Somerfield, 6.3 miles, (1,390 alt., 142 pop.), on the Youghiogheny River, is a neat country village. The Great Crossings Stone Bridge, which spans the Youghiogheny in three graceful stone arches of varying length, was completed in 1818, and Somerfield was laid out the same year. A tablet commemorates this spot as the Great Crossings on the Old Nemacolin Trail.

West of Somerfield the route traverses dense forests, broken here and there by clusters of tourist cabins.

Fort Necessity Park (open), 17.9 miles, contains the site of Fort Necessity. In the spring of 1754 Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent several detachments against the French in the Ohio Valley. British claims to this territory were based on the Treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Aix-la-Chapelle (1748); French claims, on La Salle's discoveries in 1682. By the end of 1753 the French, intent on establishing protected communication between Canada and Louisiana, had built Fort Presque Isle (see Tour 16) and Fort Le Boeuf (see Tour 18). Then, in April 1754, a French and Indian force under Contrecoeur appeared at the Forks, the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers (now Pittsburgh), and took possession of a partially built fort after expelling a detachment of Virginia soldiers. The French completed the fort and named it Fort Duquesne.

Colonel Joshua Fry, in command of Dinwiddie's expedition, was fatally injured at Wills Creek (now Cumberland,Md.), and George Washington, his chief aide, assumed command. With his force of 150 men he pushed toward Redstone (now Brownsville), the proposed base for attack on Fort Duquesne. Reinforcements from South Carolina brought his total strength to 300 men. Eventually the party reached Great Meadows. Here Washington threw up breastworks, the foundations of Fort Necessity, on a site chosen for defense because of its open ground and the proximity of water in Big Meadow Run.

On May 28, 1754, Washington surprised a party of Frenchmen in the vicinity of his camp, and in a 15-minute engagement killed their leader, Coulon de Jumonville, and killed or captured more than 30 others. News of the death of de Jumonville shook European chancelleries, and the covert warfare between France and England in distant outposts broke out openly. “The volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire,” said Horace Walpole.

On June 29, Washington heard that the French were advancing with a large force. He hastened work on a stockade. It rained; the ground became a quagmire; supplies were low; the men did not get on together; many were ill; expected reinforcements failed to arrive; the base of supplies was 60 miles away; and his force was small. But Washington decided to stand his ground. The outposts were driven back on July 3, before the stockade was completed. At 11 am, the French, led by Coulon de Villiers, half-brother of de Jumonville, came within musket range, and the Battle of Fort Necessity began. The enemy numbered at least 900, and some assert that Indians and French together totaled between 1,200 and 1,600. An excerpt from Washington's report of the battle appeared in the South Carolina Gazette of August 22,1754:

“...We continued this unequal fight, with an enemy sheltered behind the trees, ourselves without shelter, in trenches full of water, in a settled rain, and the enemy galling us on all sides incessantly from the woods 'till 8 o'clock at night, when the French called to parley: ...sent Captain Van Braam, and Mr.Peyronee, to receive their proposals ...and about midnight we agreed, that each side should retire without molestation ...That we should march away with all the honours of war, and with all our stores, effects and baggage. Accordingly the next morning, with our drums beating, and our colors flying, we began our march in good order...”

The reason for the French offer to parley remains unexplained. Perhaps de Villiers feared the arrival of Colonial reinforcements. Washington conjectured that at least 300 of the enemy were killed or wounded, and that the French had an officer of distinguishable rank killed. Of the defenders, 30 were killed and 70 wounded.

The agreement between Washington and de Villiers, written by the French, contained a reference to the 'assassination' of de Jumonville. Considerable importance was later given to the use of this word. Van Braam, the translator, was accused of deceiving Washington, but it is more probable that he attached no significance to the choice of words, or else he could not clearly distinguish what was written, because “it was raining so hard that a candle could not be kept lighted.”

In 1931 Congress appropriated $25,000 for the purchase of one acre as a national battlefield site and the erection of a monument. The 1937 Pennsylvania legislature approved sale of the surrounding State-owned tract to the Federal Government as a national monument.

The Site of Fort Necessity is marked by a reconstruction of the original stockade, based on fragments uncovered by excavating parties. Within the stockade is a reconstruction of a log cabin hospital.

Mount Washington Tavern (L), 18.1 miles, housing the Park Museum (open 8:30-6; remnants of the original fort; Colonial household utensils, military equipment, and Indian relics), is a two-and-a-half-story red brick building. Erected prior to 1820 for use as a stage station, it was converted into a museum in 1932.

Braddock's Grave (R), 19.4 miles, is marked by a granite monument surrounded by an iron rail and guarded by evergreens. A footpath in the rear of the monument leads to the spot where General Edward Braddock was reputedly buried beneath a tree called 'Braddock's Oak.'

General Braddock, one-time officer of the Coldstream Guards, having been appointed commander-in-chief of all British troops in North America, arrived in Virginia in February 1755 to oppose the French in the Ohio Valley. The Colonies had agreed to supplement his force of British regulars, but 3,000 promised Pennsylvania recruits were slow in being mustered. Through Franklin's intercession the British obtained 150 wagons and 250 pack horses.

On May 10 Braddock, with 1,400 regulars, 700 Colonial troops, and some sailors, began to lay a military road from Fort Cumberland to Fort Duquesne. In one month he had reached Little Meadows. Irked by the slow rate of progress, he divided his force and pressed forward with 1,400 men. On his staff was George Washington, serving as a volunteer. Meantime, Contrecoeur was preparing to withdraw from Fort Duquesne. Although the fort was sturdily constructed and capable of withstanding a prolonged infantry siege, the French feared Braddock's artillery. Beaujeu, who had just arrived to take command of Duquesne, determined to attack the British at the crossing of the Monongahela River. He took with him 70 French regulars, 150 Canadians, and more than 600 Indians.

After preliminary skirmishing on July 9 near the Monongahela River (not far from the present borough of Braddock), a hail of bullets and arrows was loosed into the flanks of the British advance guard. At the sound of firing, Braddock ordered the main body forward on the double. Panic had seized the advance guard and so great was the confusion that British bullets cut down many British troops. Braddock saw Virginians coolly firing from cover, and the more nimble-minded British imitating them, but the sight of British regulars fighting from behind trees horrified him, and amid the death-dealing rain he gave order to form ranks. In spite of his heroic efforts the rout was complete. Sixty-three officers and 184 men lay dead or wounded. Braddock himself was shot, some say by a provincial soldier named Thomas Faucett. Faucett's brother was one of those who had taken cover, and the general had struck him with a sword.

The remnant of Braddock's army fell back, with Washington trying vainly to organize a rear guard. Braddock was carried along and on July 13 died near the present site of his grave. Washington read the services and then, it is said, wagons were driven over the grave to conceal it from the Indians. The burial place has never been indisputably marked. In 1812 a skeleton with military trappings was unearthed near Braddock's Run. Some of the larger bones were taken as relics. In 1820 all were returned and buried here.

The route, surrounded by attractively rugged country, tops Chestnut Ridge (2,418 alt), 22.7 miles.

Hopwood, 26 miles, (1,136 alt., 1,500 pop.), a mining and coke-producing center at the base of Chestnut Ridge, consists of stone, brick, and frame houses, many quite old. John Hopwood founded the town in 1791.

Uniontown, 28.3 miles, (1,023 alt, 19,544 pop.), in a wild setting at the foot of the Alleghenies, is one of the bituminous coal centers in Pennsylvania. The rambling city of narrow streets has an appearance of prosperity. Coal, iron, lumber, natural gas, and glass, radiator, and textile manufacture contribute to its income. Only a few of the once flourishing beehive coke ovens (see Tour 14D) are active.

In 1784, 15 years after the town had been founded by young Henry Beeson, a Quaker, General Ephraim Douglas wrote: “This Uniontown is the most obscure spot on the face of the globe... The town and its appurtenances consist of... a courthouse and schoolhouse in one, a mill ...four taverns, three smith shops, five retail shops, two Tanyards, one saddler's shop, two hatter's shops, one mason, one cake woman, two widows and some reputed maids. To which may be added a distillery.” Uniontown, situated on Redstone Creek, was incorporated as a borough in 1796 and as a city in 1916.

In Uniontown, is a junction with US 119 (see Tour 14D), and with State 51 (see Tour 20).

As originally planned, US 40 was to follow a straight line to Wheeling, but objections were so strenuous that its course was altered to have it pass through Uniontown and Washington.

Coal mines are visible west of Uniontown. At 32.7 miles are (L) rows of abandoned coke ovens.

In Brier Hill, 36.3 miles, (1,080 alt., 125 pop.), is (L) the Colley Tavern (private), a two-and-a-half-story stone house with a gable roof and wooden porch, built in 1796 by Abel and Peter Colley.

Brownsville, 40.7 miles, (000 alt., 8,183 pop.), combined with South Brownsville borough since 1933, an industrial community on a slope above the Monongahela River, was an early boatbuilding center. The Comet, built here in 1813, was the first steamer to navigate the Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers, making a successful trip to New Orleans early in 1814. The Enterprise, second boat built at Brownsville, was the first steam vessel to come up the rivers as far as Louisville.

The site of Redstone Old Fort, an early Indian fortification, was chosen in 1758 by Colonel James Burd for his stockade, and a town was founded in 1785 by Thomas and Basil Brown. To thousands of westward-bound emigrants the early settlement here marked the end of their journey's most toilsome stage, and the gleaming bosom of the Monongahela signified travel less hazardous and far less wearying than that over the mountains.

The Whiskey Rebellion began to simmer on July 27,1791, when a group assembled here in Brownsville to protest the four pence per gallon impost laid on whiskey by the new Federal Government. Corn was only one sixth as valuable as whiskey of equivalent bulk, and farmers found it profitable to convert surplus corn into whiskey for shipment to the East; the excise ate up the profit. Trials and tax protest hearings were held in Philadelphia, and farmers refused to waste precious time in traveling. After the Brownsville meeting others were held in various places. The excise was not paid; there was talk of secession; revenue collectors were manhandled, and several persons were killed in riots. Matters ran along thus until the autumn of 1794 when General Daniel Morgan reached Uniontown at the head of 13,000 Federal troops under orders to collect the excise and quell resistance. The Rebellion soon subsided.

The Brownsville Iron Bridge, Market St. near Bank, was built in 1836-9 of iron forged in local furnaces. A tablet asserts that it was the first iron bridge west of the Alleghenies. Henry Clay, on one of his journeys, was dumped into the bed of Dunlap's Creek here when his carriage overturned. According to a local chronicler, Clay “gathered himself up with the remark that Clay and mud should not be mixed in that place again.” Shortly after Clay returned to his senatorial duties in Washington an order was issued for the construction here of an “iron span, carrying the road high above the stream.”

The Playford House (private), 2nd and Market Sts., is an impressive two-story, five-bay brick house with full basement above ground. Although designed with Greek Revival detail, the mansion, with its double winding stairway leading up to the entrance portal, has the character of a Post-Colonial town house. The deeply recessed doorway is flanked by Doric columns which rise in support of an iron-railed balcony at the second story. A small doorway under the entrance stoop leads into the basement.

St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, 6th and Church Sts., erected in 1845, has been admirably restored. The design of this massive stone church recalls the steepled parish churches of Ireland and England. The lofty front tower, with its corner buttressed and octagonal spire, the tiny gabled vestibule at one side, and the rustic interior, with its hammer-beam timber ceiling, carved baptismal font, and altar, are all in keeping with the Gothic tradition.

West Brownsville, 41.1 miles, (774 alt., 1,717 pop.), laid out in 1831 by Ephraim L. Blaine, is dependent chiefly on coal mining; railroad repair shops provide additional employment. Ephraim's son, James G. Blaine, born here in 1830, became a noted statesman. As candidate of the Republican party, he almost defeated Grover Cleveland for the presidency in 1884.

The route traverses farm country, and frequent vantage points afford wide views.

Centerville, 46.1 miles, (1,160 alt., 6,467 pop.), laid out in 1821 as a pike town, was named for its position between Uniontown and Washington. The first settlement on the land now within the borough of Centerville was made in 1766. Attractive frame and brick houses, surrounded by spacious grounds, line the highway. Farming and mining provide the chief income.

The Madonna of the Trail (R), 48.4 miles, is a memorial statue of heroic mold dedicated to the pioneer mothers of the covered wagon days. It depicts a bonneted woman with a baby in her arms and a boy clutching her skirts.

Scenery Hill, 52.3 miles, (1,750 alt., 253 pop.), a scattering of frame and brick houses, affords a splendid prospect of valley farm lands against a background of ridges. The two-and-a-half-story stone Hill Tavern (R) was built in 1794, nine years after first settlement, by George Hill.

Between Scenery Hill and Washington the winding route traverses countryside devoted principally to sheep raising. An occasional oil working is visible.

At 61.7 miles, is a junction with US 19 (see Tour 18), which unites with US 40 as far as Washington.

Washington, 64.1 miles, (1,039 alt., 24,545 pop.), situated on a number of hills and surrounded by oil, clay, limestone, sand, and bituminous coal deposits, and a fertile agricultural region, is a flourishing industrial city. Among the principal products of its numerous glass factories are decorative opal glass, food containers, wire glass, and table glassware. The site, once known as Catfish's Camp, was a Delaware Indian village, the headquarters of Chief Tingoocqua. A town laid out in 1781 shortly became the county seat of newly created Washington County. Incorporated as a borough in 1810, Washington was chartered as a city in 1924.

The David Bradford House, 173 S.Main St., erected in 1787, was the scene of many Whiskey Rebellion meetings. When the insurrection collapsed, Bradford, one of the leaders, fled to Louisiana. The first floor of this two-story rough gray stone house, of Post-Colonial design, is occupied by a grocery.

The LeMoyne House (private), 49 E. Maiden St., built in 1812, was the home of Dr. Francis J. LeMoyne (1798-1879), professor at Washington College, leading abolitionist, and one-time candidate for the vice presidency. A two-story gray stone structure of Greek Revival design, its main entrance is flanked by Ionic columns. The small entrance at one side once led into the doctor's office. The house originally had a setback at the third floor level with a balustraded deck roof across the front.

Washington and Jefferson College, entrance at E. Wheeling and Lincoln Sts., occupies a restricted campus dotted with buildings of varying styles. Oldest institution of higher learning west of the Allegheny Mountains, it is an outgrowth of three schools established between 1780 and 1785. Student enrollment is approximately 600. The central section of the porticoed Administration Building, a two-and-a-half-story rough gray stone structure, was erected in 1793; the brick wings were added in 1816. Old Main, a large brick building, housing classrooms, laboratories, offices, and the chapel, was built about 1836, and the wings and dome were added between 1847 and 1850.

Left in Washington on Main Street to Gallows Hill, 0.7 miles, where the first hangings in Washington County took place. Here is (L) the LeMoyne Crematory (not open to visitors), a one-story brick building with a chimney at each end of its gabled roof, erected by Dr. LeMoyne in 1876 and said to be the first crematory in the United States. Local opposition forced construction men to work at night. The grave of Dr. LeMoyne, marked by a simple granite monument, is directly in front.

Oil derricks appear on the rolling uplands west of Washington. The largest coal mine on the route (R), 67.2 miles, is surrounded by piles of mine refuse and company-type houses.

Claysville, 74.2 miles, (1,001 alt., 912 pop.), a crossroads village, was named for Henry Clay, probably because he championed both the National Highway and a protective tariff on coal, once the community's chief support.

West of Claysville US 40 traverses rolling farm lands.

West Alexander, 80.4 miles, (1,450 alt., 349 pop.), a farming center on a hill overlooking part of the West Virginia Panhandle, is made up almost entirely of frame houses. Robert Humphrey, who served under Lafayette in the Revolution, founded the town in 1796 and named it for his wife, Martha Alexander Humphrey.

Lafayette Inn (now 'Ye Olde Lafayette Inn'), Main St. near Highland, built in 1783 and so named because Lafayette stopped here in 1824, is a two-and-a-half-story building painted white.

US 40 crosses the West Virginia Line, 80.9 miles, 16 miles northeast of Wheeling, WV (see West Virginia Guide).