Forbes Road: The Path That Became a Nation's Highway

Just east of here, two ancient mountain paths converged to form one of colonial America's most consequential roads. In seventeen fifty-eight, British General John Forbes ordered his army to hack a new military highway westward through the Pennsylvania wilderness toward the French stronghold at Fort Duquesne. His engineers followed the Raystown Path, a network of Native American and trader trails that already threaded the mountains.

Near here, a shortcut through Fannettsburg and the main route through Cowan Gap split apart. Forbes kept his route on high ground to avoid major river crossings, and the towns he planted along the way still carry the names of his forts: Littleton, Bedford, Ligonier, Pittsburgh. After the French abandoned Fort Duquesne without a fight, Forbes Road became the primary highway for settlers flooding west into the Ohio Valley, the first great artery of American expansion.