The nation needed good inland roads for travel and to ship goods. Private companies built many turnpikes, or toll roads. Tolls, or fees paid by travelers, helped pay the cost of building them. Many roads had a base of crushed stone. In some areas workers built "corduroy roads." These roads had a surface made up of logs laid side by side, like the ridges of corduroy cloth. Ohio became a state in 1803. The new state asked the federal government to build a road to connect it with the East. In 1806 Congress approved funds for a national road to the West, though it took five more years for members to agree on the route. Work on the project began in 1811 in Cumberland, Maryland. The start of the War of 1812 with Great Britain halted construction. As a result, the road's first section, which ran from Maryland to Wheeling in present-day West Virginia, did not open until 1818. The route closely followed that of a military road George Washington had built in 1754. The National Road eventually reached Ohio and then Vandalia, Illinois. Congress viewed the road as vital to military readiness but did not take on any other road-building projects.

1. Why was the new road built by the federal government in 1811 considered vital?​