"The commissioners further state, that, to aid them in the extension of their route, they ran and marked a straight line from the crossing-place on the Monongahela, to Wheeling, and had progressed twenty miles, with their usual and necessary lines of experiment, in ascertaining the shortest and best connection of practical grounds, when the approach of winter and the shortness of the days afforded no expectation that they could complete the location without a needless expense in the most inclement season of the year. And, presuming that the postponement of the remaining part till the ensuing spring would produce no delay in the business of making the road, they were induced to retire from it for the present. "The great length of time already employed in this business makes it proper for the commissioners to observe that, in order to connect the best grounds with that circumspection which the importance of the duties confided to them demanded, it became indispensably necessary to run lines of experiment and reference in various directions, which exceed an average of four times the distance located for the route, and that, through a country so irregularly broken, and crowded with very thick underwood in many places, the work has been found so incalculably tedious that, without an adequate idea of the difficulty, it is not easy to reconcile the delay. "It is proper to mention that an imperious call from the private concerns of Commissioner Joseph Kerr, compelled him to return home on the 29th of November, which will account for the want of his signature to this report. "All of which is, with due deference, submitted, this 15th day of January, 1808. ELI WILLIAMS, THOMAS MOORE." It was necessary to obtain permission of each state through which the Cumberland Road was to be built; Pennsylvania, only, made any condition, hers being that the road touch the towns of Washington and Uniontown.[4] The first contracts were let on the eleventh and the sixteenth of April, 1811, for building the first ten miles west of Cumberland, Maryland. These contracts were completed in the year following. More were let in 1812, 1813, and 1815; and two years later contracts for all the distance to Uniontown, Pennsylvania were let. In 1818, United States Mail coaches were running between Washington, D. C. and Wheeling, Virginia. The cost of the road averaged $9,745 per mile between Cumberland and Uniontown, and $13,000 per mile for the entire division from the Potomac to the Ohio. Too liberal contracts is the reason given for the heavy expense between Uniontown and Wheeling. [Illustration: MAP OF CUMBERLAND ROAD IN PENNSYLVANIA AND MARYLAND]