the boat-building and marine engine shops, among the biggest
interests of Brownsville, kept in the lead until well into the days of
the Civil War.

Now, reader, will you not be a bit abashed to ask: "Where is
Brownsville?"

To Henry Clay belongs the credit of first urging Congress to appropriate
funds to build the National Road, but to Albert Gallatin, who was from
the Brownsville section and achieved great distinction while Treasurer
of the United States, belongs the honor of its conception. He was the
first to advocate the great benefits that would accrue to the country if
such a road were constructed.

Washington, when a mere youth, sent to England a report urging the
advisability of a military road from the coast to the Ohio River. He
suggested the Indian trail across the Allegheny Mountains. This trail
was afterwards named Braddock's Road. It should have been called
Washington's Road, as he, at the head of a detachment of Virginia
troops, traversed it one year before Braddock's disastrous invasion of
the West.

All roads led to Brownsville in those days.

Did you ever hear of Workman's Hotel in Brownsville? It stands today as
it did one hundred years ago, at the head of Market Street. It has
housed Jackson, Harrison, Clay, Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, James K.
Polk, Shelly, Lafayette, Winfield Scott, Pickens, John C. Calhoun, and
hundreds of others of less note.

James Workman, the landlord of this old house of entertainment, was
noted for his hospitality and punctuality. When "Old Hickory" Jackson,
on his way to Washington to be inaugurated President--for be it
remembered the old "pike" was the only highway between the East and
West--was Workman's guest, the citizens of Brownsville tendered the
newly elected President a public reception. The Presbyterian Church was
crowded, the exercises long drawn out. During their progress, Jimmy
Workman stalked down the middle aisle. Facing about, after passing the
pew in which General Jackson sat, he said, in a voice plainly heard all
over the church:

"General Jackson, dinner is ready and if you do not come soon it won't
be fit to eat."

So great was Workman's devotion to his guests that he imagined the
dinner was more essential than speeches or prayers, and such was the
respect for the famous landlord that the services were curtailed.

Brownsville and Bridgeport were boroughs separated by Dunlap's Creek,
spanned by the first iron bridge built in America. It is st