The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-11-13
The Old National Pike.


The traffic seems like a frieze with an
endless procession of figures. There
were sometimes 16 gayly painted coach
es each way day; the cattle and sheep
were never out of sight; the canvas
covered wagons were drawn by six or
twelve horses with bows of bells over
their collars; the families of statesmen
and merchants went by in private We
hicles; and while most of the travellers
were unostentaIOus, few had splendid
equipages, and employed outriders.
Some of the passes through the Ale
ghanies were as precipitous as any in
the Sierra Nevada, and the mountains
We're rs wild. Within a mile of the road
the country was wilderness, but on the
highway the traffic was as dense and as
continuous as in the main street of a
large town.
The national road proper was built
from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheel
ing, Virginia, by the United States Gov
ernment, the intention being to establish
it as far as st. Louis. Itwas eXcellently
macadamized the rivers and creeks
were spanned by stone bridges; the dis
tances were indexed by iron mile-posts,
and the tOl-houses supplied with strong
iron gates. Its protector and chief sup
l1Ol bCL W tiS A4ClltN OldN9 NllOSt SCI AttiS
in its behalf are cOmmemOTated by a
monument near Wheeling. Henry Bee
son, a former Congressman, was also an
advocate of it, and on one occasion he
made a public speech in which he
showed the audience-sO flexible is
arithmetic combined with Imagination
that from the number of horseshoes it
would neceSSitate, and the number of
nails, it was better adapted to promote
trade than any railway could be. From
Cumberland to Baltimore the road, or 4
large part of it, was built by certain
banks of Maryland, which were rechar-
tered in 1916 on condition that they should
complete the work So far from being
a burden to them, it proved to be most
lucrative property for many years, yield
ing as much as 20 per cent, and it is
only of late years that it has yielded no
more than two or three per cent. The
part built by the Federal Government
was transferred to Maryland some time
ago, and the tolls became a political
perquisite; but within the past year it
has been acquired by the Counties of
Allegheny and Garrett, which have made
it free.
We have written of what is past. The
canal and the railway have superseded
the OLD natlOnal pike, ana II Is not Oh
ten now that a traveller disturbs the dust
that lies upon it. The dust itself, in
deed, has settled and given root to the
grass and shrubbery, which IN many
places shows how complete the deca-
dence is The blacksnakes, mOccasins,
and copperheads, that were always
plentiful in the mountains, have become
so unused to the intrusion of man that
they sun themselves in the road, and a
vehicle can not pass without running
over them. Many of the villages which
were prosperous in the coaching days
have fallen asleep, and the wagon of n
peddler or farmer is alone seen where
once the travel was enormous. The men
who were actively engaged on the road
as drivers, station agents, and mail con-
tractors are nearly all dead. The few
that remain are very old, and, while an
inquiry about the past teammates them
for a moment, they soon lapse into the
oblivion Of their years. But the tav~
erns, with their hospitable and pictuT-
esque fronts, the old smithies, and the
toll-gates, have not been entirely swept
away. Enough has been left Unde-
spoiled to sustain the interest and in
dividuality of the highway, which from
Frederick to Cumberland is rich by
dover of Nature, independently of its
past.-W. II. RiIeing, i71 HGyper's for
November.