 The town was the western terminus of both the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike and the Northwestern Turnpike.In 1857 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built a branch line south to the town from Wheeling, West Virginia.Travelers wanting to connect with the Ohio Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, one of the east–west lines along the Ohio River, had to take a steamboat 14 miles north to Marietta, Ohio.