For a time the power of
Pittsburgh and the activity of Philadelphia merchants sustained the
importance of the Pennsylvania turnpike. Until Great Lake steam
navigation developed and population spread along the shore of Lake
Erie and canals joined the Ohio and the lakes, the Erie Canal did
not reap its harvest of trade in the west. But already Pennsylvania
was alarmed at the prospect of losing her commercial ascendancy.
While New York and Philadelphia were developing canals and turnpikes
to reach the west, Baltimore was placed in an awkward position. The
attempts to improve the waters of the upper Potomac engaged the
interests of Maryland and Virginia from the days of Washington. But
the success of the Potomac Company, chartered jointly by these two
states in an effort to reach the Ohio trade, would have turned
traffic towards the city of Washington and its outlying suburbs
instead of towards Baltimore, which was already connected by a
turnpike with the Cumberland Road, so as to share with Philadelphia
in the wagon trade to the Ohio.
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