US 40, like all highways ending in zeros, traverses the entire country from east to west. Actually, US 40 used to cross the continent from Atlantic City to San Francisco, but changes came, and now it peters out ingloriously somewhere in the Nevada desert. Here's a view of Uniontown from US 40, as it snakes up the flanks of Chestnut Ridge.
It's an old road, far older than the storied (and now defunct) Route 66 from Illinois to California. The National Pike follows portions of Braddock's Road...which was carved out of the forest in the 1750s and ran from Cumberland, Maryland, to downtown Pittsburgh. But because US 40 had Francisco as its western terminus, rather than Los Angeles, it enjoys less celebrity. This weird old monument to the military gave me the willies. It sits in the side yard of the derelict old house, below.
Especially between Uniontown and Brownsville, there are many large stone farmhouses. Of course, Brownsville, on the Monongahela River, might not look for much these days, but it's a very old settlement, dating back as far as 1754. This stone farmhouse sits abandoned; look close and you'll see the monument to the military beside it, and an unsightly coal pit behind it.
This odd structure is one of the six original tollhouses that lined the Pennsylvania portion of the National Pike. It was constructed in the 1830s. In the days before EZPass, travelers would stop here to pay for using the roadway.
Just southeast of Uniontown, heading east, you make a long, slow climb to the top of Chestnut Ridge, the first and least glorious summit in the Allegheny Mountains. At the top of this long, low, narrow mountain sits the slightly faded Summit Inn, an erstwhile mountain retreat for wealthy Pittsburghers. It's closed from late fall to mid-spring, much like the hotel in The Shining. This isn't a very good shot, but you can see the two towers. There are many mansions, inns, log cabins, and gracious old homes along US 40.
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