio." Personal E-Mail. (Sept. 12, 2004)
  • Mike Austing
  • Doug Kerr

Comments

Jim Grey said…
First time I drove any of this was about 1990, before my inner roadgeek awakened. The four-lane section that runs into I-70 had a single steel guardrail down the middle at the time. I didn't realize it wasn't still in use as US 40. I remember reaching the intersection where the road opens up and being unclear from signage about which way US 40 went. I kept going forward and eventually found the I-70 hill. The guardrail ran right into the hill. At the time there was no water over the road, so I drove up onto the hill and came back down onto the eastbound lanes.

My Rand McNally atlas at the time showed that there was an exit onto I-70 here. Insert sad-trombone sfx.
Jim Grey said…
P.S.: Shaky video I shot of the Morristown alignments in 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfbPqjrZ-8U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaoW-AuyS94

Popular posts from this blog

Abandoned US Route 40 in the Truckee River Canyon

Within the Truckee River Canyon in the Sierra Nevada range numerous abandoned portions of US Route 40 can be found alongside modern Interstate 80.   This segment of highway was opened during 1926 as a bypass of the Dog Valley Grade which carried the early North Lincoln Highway and Victory Highway. The corridor of the Truckee River Canyon State Highway would be assigned as US Route 40 when the US Route System was commissioned during November 1926. During 1958 the segment of Interstate 80 between Boca, California and the Nevada state line was complete. When Interstate 80 opened east of Boca numerous obsolete portions of US Route 40 were abandoned. Some of these abandoned segments have been incorporated into the Tahoe-Pyramid Trail.  Part 1; the history of US Route 40 in the Truckee River Canyon The Truckee River Canyon for centuries has been an established corridor of travel known to native tribes crossing the Sierra Nevada range.  The first documented wagon crossi...

Former California State Route 41 past Bates Station

When California State Route 41 was commissioned during August 1934 it was aligned along the then existing Fresno-Yosemite Road north of the San Joaquin River.  Within the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County, the original highway alignment ran past Bates Station via what is now Madera County Road 209, part of eastern Road 406 and Road 207.   Bates Station was a stage station plotted during the early 1880s at what was the intersection of the Coarsegold Road and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.   The modern alignment bypassing Bates Station to the east would be reopened to traffic during late 1939.   Part 1; the history of California State Route 41 past Bates Station Bates Station was featured as one of the many 1875-1899 Madera County era towns in the May 21, 1968, Madera Tribune .  Post Office Service at Bates Station is noted to have been established on November 23, 1883 and ran continuously until October 31, 1903.  The postal name was sourced...

The William Flinn (not Flynn) Highway - Pittsburgh's Misspelled Street

For decades if you traveled along PA Route 8 in Pittsburgh's North Hills suburbs, you would have noticed signs that read "William Flynn Highway" at every intersection.  Even today, many businesses and residences have their addresses listed as XXXX William Flynn Highway.  However, it's not William Flynn Highway, it is William FLINN Highway - and the gentleman who it is named for has a long and storied past in Pittsburgh's infrastructure history. William Flinn was born in England in 1851; however later that year, his family emigrated to the United States and would settle in Pittsburgh.  A 10-year-old school dropout, Flinn grew interested in politics and would join the Allegheny County Republican Party in 1877 as a ward commissioner and a seat on the Board of Fire Commissioners.  Flinn would serve in the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives and Senate from 1877 to 1902. (1) Flinn along with James J. Booth would found the Booth and Flinn construction firm ...