In the mid-1830s he also laid out the village of Fulton, and also platted an area called "Steenrod's Island" around a paper mill constructed by Alexander Armstrong in 1836.
In 1838 as the Democratic candidate, Steenrod defeated incumbent Whig Richard W. Barton, and served in the United States House of Representatives from 1839 to 1845.
In part to counteract the initial unfavorable Supreme Court decision, voters elected Steenrod to represent Ohio, Brooke and Hancock Counties in the Virginia Senate from 1853 to 1856, which passed a law favoring the bridge.
However, his outspoken secessionist views (possibly as the result of opposition to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad which reduced traffic on the National Road), caused the Steenrod brothers to be placed under house arrest during the American Civil War.
Lewis Steenrod died of tuberculosis at his home near Wheeling, West Virginia on October 3, 1862, and his father two years later.