Or not. That's why Ohio insisted on the Federal government agreeing to build the road as a condition for them to join the Union. And even if the "east coast bankers" were willing to float bonds with tolls to finance such a project, this would have put Ohio and every other future frontier (at the time) state at a disadvantage against their Atlantic seaboard counterparts. The Federal government had already taken on responsibility for operating and maintaining the roads through the former Thirteen Colonies under its constitutional authority over "post roads" (which had been constructed prior to the American Revolution), so a scenario where commerce could flow on "free" north-south roads between the original thirteen states, but would be subject to tolls on new east-west roads across the Appalachians, didn't make any sense at the time.
“Or not. That’s why Ohio insisted on the Federal government agreeing to build the road as a condition for them to join the Union. And even if the “east coast bankers” were willing to float bonds with tolls to finance such a project, this would have put Ohio and every other future frontier (at the time) state at a disadvantage against their Atlantic seaboard counterparts.”
More nonsense. The only reason the politicians step in is (a) not ‘cause something wouldn’t get done, but (b) the politicians want in on the credit, and (c) the bankers and crony-capitalists are flattering the politicians with the myth that “they are needed” to (d) save their own profits and (e) get the taxpayers to take all the risk. Without that whole charade, if it wasn’t done, then most likely it wasn’t needed after all or some real capitalists would see the reward and take all the reward by doing it themselves.