Black Swamp Heritage Articles
Bill Oliver

Vol. 1, Issue: #2
ISSN: pending
13 January 2002

Good Evening from the Black Swamp of NWoHIo,

    What is known as the "bridge across the Black Swamp" and when was it built and under what circumstances?

    The "bridge" across the Great Black Swamp was the "worst" road in the United States and had it beginnings in 1794. It began on the western edge where the present Maumee -- Perrysburg bridge stands to day, to Lower Sandusky, which is Fremont today..

    The Native Americans gave, as the result of the Battle of Fallen Timbers, a strip of land 123 feet wide for the purpose of using it as a road. It was three years later that it was surveyed and marked. Thus, on paper a road across the Black Swamp was established. For another nine years it remained just a blazed trail.

    Fallen trees and many streams made it next to impossible for wagons to travel across it. Even riders on horseback found that their mounts were belly deep in water. Finally in 1823, the Federal Government gave the "road" to the State of Ohio.

    Perrysburg, along the banks of the Maumee, envisioned their growth as a city due to this road connecting it with towns such as Fremont. So, in 1824, work on the road began in earnest. Earth was scooped from both sides to form a raised roadbed. The road was then made eight feet wide by the laying of two-inch thick planks on stringers.

    No provisions for allowing water to pass under the road were made. All the construction debris created by clearing the heavy timber was deposited on the south side of the road. In effect the construction of this road was really a gigantic dam stretching from the Maumee River to Lower Sandusky. Thus, water stood in the ditches soaking the roadbed. The planks sank into the mud.

    It remained thus until Governor Robert Lucas led the Ohio Militia over it during the "Toledo War". In abandoning some of his equipment, he clearly discovered the need to correct the situation. In 1838, the General Assembly ordered that corrections be made and the road improved. Culverts were dug to allow the passage of water through in its natural drainage flow from south to north into the great lake. It was also covered with crushed stone. This latter gave the road the new name of "the Stone Road".

    At this stage, the road did bring commerce in the form of taverns. They were located about a mile or so apart due to the struggle to travel further during the "muddy" season. In Perrysburg, the last inn was Spafford's Exchange Hotel on West Front Street.

    Limestone mile markers were placed along the road in 1842. These markers are triangular in shape. They are marked with the letters P and L S for Perrysburg and Lower Sandusky. The numbers on top, 1842, are for the year put there, not the number of distance units. One can still be found in Milestone Park at Sandusky and Hickory streets in Perrysburg. [Wonder how the park got its name? :) ]

    The road was a national turnpike and charged tolls for its upkeep. The tradition is maintained along I-80/90 yet today. The legislature turned over the road to the respective counties through which it ran in the 1870s. Since its begining it has carried every type of vehicle across the Great Black Swamp. Today, we know this road as US 20.