Zanesville is a city in and the county seat of Muskingum County , Ohio , United States . The population was 25,586 at the 2000 census . Zanesville was named after Ebenezer Zane , who had constructed Zane's Trace , a pioneer road through present-day Ohio. He settled in the area in 1797 with his son-in-law, John McIntire , at the point where Zane's Trace met the Muskingum River . From 1810-1812, the city was the second state capital of Ohio. The National Road runs through Zanesville as U.S. Route 40. Novelist Zane Grey , a descendant of the Zane family, was born in the city. The city has two engineering landmarks: the Muskingum River Canal, designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark ; and the Zanesville Y-Bridge , the only such structure in the United States still in use and listed on the National Register of Historic Places .
