Braddock Road Trace at Fort Necessity National Battlefield

See the Hiking Trails web page for a trail map.

After George Washington’s defeat at Fort Necessity on July 3, 1754, a battle which began the French and Indian War, the British had no confidence that a colonial militia could defeat the French, so two regiments of British regulars under the command of General Edward Braddock were sent to America. They arrived in Virginia in February 1755. Braddock was tasked with removing the French from Fort Duquesne, which was located where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers merge to form the Ohio River (modern-day Pittsburgh), a key position to controlling the area. However, to do so he first had to build a road so his men, supply wagons, and artillery could get there.

Before his defeat at Fort Necessity, George Washington had been building a road that followed an Indian trail called Nemacolin’s Path. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, Braddock simply widened and extended what Washington had built. The road began at Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River and ended at the Monongahela River near present-day Braddock, Pennsylvania.

The Braddock Road Trace is a short segment of the original road within Fort Necessity National Battlefield that has not been lost to weeds or paved over by Route 40. Of course, in the 1700s a “road” was basically a wide, dirt trail, and that’s exactly what remains today. The trail runs uphill west to east and now serves as a conduit for hikers to get to other trails in the park; it’s not a trail that anyone would hike on its own. If starting a hike from the benches near the reconstructed Fort Necessity, the trail you take dead ends into the Braddock Road Trace. Turn left to get to the Inner Meadow Trail or right to get to the Forest Trail.

Sign marking the historic Braddock Road at Fort Necessity National Battlefield

Back to the Top