Ground was broken May 6, 1755, when only ten men reported for work under command of James Burd. By the 15th there were seventy men at work and by the end of the month 120.
Mr. Burd was in sole charge of the work at the outset, the other commissioners being too busy—Croghan with the Indian contingent ordered by Braddock, Armstrong with complications growing out of the purchase of 1754 and Buchanan and Hoopes with their private affairs.
The road was built thirty feet wide for about ten miles, when it was determined to make it twenty feet, and parts requiring digging or quarrying only ten feet.
Twenty days were required to make the road from Anthony Thompson’s to Sideling Hill, a distance of nineteen miles. William Smith was commissioned to assist Mr. Burd and reported May 28.
Much of the money required for the work was supplied by Joseph Armstrong and Samuel Smith, members of the Assembly from Cumberland County, from their private purse, for the Legislature held its pursestrings with a tight grip. The workmen at times suffered for the want of bread and liquor.
By June 16, Mr. Burd wrote from “Alloqueepy’s Town,” thirty-four and a half miles from Thompson’s, that he expected to finish the work there the next day, and join the advance division, under Smith, at Raystown.
The Indians menaced the work at this time and Braddock, who at first refused aid, sent 100 men, under Captain Hogg, as a guard. The soldiers came none too soon.
As Braddock penetrated the Alleghenies, Indian ravages began in his rear. True to their character, the savages spared neither sex nor age. The soldiers deserted and the workmen were unprotected and in constant danger.
By July 5 the road was completed to the eastern base of the Alleghenies.
On the day that Braddock’s body was buried at Great Meadows, John Armstrong wrote to him from Carlisle to say that the new road would soon be completed. It was too late. Braddock had no further need for a road, except a spot for a burial place in that great highway over which he had marched to defeat with so much military pomp.