A Little Bethesda History
from William Offutt's Bethesda - A Social History
"When General
Edward Braddock was headed for Fort Duquesne to put down the
trouble young George Washington the year before, he may have
stopped his six-horse coach in Bethesda of April 19-20,
1755, but there is no record of it. The road he traveled is
now called Wisconsin Avenue and Rockville Pike, but in those
days it also included part of Belt Road from Tenleytown and
followed what is now Old Georgetown Road from Bethesda. Part
of Braddock’s force went up the Virginia side of the Potomac
and some units may well have traveled north on River Road;
in fact, the Daughters of the American are sure of it. For
many years folks claimed that the ghosts of that ill-starred
army tramped past the Loughborough property along River
Road’s hills.
During the
French and Indian War, the County suffered a number of
Indian scares, but there was no real fighting in the
Bethesda area. Several local men, notably the Magruders,
served bravely, and Marylanders played an important part in
the 1759 capture of what became Fort Pitt in that ‘miracle
year.’
The lure of
new land along with the despoiling of local farms led many
to head West over the next hundred years. And much of the
travel began along the twelve-foot wide road Braddock's men
built or improved carry his artillery to defeat, the one the
Madonna of the Trail watches today."
