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of two routes of travel-the one down the Ohio river, the other
'through the great wilderness,' by way of Cumberland Gap.
  6"He says travelers from the more northerly States passed
along a road which ran out from Philadelphia, through the
upper and central points of Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, and
from thence made their way down the Ohio river. South of
this Pennsylvania road another led out from Baltimore, pass-
ing Old Town and Cumberland Fort on the Potomac river,
and along Braddock' s road to Red Stone Old Fort (now
Brownsville), on the Monongahela river, sixty miles above its
mouth. From that point travelers also made their way to
Kentucky by water. This lower road subsequently became
the celebrated National Turnpike or Cumberland road, the
General Government having improved it and made it a post
road, and a great connecting link between the East and West.
  "Even as late as 1792, when Imlay wrote, there was no such
convenience as a regular business of carrying passengers and
their luggage down the Ohio, but at Pittsburg or Old Fort a
flat-boat or passenger boat might be obtained, according to
the good luck of the traveler. Notwithstanding the obstacles
and dangers of the way, much the greater number of immi-
grants seemed to consider the route through the wilderness-
the mountains of Virginia and Cumberland Gap-as preferable.
Capt. Speed says of this, the ' Wilderness Road:'
  " The distance from Philadelphia to the interior of Kentucky
by way of Cumberland Gap was nearly eight hundred miles.
The line of travel was through Lancaster, Yorktown and
Abbottstown to the Potomac river at Watkins' Ferry; thence
through Martinsburg and Winchester, up the Shenandoah
Valley through Staunton, and following the great trough
through the mountain ranges, it passed over the high ground
known as the divide;' there it left the waters which 'run
toward sunrise,' and reached an important station at the
waters of New River, which run to the west. At that point
another road, which led out from Richmond through the cen-
tral parts of Virginia, intersected or rather came into the one
just described. Thus were brought together two tides of immi-
grants. Near the 'forks of the road' stood Fort Chissell, a
rude block-house, built in 1758 by Colonel Bird, immediately