Bridge

Wheeling National Heritage Area

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Around 200 years ago, America was expanding the National Road (US 40) westward to St Louis and needed a bridge across the Ohio River. It took a couple tries, but the stone suspension bridge in the foreground was completed in 1859. The modern bridge behind it has four concrete bases, but the Wheeling Suspension bridge has none. Most traffic from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic passes on I-70 over the background bridge, so you may have seen Wheeling’s longest operating suspension bridge out your window between Ohio and West Virginia.

The city of Wheeling is marvelously uncrowded with small shops and restaurants around Centre Market in the historic center of the heritage area. It’s the kind of ‘stuck in the past’ place that I love, where the sign on the old bookstore advises folks to ask at the local bar if the owner is not inside his store. They have music, boating and cultural events, and they could use a few tourists pulling off the interstate to buy a hot fish sandwich at Coleman’s Fish Market below. Recommended.

Monocacy National Battlefield

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Monocacy (a Native word for river bend) is a junction northeast of DC, and during the Civil War the 14th NJ, later known as the Monocacy Regiment (above), built two blockhouses to defend the road and rail bridges. Early in the war, secret order #191 from Robert E. Lee was discovered here, providing advance warning of his movements and gaining the Union critical time to respond at Antietam. When over 15,000 troops suddenly began marching towards DC in 1864, control of the junction became critically important.

About 6,000 mostly inexperienced soldiers were rushed here to stop the advance, under the command of Lew Wallace. General Wallace had earned both distinction at Fort Donelson and shame at Shiloh, which is why he had been relegated to defensive duties. Now, he had to hold the river crossing outnumbered 3 to 1. In fierce fighting on July 9th, Union troops fought back waves of attacks and held the bridges until the confederates crossed a shallow point a mile downriver. Then Wallace ordered the road bridge burned, recalled his men from the blockhouse across the railroad bridge and launched a counterattack on the new front. After fighting all day with 1,300 casualties, his forces were finally flanked and forced to retreat.

But, as in the case of the secret order, the Union gained time to redeploy troops to defend the Capital. After only a brief skirmish at Fort Stevens, the attack was withdrawn. General Wallace and his men lost the battle, but they saved Washington DC. Wallace went on to preside over the military tribunal for the commandant of Andersonville, but he’s best known for writing Ben Hur in 1880.