Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-29

| extent in America. The national road 4,
| 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 had only progressed a short
distance beyond Cumberland, Md. 4,
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 IN the East. Even the
turnpikes, or toll roads, originally built
by corporations which made their profit
by Ieveying toll on each passing horse or
vehicle, were macadamized only for a
small portion of their width in the CEN
ter, leaving earth roads on each side.
! These latter were habitually used in sum-
mer, 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 a ditch on each side and
throwing the earth into a mound in the
center. An improvement on this was to
spread layer of bank gravel containing
large proportion of clay over the road;
and on the New England coast, where
rocky soil and clean gravel or beach
single were everywhere available, these
materials were used, and formed COM
paratively hard and durable road sur
face. Through the swamps and clay
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 a road depends not
only upon the manner in which it is con-
structed, but upon the manner 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. Macadam 5 reputation was
made not in building new roads, but in
repairing old roads and keeping them
always in good order. In order to accom-
plish 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
to al T,v-
covering it with 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 road-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 a
length of about two hundred thousand
miles, of which more than one hundred
and twenty thousand miles are macad-
amized. They have cost nearly six hun
dred million dollars for construction and
the sum of SIS 900 200 Cor about per
cent. of first cost is annually spent for
their maintenance. Until we are pre-
pared to eXpend The necessary sums for
solid construction and incessant mainte-
nance, we cannot have good roads. With
an area of 204 900 square miles and
population of 50 900 900 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 $50 for each square mile
and 48 cents for each inhabitant.
The state of New YORK has an area of
At 900 square miles and a population of
about six million five hundred thousand
the number 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
S138 900 900, and the annual cost of
maintenance would be 81 ,140 900, or 64c
for each lnhabitant. The railroads of
this state have cost nearly nine hundred
million dollars and the annual expense of
maintaining their roadbeds is fully per
cent. of their first cost. 1t is evident
that it would not be an impossible task
TO create system OF FOauS 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 transporta ton 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 anything 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 $500 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 per
mile.
1t is worth while to note the manner in
which France maintains these splendid
roads. The data is all available in the
ninth volume of Debauve's Manual for |
the Engineers of the Points ct Chaussees.
While We have nc such large body of /
trained engineers in the public service, !
and while our political organization does |
not permit the adoption of the system as /