3d. That contracts have been made for opening one-half of the breadth of said road, which, as verbally informed by one of the commissioners, will require about $3,000, leaving, probably, about $12,000 of the appropriation for the further improvement of the road.
4th. That the portion of the road actually located and confirmed, no part of which exceeds an angle of five degrees, extends from the navigable waters of the Potomac, at Cumberland, to the navigable waters of the Monongahela, at Brownsville (Red Stone Old Fort), and it is stated, though no official report has been made to me, at about seventy miles.
5th. That that road can be considered as a national object only if completed as a turnpike, whereby all the flour and other produce of the western adjacent countries may be brought to a market on the Atlantic shores; and the transportation of all the salt and other commodities and merchandise whatever, imported from the Atlantic ports to the western country generally, may be reduced probably one dollar per cwt.
And, Lastly, that the expense of completing that part of the road in such manner, is estimated at $400,000.
I have the honor to be, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
ALBERT GALLATIN.
Hon. John Montgomery, of Maryland, Chairman, etc., in Congress.
Committee Room, Dec. 22, 1808.
Sir: The committee appointed on the message of the President, transmitting a report of the commissioners concerning a road from Cumberland to Ohio, have directed me to request that you would cause to be laid before them such information as may be in possession of the Treasury Department respecting the fund applicable by law to “the laying out and making public roads leading from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic, to the Ohio,” etc. (1) The unexpended balance of the $30,000 appropriated by the act of the 29th of March, 1806; (2) The amount of moneys, exclusive of the above, now in the treasury, and in the hands of the receiver of public moneys, applicable to that object; and (3) an estimate of the probable amount of moneys that will accrue to the fund within the two succeeding years.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
JEREMIAH MORROW.