The history of Braddocks Road begins long before the road itself existed. For several hundreds, but more likely, thousands of years, native peoples (later dubbed Indians by Christopher Columbus) living in what would eventually become the United States and Canada, made their way across the vast land of North America, traveling back and forth through the dense forest, for peaceful purposes of commerce and trade, and also for inter-tribal war, using an established, well marked and intricately laid out system of trails that were really nothing more than footpaths. Wide enough for single file foot traffic only, these trails were fairly numerous in number, and the main North-South, and East-West ones were well traveled by the numerous tribes who inhabited the country. Many of these trails and paths met at or near the Forks of the Ohio River (modern day Pittsburgh). Some of the better known trails/paths are: the Venango Path, the Warriors Path, the Kittanning Trail, the Tuscarora Path, the Catawba Trail, the Great Shamokin Path, and the Nemacolin Trail (the Braddock Road followed a great length of the Nemacolin Trail). The arrival of European settlers initially had very little, if any effect on these trails. Only a few of the hardiest of these white skinned souls dared venture farther than earshot or eyesight of the small settlements that had been established along the Eastern coastline. These few became the trappers, mountain-men, and explorers of the day, and like the Indians, used the network of trails and paths to move by land from place to place. Early explorers and traders in the region such as Thomas Cresap, Christopher Gist, and George Croghan were quite familiar with the existing trails, and in some cases, assisted by, or assisting friendly natives, blazed new ones.

As the early coastal settlements developed into larger towns and cities, migration to what was the Wilderness began in earnest, and the old paths were found to be inadequate, often even too narrow for a horse, so migrating settlers made them wider and they became packhorse trails, and in a very few cases, eventually wagon roads. But farther West in the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains, passable roads such as these were practically non-existent.

The Indians and explorer/traders werent totally dependent on land travel alone however; they quite easily navigated the major North American Rivers and lakes, and their tributaries. The Hudson, St. Lawrence, Allegheny, Monongahela, the Ohio, and the mighty Mississippi were heavily traveled, as were the Great Lakes. The extensive water system, stretching from the Atlantic coast to central Canada and the American Midwest, provided a natural transportation route through the rugged wilderness; one which allowed Indians and traders alike to quickly and easily cross much of the continent. Where necessary, one or more dry land portages connected the Great Lakes with water systems leading to the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, the Gulf of Mexico and even the Great Plains. These "carrying places" around rapids, waterfalls, and other barriers to water transport often became focal points for waterborne trade.

Late seventeenth and early eighteenth century French explorers and traders learned well the lessons of using the vast number of navigable waterways and were thus less dependent solely on travel by land. Exploring as far West as the Mississippi River, and all the way south to Louisiana to what would become New Orleans, they constructed large, flat-bottomed boats called bateaux, which allowed them to move bigger, heavier loads than had been previously possible using even the largest Indian canoes. This ability to move goods quickly and cheaply up and down rivers allowed French trade to flourish throughout the entire region. But the French needed the Ohio valley, not just simply for commercial purposes, but also as a vital link between Canada, their Louisiana holdings, and their fledgling colony in the Illinois country.

Soon however, English migration and additional settlement farther inland away from the Atlantic coast made places like Frederick, Maryland, Carlisle and Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, and Winchester, Virginia the outposts of their respective colonies. The fur trade, as well as trading in common goods blossomed, and commerce between the English and Indians soon proved prosperous. By the early 1740s, in French Canada and in the British colonies to the south, governmental awareness of the importance of North America and its vast, untapped resources and the riches of the Indian trade had become readily apparent, both sides eager to stake claims to the prizes. In Paris and London, efforts were launched that each side hoped would ensure their success in securing the vast wealth of the North American continent for themselves the foundation of conflict was being laid.