The Romans built 50,000 miles of roads to all major European cities so they could reach their conquered lands easily, move troops if necessary, and keep in touch with their armies. The roads were intended to protect the empire, not encourage trade, but since they were so well constructed, it was possible to transport goods over them quickly and economically. Nothing stopped the Roman road builders from using the most direct route. When they came to river, they built a bridge. At a marsh, they filled the bog, and they tunneled through hills that stood in their way. Built to last, messengers on horseback could make a hundred miles a day, and goods could be shipped from England to Rome in thirteen days, going to the coast of Gaul (France) and then by road to the "Eternal City." After the fall of the Roman Empire many roads were neglected, and it was not until the twentieth century that significant road building resumed.
THE EARLIEST AMERICAN ROADS
The first roads on the land that later became the United States were trails found on the mid-west plains and in the forests along the Atlantic seaboard. Those out west were paths worn through tall grasses by buffalo and other animals as they chose the easiest routes to reach their feeding grounds, water holes, or nearby streams.
Along the Atlantic seaboard the Indians made their own trails through the forests. Most were eighteen or twenty inches wide and as the braves walked in single file along a narrow trail, they could keep hidden from enemies. This was ample width for a squaw who followed her brave, carrying all their possessions on her back.
Such paths usually followed streams, with necessary crossings being made at shallow pools or across rocks. To ascend a hill the Indian trails wound snakelike through the woods along the side of a slope, which made climbing easier. The early colonists used these trails for roads as they traveled by foot or on horseback from village to village. Gradually woodsmen widened the trails, and they then were referred to as roads.
Where a road began, a woodsman made a blaze or ax mark on some of the trees to indicate its type. One ax mark meant it was a one-chop road, wide enough for horseback riders. Once the road was broadened so two wagons could pass, two marks were blazed on the trees and it was known as a two-chop road. When the ground became smooth enough for coaches, the three ax marks designated it as a three-chop road.
Some of the early short roads between New York and Boston, called "post roads," were used by riders who carried mail from town to town. In 1673 mail was dispatched from New York to Boston for the first time. The road was so bumpy, and at times muddy, that few wagons made the trip until 1772, when these primitive highways were considered safe enough for stagecoach travel, although bumpy and at times almost impossible.
That same year a retired Virginia judge, Richard Henderson, eager to sell plots of land in Kentucky, organized the Transylvania Company to buy a large section of the wilderness. He asked his friend, Daniel Boone, to purchase the land from the Cherokee Indians who owned it. Once Boone accomplished this in the spring of 1775, he hired thirty men to help him carve out a roadway from North Carolina through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky. When the road builders reached the Kentucky River, they erected a fort and within a short time the new road was crowded with families hurrying west to buy land and build homes. Other roads followed, and soon those pioneers who were eager to leave the East could reach the fertile lands beyond the Alleghenies.
THE TURNPIKE ERA
With the Revolutionary War behind them, many Americans living in the congested cities and suburbs along the Atlantic seaboard hoped to move west to buy land and establish new homes, farms, and businesses. It was a daunting trip, however, for there were few passable wagon roads and fewer inns or taverns to welcome the weary traveler.
The new federal government had no funds to plan, build, or repair roads. Therefore, many wealthy businessmen who had to travel to distant places, were glad to help pay for better roads in their areas. They assisted in establishing companies that would build new highways and charge those who used them. These roads were laid out as straight as the land would permit and wherever possible avoided steep grades or hills. They were called turnpikes because each toll gate had a long pole studded with "pikes" (now called spikes) to close the highway until the traveler paid his toll. Thereupon the pole was swung back so the individual or wagon could pass through. Between 1792 and 1810 it has been estimated that there were 175 private companies in New England operating nearly 3,000 miles of turnpikes.
The first important turnpike was built from Philadelphia to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1791. Instead of the usual narrow winding road, the Lancaster Turnpike Company constructed a highway twenty-four feet wide and paved it with a new type of surface invented by John L. McAdam, a Scottish engineer. It was made of crushed limestone and gravel called macadam. Horses and wagons passing over the road crushed the stone and packed it down even more firmly so that when it rained, the water ran off this surface into ditches on either side. For the first time travelers were free from delays caused by mud and ruts.
Other turnpike companies soon opened in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, but by 1825, when the Erie Canal opened, most of them had gone out of business and their stock became worthless because the tolls were insufficient to pay for their maintenance, let alone dividends to the stockholders. This encouraged many entrepreneurs to build canals since turnpikes were not practical, but the canals with their horse- drawn barges and flat-bottom boats were short lived thanks to the new railroads. This left the towns and states to care for the now deteriorating turnpikes and their local roads.
After the Revolutionary War a passable road had existed in Maryland between Baltimore and Cumberland, but that was as far west as one could travel safely. In 1806 President Thomas Jefferson appointed road commissioners to lay out a highway to start at Cumberland and extend to the Mississippi River. Construction began nine years later, and in 1818 the first stagecoach sped down the new highway. People soon referred to it as "Uncle Sam's Pike," "The National Road," or "The Pike," which was misleading since there were no toll gates. By the time it reached the Mississippi River in 1840, railroads were operating in most states and interest in highway construction had dissipated because it was thought that the speedy steam engines provided superior transportation. As a result the states and towns lost interest in maintaining their roads, which led to a period known as "the dark ages of the roads."
Cement appeared the best solution for the horseless carriages and in 1909, Wayne County, Michigan, laid a mile of cement highway. This sparked the creation of almost 600 "Good Roads" associations dedicated to rebuilding old trails and resurfacing other roads. Wealthy interests organized a company to build the "Lincoln Highway" from Jersey City to San Francisco. Construction began in 1914 and pushed west 3,389 miles, reaching its goal thirteen years later. In 1916 Congress started appropriating money for roads, dividing the funds among the states. At last the goal of "good roads" appeared possible!
