Braddock's Road

The Braddock Road was a military road built in 1755 in what was then British America and is now the United States. It was the first improved road to cross the barrier of the successive ridgelines of the Appalachian Mountains. It was constructed by troops of Virginia militia and British regulars commanded by General Edward Braddock of the Coldstream Guards, part of an expedition to conquer the Ohio Country from the French at the beginning of the French and Indian War, the North American portion of the Seven Years' War. George Washington was an aid-de-camp to General Braddock (one of his favorites) who accompanied the expedition. The expedition gave him his first field military experience along with other American military officers. A number of these men would profit from this experience during the Revolutionary War.

In 1755, Braddock was sent to remove the French from Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). Starting from Fort Cumberland, General Braddock ordered 600 men, commanded by Major Chapman and John St. Clair to cut a military road over Haystack Mountain. The road followed an Indian path known as Nemacolin's path which had been improved by George Washington and Christopher Gist for the Ohio Company. Compton's task was to build the road to Little Meadows, about 20 miles away.

After a day of road-building, Maj. Chapman's men had only built two miles of road and had destroyed three wagons trying to get over the treacherous terrain encountered on the mountain. Braddock was about to dispatch 300 more men to the road crew when he was informed, by Lt. Spendlowe of the Navy detachment, of an easier route through the Narrows.

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