7/6/15 - Confluence, PA

Jim made breakfast sandwiches for us this morning and worked on the blog.  I paid mom’s bills.  Our first stop this morning was to see Mount Washington Tavern again to see the inside of it.  It was built in 1827 on land once owned by George Washington.  Then we stopped at General Braddock’s grave.  He was wounded and later died during the Battle of the Wilderness in 1755.  He was buried in the middle of the road and then the troops and animals walked over the grave to remove any indication of it.  This was done to keep the Indians from digging him up and desecrating his body.  During the repairing of the National Road in 1804 they found his remains and reburied them on the adjacent hill and erected a monument.

The other National Historic Site in the area was Friendship Hill, a house built by Albert Gallatin. We took a tour of the home.  Gallatin was Secretary of the Treasury for 13 years,  a U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, U.S. Negotiator for the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812 with Britain, and U.S. Minister to France and Great Britain.  He helped establish the Senate Ways and Means Committee.  He reduced the National Debt from the Revolutionary War by half by reducing military costs and increasing import taxes.  He planned the financing of the Louisiana Purchase and funded the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  He helped found New York University and was president of National Bank of New York – now J.P. Morgan Chase.  We learned a lot about him.

On the way back we took a different road and stopped at VFW 747 in Point Marion.  The road took us into West Virginia and then back up into Pennsylvania where we stopped in Addison to see one of the six remaining toll booths on the National Road.  It is run by the Daughters of the American Revolution and is open by appointment only.