HIGHWAYS: Ohio Express

In 1796 Ebenezer Zane, a hardy Marylander, contracted to clear a bridle path across lower Ohio in return for a land grant of 3 sq. mi.—a transaction authorized by Congress and executed by President George Washington (who owned vast tracts in eastern Ohio himself). Part of Zane's Trace became in time the National Road (now U.S. Highway 40), which linked the East with the wide-open Midwest and helped populate Ohio with a swarm of new settlers (250,000 in ten years alone). Last week, some 100 miles to the north, Ohio completed a...