The Cumberland Road became instantly a great mail-route to Cincinnati and St. Louis; from these points mails were forwarded by packets to Louisville, Huntsville, Alabama, Nashville, Tennessee, and all Mississippi points. Mails from Washington reached the West in 1837 as follows: Washington to Wheeling 30 hours Washington to Columbus 45-1/2 hours Washington to Indianapolis 65-1/2 hours Washington to Vandalia 85-1/2 hours Washington to St. Louis 94 hours Nashville was reached from Louisville by packet in twenty-one hours, Mobile in eighty hours, and New Orleans in one hundred and sixty-five hours. Some of the larger appropriations for the Cumberland Road were: 1813 $140,000 1816 300,000 1819 535,000 1830 215,000 1833 459,000 1834 750,000 1835 646,186 1836 600,000 1838 459,000 The total of thirty-four appropriations from March 29, 1806, to June 17, 1844, was $6,824,919.33. The old road was well built; nothing proves this so well as the following advertisement for bids for repairing it in Ohio in 1838: "Sealed proposals will be received at Toll-gate No. 4, until the 6th day of March next, for repairing that part of the road lying between the beginning of the 23rd and end of the 42nd mile, and if suitable bids are obtained, and not otherwise, contracts will be made at Bradshaw's hotel in Fairview, on the 8th. Those who desire contracts are expected to attend in person, in order to sign their bonds. "On this part of the Road three hundred rods or upwards (82-1/2 cubic feet each) will be required on each mile, of the best quality of limestone, broken evenly into blocks not exceeding four ounces in weight each; and specimens of the material proposed must be furnished, in quantity not less than six cubic inches, broken and neatly put up in a box, and accompanying each bid; which will be returned and taken as the standard, both as it regards the quality of the material and the preparation of it at the time of measurement and inspection. "The following conditions will be mutually understood as entering into, and forming a part of the contract, namely: The 23, 24, and 25 miles to be ready for measurement and inspection on the 25th of July; the 26, 27, and 28 miles on the 1st of August; the 29, 30, and 31 miles on the 15th of August; the 32, 33, and 34 miles on the 1st of September; the 35, 36, 37 miles on the 15th of September; the 38, 39, and 40 miles on the 1st of October; and the 41 and 42 miles, if let, will be examined at the same time.