Oct 19, 2018 2 min read

Thomas Jefferson will appear this month at a college bearing his name in the form of an entertainment impersonator to discuss America’s first interstate highway.

Jefferson will engage in a dialogue at Washington & Jefferson College with historical interpreters portraying President James Madison and Albert Gallatin during a symposium marking the historic National Road’s 200th birthday.

“This should be a cool program,” said W. Thomas Mainwaring, chairman of the college’s history department.

Jefferson supported the road along with Gallatin, who was secretary of the Treasury in the early 1800s and knew the transportation needs of the farmers in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

The “Eastern Legacy” section of the road was viewed as a major accomplishment in August 1818 when a corridor about 140 miles long opened between Cumberland, Md., and Wheeling, which was then part of Virginia.

The college has partnered with the National Park Service and the National Road Heritage Corridor to mark the significance and legacy of the road known today as Route 40.

“This was an engineering marvel of the day,” Mainwaring said.

“The National Road really marked the beginning of a modern road system in the United States,” he said.

Roads at the time were often muddy, steep and connected to poorly constructed bridges, he said.

Gallatin also knew that “good transportation would transform the region,” he said.

John Lauritz Larson, a history professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., will deliver the symposium’s keynote address on roads and canals at 9 a.m. Oct. 27 in Yost Auditorium in the Burnett Center. The program featuring the executive opinions of the re-enactors will begin at 1:45 p.m.

A pre-symposium gathering will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Oct. 26 at Chicco Baccello, 239 S. Main St., Washington, featuring a tasting of local foods and cocktails by Liberty Pole Spirits, also in Washington.

The deadline to preregister for the conference is Monday. People can also register at the door with a cash or check. The cost for the pre-symposium event is $10. The cost of the symposium is $30 in advance and $40 at the door.

To register, visit www.eventbrite.com/e/national-road-bicentennial-symposium-registration-49701365121

For additional information, email Hilary Miller at Hilary_Miller@nps.gov or call Friendship Hill National Historic Site at 724-329-2501.