As early as the year 1822 it is recorded that a single one of the five commission houses at Wheeling unloaded one thousand and eighty-one wagons, averaging three thousand five hundred pounds each, and paid for freightage of goods the sum of ninety thousand dollars.
But the road was hardly completed when a specter of constitutional cavil arose, threatening its existence. In 1822 a bill was passed by Congress looking toward the preservation and repair of the newly-built road. It should be stated that the roadbed, though completed in one sense, was not in condition to be used extensively unless continually repaired. In many places only a single layer of broken stone had been laid, and, with the volume of traffic which was daily passing over it, the road did not promise to remain in good condition. In order to secure funds for the constant repairs necessary, this bill ordered the establishment of turnpikes with gates and tolls. The bill was immediately vetoed by President Monroe on the ground that Congress, according to his interpretation of the constitution, did not have the power
