Maryland and Illinois were connected through the U.S. National Road. The National Road was the first major managed road in the United States built by the federal government. Carried out between 1811 and 1837, the 1,000-kilometer route connected the Potomac and the Ohio River and was one of the western tracks for thousands of settlers.
Construction began westward in 1811 at Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River, and ended in 1937 in Vandalia, Illinois, the capital of the Illinois Territory.
