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John & Annie Historic Site Museum |
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Historic S-Bridge |
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As settlement moved west, much of the land traffic into Ohio and beyond followed Zane's Trace and later the National Road. New Concord, Ohio, grew up along the old National Road. In fact, the arrival of the National Road brought New Concord to life. When work began on the road in the 1820s, David Findley, the major property owner in the area, anticipated the opportunity it would bring and in March 1828 laid out the town. Soon the place, which sat astride the new road, was a stage stop and the site of several businesses. Even today, remnants of the old road are present in the town. To both the east and west, imposing stone-arched bridges configured like an "S" recall the days when travel moved at the speed of a horse's gait, and stone mile markers remind all of a time when distance to nearby towns was measured in hours, not minutes. The National Road Museum and the many historic markers along its berm tell the road's story in vivid detail. One marker, just to the west of New Concord in the Village or Norwich, recounts the details of the first traffic fatality, a scholar crushed when a stagecoach tumbled off the road. Beyond Norwich, the National Road Museum houses displays of wagons, automobiles, and models that bring the story of the road to life. In the 20th century, the National Road, now US Route 40, brought tourists and trucks where settlers, salesmen, teamsters, and drovers had once traveled. It also brought John Hershel Glenn, his wife Clara, and their new son John to town. Glenn was looking for business opportunity as a plumbing contractor. The Glenns built a house overlooking the road and the old "S" bridge that spanned Crooked Creeks and set about rearing a family. Aside from the National Road, Muskingum College has been perhaps the most important feature on New Concord's landscape. Chartered in 1837 as the successor to the Union Academy, the college has educated generations of teachers, ministers, and scholars. William Rainey Harper, noted Biblical scholar and founding president of the University of Chicago, is one Muskingum's most notable graduates. His boyhood home remains on Main Street near the entrance to Muskingum and is open as a museum. Like much of the Midwest, New Concord became embroiled in the slavery and states' rights controversies that would lead to the Civil War. When the war erupted in 1861, the town's young men marched off to join the armies, while those too old to answer the call to arms remained at home to watch the steady stream of military traffic that flowed along the road. With the college and the National Road as its anchors, New Concord became the quintessential American small town during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It changed as railroads and then automobiles appeared and the college grew. But as John Glenn would observe in his 1999 autobiography, the town remained a place that embodied the soul, patriotism, and ambitions of the nation. Indeed, until America entered the space age, New Concord was a place to pass through, a pleasant but unremarkable town to those who did not call it home. This would change on February 20, 1962, when John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. America then heard of and glimpsed New Concord. The celebration that followed Glenn's successful orbit included a parade down Main Street that figuratively put millions of Americans on the town's sidewalks. Over the years, Glenn repeatedly brought the country back to his hometown as he returned to New Concord to make important political and personal announcements. From its streets, for example, he launched a bid for the U.S. Senate and the White House and concluded his second space odyssey. But Glenn's exploits were not New Concord's first contact with the cosmos. On May 1, 1860, about midday, meteorites rained down on the town. One local historian commented, "If any honor accompanies a fall of meteorites, New Concord is welcome to it," since meteorites were "the only tangible samples we have from outer space." Little did he know that 102 years later New Concord would be sending one of its sons to explore the realm of the meteorites! As the 21st century begins, New Concord, the town that became synonymous with astronauts and space flight, plans to open a museum that includes the John Glenn home. Its goal will be telling the next generation of travelers who pass through New Concord the story of the town and its most famous citizen. It will remind modern travelers that they join Conestoga teamsters, Civil War soldiers, countless immigrants, scholars, and astronauts who have traveled down the town's Main Street into the pages of American history. Just before entering New Concord, another 'S' bridge stands off of the now heavily beaten path of Route 40. The bridge is similar to the one located in Claysville and Cambridge. However, this one has been restored in magnificent condition. This is the Fox Creek 'S' Bridge. Paved in brick, the bridge, located at the intersection of OH 83 and US 40, has a renewed life that future generations can enjoy. The Fox Creek Bridge was the last segment of the National Road to be paved in brick in 1919. The National Road from Maryland to Illinois was paved in brick during the 1910s for military vehicles. |