National Road in the context of "Wheeling, West Virginia"

A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like mileage signs; or they can give their position on the route relative to some datum location (a zero milepost). On roads they are typically located at the side or in a median or central reservation. They are alternatively known as mile markers (sometimes abbreviated MMs), mileposts or mile posts (sometimes abbreviated MPs). A "kilometric point" is a term used in metricated areas, where distances are commonly measured in kilometres instead of miles. "Distance marker" is a generic unit-agnostic term.

Columbus (/kəˈlʌmbəs/, kə-LUM-bəs) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a population of 905,748 at the 2020 census, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., second-most populous city in the Midwest (after Chicago), and third-most populous U.S. state capital (after Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas). The Columbus metropolitan area, with an estimated 2.23 million residents, is the largest metropolitan area entirely in Ohio and 32nd-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County; it also extends into Delaware and Fairfield counties.

Columbus originated as several Native American settlements along the Scioto River. The first European settlement was Franklinton, now a city neighborhood, in 1797. Columbus was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers and was named after Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. It was planned as the state capital due to its central location and officially became the capital in 1816. The city grew steadily through the 19th century as a transportation and industrial hub via the National Road, Ohio and Erie Canal, and several railroads. Starting in the 1950s, Columbus experienced rapid suburban growth, becoming Ohio's largest city by area and population by the early 1990s.

The Wilderness Road was one of two principal routes used by colonial and early national era settlers to reach Kentucky from the East. Although this road goes through the Cumberland Gap into southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee, the other (more northern route) is sometimes called the "Cumberland Road" because it started in Fort Cumberland in Maryland. Despite Kentucky Senator Henry Clay's advocacy of this route early in the 19th century, the northern route was selected for the National Road, connecting near Washington, Pennsylvania into the Ohio Valley of northern Kentucky and Ohio.

In 1775, Daniel Boone blazed a trail for the Transylvania Company from Fort Chiswell in Virginia through the Cumberland Gap. It was later lengthened, following Indian trails, to reach the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville. The Wilderness Road was steep, rough and narrow. It could be traversed only on foot or horseback. By contrast, wagons could travel along the National Road route (originally the Braddock Road blazed by the competing Ohio Company and George Washington circa 1750), particularly after the improvements.

Internal improvements is the term used historically in the United States for public works from the end of the American Revolution through much of the 19th century, mainly for the creation of a transportation infrastructure: roads, turnpikes, canals, harbors and navigation improvements. This older term carries the connotation of a political movement that called for the exercise of public spirit as well as the search for immediate economic gain. Improving the country's natural advantages by developments in transportation was, in the eyes of George Washington and many others, a duty incumbent both on governments and on individual citizens.