The need of a comprehensive highway system, especially for the connection of the coastal belt with the Middle West, early engaged the attention of Congress. Washington seems to have fully appreciated its importance. Ten dollars a ton per hundred miles for cost of haulage by road, necessarily imposed a severe restriction upon the extension of markets. The Federal Congress in 1802 appropriated one-twentieth of the proceeds from the sale of Ohio lands to the construction of such highways. Gallatin's interest in the matter five years later, led to his proposal of an expenditure of $20,000,000 for the purpose. The Cumberland Road or "National Pike" was the result. This great highway started from near the then centre of population in Maryland and cut across the Middle West, half-way between the lakes and the Ohio river. From the upper reaches of the Potomac it followed Braddock's Old Road to Uniontown, Pennsylvania, then by Wheeling over "Zanes trace" to Zanesville, Ohio. From that point on it trended toward St. Louis by way of Columbus and Indianapolis, ending at Vandalia, Illinois. During the space of thirty years about $10,000,000 was expended upon it, and it undoubtedly did much to promote the settlement of the country. But the success of canals and railroads in the meantime sapped the vitality of the movement for further turnpike construction before St. Louis was reached. By the close of the war of 1812, in fact, it had become apparent that highways were destined to serve only as feeders after all; and not as main stems of communication.