The Long Stretch

The Long Stretch. The Road that Built the Nation. As they climbed into the mountains west of Frostburg, travelers entered the longest straightaway on the National Road between Cumberland and Wheeling, West Virginia. They marveled at this long ribbon of road and christened it the "Long Stretch.", Leo Beachy (1874-1927), a local photographer who spent his life documenting life in the Western Maryland mountains, captured the "Long Stretch" of road looking east toward Frostburg., In 1921, a new Federal Highway Act provided funds to pave America's old roads. This section of the National Road, in use for over a century, became a part of U.S. Route 40, the "Ocean to Ocean Highway.", Hotels and restaurants became landmarks for "pleasure travelers." The New Colonial Inn opened its doors here in 1932. Visitors serviced their automobiles, enjoyed home cooked food, overnight cabins, a gift shop and picnic grounds. The tourist cabins have vanished, but travelers can still enjoy the food., The Shades of Death , Just west of the "Long Stretch," a deep forest of pines once haunted the imaginations of travelers., "No bird chirps among the foliage or finds food in these inhospitable boughs...like the dark nave of some empty cathedral...at every step the traveler half looks to find a bloody corpse or the blanched skeleton of some long murdered man lying across the pathway through these woods." Winthrop Sergeant "Pioneer Roads" . This historical marker was erected by America's Byways, Maryland Heritage Area Authority, Maryland National Road Association. It is Near Frostburg in Garrett County Maryland