Toll Houses & Bridges

The Addison Toll House is the only hand-cut native stone toll house in Pennsylvania; it is an authentic reflection of the structure as it existed in 1835, when toll collection began. The interior, with its original flooring and period furnishings convey a sense of what domestic life was like for the toll collector and his family. On the exterior is a hand-made sign which lists the fees for traveling the Road in 1835.

A record remains of tolls collected in 1841. Toll Collector William Condon, who lived in the house with his family, reported income of $1,758.87 for that year. His salary was $200.00 plus free living quarters.


Searights Toll House received its name from its location near the village of Searights, named for its most prominent citizen, William Searight. Owner of a prosperous tavern on the National Road , he had been a contractor for the road, and was later appointed commissioner of the Pennsylvania section, but had no connection with the toll house itself. The years immediately following the construction of the toll houses saw a never ending stream of traffic, both east and west. Wagoners, drovers, stage drivers, and mail expresses left their colorful imprints on the road's history. With the coming of the railroads to Western Pennsylvania in the 1850's, traffic over the road declined, and after the Civil War it was used chiefly for local trips. Tolls were collected until 1905. The advent of the automobile in the early twentieth century rescued the road from disrepair, and by the 1920's the National Road was reincarnated as U.S. 40. The Searights Toll House is one of two remaining of the original six commissioned toll houses in Pennsylvania.


	A unique and graceful feature along the National Road is the "S" Bridge, so named for its curved shape. The center of the structure was built at a right angle to the stream, while each end was curved back to the Road which approached at a different angle. Now restored, the double arch S-Bridge, east of Claysville in Washington County, demonstrates the superb stone masonry of the period. It is the only extant tone bridge in Pennsylvania.