The trail system linking Cumberland and the Pittsburgh metropolitan area provides visitors with an opportunity to travel through and learn about a region important to the development of national culture and politics. In the history of the United States and the former colonies, travel routes through the region are closely identified with George Washington and his vision of the Potomac River as the ideal pathway for westward expansion, a trade route linking the Atlantic Ocean to the interior of the continent: The region played a central role in the evolution of the United States beyond the maritime colonies envisioned by European interests. In this context, interpretation in the trail corridor can be grounded in the historical and geographic significance of transportation routes developed to make connections between the Chesapeake Bay (and major eastern markets) and the upper Ohio River Basin.

The history of the region and, not insignificantly, the tangible character of the trail corridor itself highlights the concept of "the frontier" in American culture and the westward migration of Anglo-American society into the trans-Appalachian region of the continent.

Geology Information:

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/pub/pageolmag/pdfs/v31n1.pdf  (See page 14)