Great Wagon Road

The Great Wagon Road, which ran from Pennsylvania to Georgia, was one of the most heavily traveled major routes for settlers in all America.

Beginning in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Great Wagon Road ran through the southern Pennsylvania region today known as Pennsylvania Dutch Country, passing through the towns of Lancaster and York. The road crossed South Mountain, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and entered the Cumberland Valley, part of the Great Appalachian Valley. Turning southwest, the road crossed the Potomac River and continued southwest through the Shenandoah Valley, following an old Native American path. The Shenandoah portion of the road is also known as the Valley Pike. South of Shenandoah Valley, the road reached the Roanoke River at the town of Big Lick (today, Roanoke, Virginia).

From there, the Great Wagon Road passed through the Roanoke River Gap to the east side of the Blue Ridge, and continued south through the Piedmont region and the present-day North Carolina towns of Winston-Salem, Salisbury, and Charlotte, ultimately reaching Augusta, Georgia on the Savannah River.

South of Roanoke, the Great Wagon Road was also called the Carolina Road.

At Roanoke a road forked southwest, leading into the upper New River Valley and on to the Holston River in the upper Tennessee Valley, from which the Wilderness Road led into Kentucky.