On U.S. Route 40 just west of New Concord, Ohio, stands an S-shaped bridge spanning a creek on the old National Road. Standing uphill from that bridge a traveler can simultaneously observe five historic transportation links that helped to build a nation:

•The original trail blazed by Ebenezer Zane, also known as "Zane's Trace."

•The brick roadbed of the old "National Road" that followed.

•The train tracks of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which nearly made that early highway obsolete.

•U.S. Route 40, built along the same route to accommodate the expanding automobile traffic of the early twentieth century.

•I-70 — the first Interstate Highway commissioned to transect the nation.

A bit further west of that bridge on U.S. 40 is the Zane Grey National Road Museum, where panoramic scenes …