It was a dream of Thomas Jefferson called the National Road which put Springfield, Ohio on the map. The National Road was our country's first federally-funded interstate highway. The road started in Cumberland, MD and headed West, inching through the forests of Western Pennsylvania and Ohio toward St. Louis, MO. It got to Springfield, Ohio in 1838 then for twelve years construction on the National Road stopped from 1838-1850.

For the next decade, the "town at the end of the pike" benefited greatly from the traffic jam. Twenty stagecoaches stopped in Springfield everyday. The tavern business thrived and drinking whiskey became the most popular pastime.

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 I've found an amazing Ohio website for maps.  It has viewable highway  maps from 1912 to 2001 for Ohio. You have to download their plug-in,  and it takes a while to download a map, but the results are worth  it. You can enlarge or reduce and pan all over the map.
www.dot.state.oh.us/techservsite/availpro/gis_mapping/mrsid/
www.dot.state.oh.us/techservsite/availpro/gis_mapping/mrsid/