Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-19

nous development of railways, has pre-
vented their construction to any great
extent in America. The national road,
which was intended to form the great
highway across the Alleghanies from the
Potomac to the Ohio, was begun under
authority Of congress about sixty years
ago, but it hadfonly progressed a short
distance beyond Cumberland, Md. :,
when its construction was abandoned, in
consequence of the building of railways
for the same purpose. Macadamized
roads have therefore been confined TO
city or suburban streets, and to a few of
the older states ID the East. Even the
turnpikes, or toll roads, originally built
by corporations which made their profit
by leveying toll on each passing horse or
vehicle, were macadamized only for Il
small portion of their width in the CEN
ter, leaving earth roads on each side.
These latter were habitually used in sum-
meT, leaving the hard central portion,
whose surface was seldom kept smooth,
for use during the rains and mud of
winter
With the exception of these few turn
pike hIghroads, American roads have
been built of whatever material was
nearest to hand Frequently, if not
generally, they were made by simply
ploughIng ditch on each side and
throwing the earth into a mound in the
center. An improvement on this was to
spread a~layer of bank gravel containing
a large proportion of clay over the road;
andSSestthe New England coast, where
rocky soift and clean gravel or beach
shingle5were everywhere available, these
materials were used and formed com
paratiTely hard and durable road sur
Soils of the South where stone and gravel
were not available. the corduroy road
was much used. This consisted in fell
ing trees, stripping the branches, and
placing the trunks across the road; and
it was probably the most inhuman device
ever suggested as a means of cOmmuni-
cation. In Central New York, and in
some parts of the West, plank roads were
at one time constructed, but their lack of
durability caused this system to be soon
abandoned.
MAINTENANCE.
The condition of roadadepends not
only upon the manner in w1ffeh il is con-
structed, but upon the manntT in which
it is maintained The best Of roads are
being constantly worn by traffic, and if
they are not quickly repaired whenever
any defects appear they are soon de-
stroyed. MRcadam' IS reputation was
made not in building new roads, but in
repairing old roads and keeping them
always in good order In order to accom-
plsh this result incesSant attention is
necessary, so as to fill up any ruts or
holes the moment they appear and pre-
vent them from being enlarged by travel
and rain. The road thus gradually wears
down, but always presents a uniform
and smooth surface; and when its thick
ness is reduced to about FIVE inches it is
necessary to make general repairs by
covering it with a new coating OF stone
The amount Of wear Is proportional TO
the volume of traffic. On some of the
heavily travelled macadam streets of
London and Paris it has been as much as
four inches in a year, but on high roads
between cities it is often as low as one
half inch in year.
Nowhere is the art of TOad-making and
maintenance carried to such perfection as
in France, where the necessity of con-
slant supervision and prompt repairs is
fully appreciated. Her roads have
length of about two hundred thousand
miles, of which IzssSe than one hundred
and twenty thousand miles are macad-
amized. They have cost nearly si2 hun
dred million dollars for construction, and
the sum Of SIS 600, 200 Cor about per
cent. of first cost is annually spent for
their maintenance Until we are pre-
pared to eXDeud The necessary sums for
solid construction and incessant mainte-
nance, we cannot have good roads. With
an area of 204 900 square miles and q
population of So 900 900 inhabitants
France has about one mile of road to
every square mile OF territory and TO
every 100 inhabitants; its roads have cost
about three thousand dollars for each
square mile and about eighteen dollars
for each inhabitant; their maintenance
costs annually 800 for each square mile
and rs cents for each inhabitant
The state OF New YORK has an area of
A. 900 square miles and a population of
about sly million five hundred thousand,
the .TI&nber OF inhabitants per square
mile beng about three fourths the num-
Der in France. On the basis of area, in
order that its roads should be equal to
those of France, their length should be
46 900 miles; the first cost would be
SI36 900 600, and the annual cost of
maintenance would be 81 $40 900, or 64c
for each mha6itant. The railroads of
this state have cost nearly mne hundred
million dollars and the annual expense of
maintaining their TOadbeds is fully per
cent. of their first cost. It is evident
that it would not be an impossible task
to create a system of roads corresponding
in excellence to the railroads whenever
the necessity for them is fully recognized;
and it would not be difficult to prove that
the benefits derived in cheapening the
cost of transportation to the railroads, of
which the roads would act as feeders,
would be more than an equivalent for the
expense. Nor would the cost in reality
be AIMING like the large sums above
named, for many of the existing roads
contain an abundance of stone, which
could be taken up, broken, and relaid,
after the manner in which Macadam re-
built the roads of England, the cost of
which is stated in his memoir to have
been as low as 5000 per mile. Owing to
the increase in the cost of labor since
Macadam s time, the cost would now be
about twenty-five hundred dollars PERI
mile. ~ ~
1t is worth while to note the manner III
which France maintains these splendid ]
roads. The data is all RTailabIe inafhe5i
ninth volume of DebauW's Manual sssss
the Engineers of the Fonts ct Ehausseas
While we have no ssseR lafge begsE Of
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