English: The Braddock Road was a military road built in 1755 in what was then British America and is now the United States. It was the first improved road to cross the barrier of the successive ridgelines of the Appalachian Mountains. It was constructed by troops of Virginia militia and British regulars commanded by General Edward Braddock of the Coldstream Guards, part of an expedition to conquer the Ohio Country from the French at the beginning of the Seven Years' War. George Washington was a low ranking colonial militia officer who accompanied the expedition, which gave him his first field military experience. Some accounts credit Washington for saving the expedition, while others criticize some of his actions (especially where and how he built Fort Necessity).