When the National Road was extended
west from Wheeling, the mandate was to build a road
directly from one state capitol to the next. In doing
so, many existing communities found themselves not necessarily
on the path of the National Road. Some cities such as
Dayton, Ohio, were really upset at the political and
highway engineering slight. It was clearly a case of
not being in the right place. Prior to the road's arrival
in western Ohio, Dayton's political leaders fought hard
to introduce a slight bend in the road that it would
pass through Dayton. East of Columbus the city of Newark
had been missed and Dayton was bound and determined
to not let that happen to them.
Alas, all of their efforts were in vain
when President Andrew Jackson overruled the recommendations
of the Ohio Legislature and ordered that the road be
built straight and without detour. The net result was
that like Newark, Dayton was bypassed by about 10 miles.
Undeterred, the city's leaders came up with an ingenious
solution, albeit somewhat unethical.
The city quickly built their own road
from Springfield to Dayton, thence to Eaton and up to
Richmond, Indiana, where it rejoined the National Road.
While the Dayton Cutoff was a more logical route to
follow (adding just four miles), the city of Dayton
realized it had a marketing problem. Dayton's spin doctors
went to work and the deception began.
First, Dayton erected milestones along
its road that were nearly exact copies of the milestones
found along the National Road. Second, at he fork in
the road, the cutoff's proponents had a sign erected
telling emigrants that the fork to the left was the
National Road, when it fact it wasn't.
All of this deceit really wasn't necessary
as word would have gotten out about which was the better
path. In the end, the Dayton Cutoff enjoyed great success
since it was the superior road. The Dayton Cutoff offered
a better road surface, two large communities (the northern
option only had tiny villages), and merchants with whom
emigrants and travelers could do business.
The trend to take the loop south to
Dayton continued many years later. Up until the 1960's
when I-70 was built to the north, commerdcial traffic
(trucks, buses, etc.) would follow the path of the old
cutoff.
