Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-22


says to build another pike like this one IN
Pennsylvania would cost 81, 600 per mile,
and that it would only take s., 600 per mile
to place the present pike in perfect repair.
In other words, ree-fourths of the substan-
tial roadmaking on that highway is still In
tact. The other fourth, which has suffered
from neglect, is on the surface, and could be
easily and permanently repaired.lf II the WORK
was conducted in proper manner
THE DISPATCH expedition covered close
upon 800 miles of dirt roads In Western
Pennsylvania, and about 200 miles OF
macadamized, semi-macadamized, or stoned
roads, and do not hesitate to say that,
| with the exception of the old National Road
in Southwestern Pennsylvania, the Pitts
burg and Philadelphia Turnpike, even as
1t exists to-day, with no substantial repairs
Tor 20 years past, was the best, the most ex-
cellent highway we found. We traversed
that part of it from Bedford west.
Maintained by Road Taxes.
East of Bedford, through Fulton county,
tolls are still collected from wayfarers, and
| the proceeds are supposed to be expended in
repairs. This side of Bedford short dis
tance, however, YOU pass the last tollgate
westward, and the balance OF the pike has
from time to time been declared free to the
public by the courts, thus placing the entire
pike from Bedford to Pittsburg in the hands
of the various townships to be repaired and
kept by them just as they maintain other
roads, viz, by a road tax. And in nearly
every instance find that this tax is worked
out by the farmers living on the abutting
lands
The road was first turnpiked 70 years ago.
Improvements had been made upon some
stretches of it even earlier than that, as for
instance the granting of charter to the
company controlling the Lancaster and
Philadelphia end in the year 1896 The
! pike, although a continuous through route,
was owned by different corporations. That
section extending from Pittsburg to Green's
burg was built by a company in which were
the Dennys the Negleys, the Larimers,
Irwins, McMasters, Judge Wilkins, Phillip
| Winebiddle and John Mcfarland. The
pike from Greensburg to Stoyestown was con-
trolled by another company, and still another
company operated the extension of it
through Bedford and Fulton counties to
Chambersburg.
Work That Was Well Done.
The building of the road was remark
able example of what effect persistence and
plenty OF stone will have on a roadway.
None of the companies built mile OF COM
q
the end they secured what was practically
a macadamized thoroughfare. The general
policy was TO ignore dirt in repairing the
pike, and having originally graded and
properly drained the center of the road, to
simply throw In stone broken small, month
after month, and year after year, until they
had gained solidness and permanency.
| Wherever a rut or hole appeared, the same
| policy Fwas adhered to-Do dirt, but all
broken stone. In the best days of the pike,
along about 1910, am told, the covering of
the entire thoroughlere averaged from Is to
| 18 inches of stone. This had been packed
down so tight BY constant traYel, and so
much care had been originally taken in
grading the foundation bed for it, with due
regard to draining of the water as 1t seeped
down through the stones from the surface,
that the roadway was as smooth and even as
a floor. 1t is said that you could have
walked from Bedford to Stoystown after it
had rained two weeks without getting your
shoes muddy.
Filling Up the sinkholes..
In sinkholes, where there were under
ground springs 10 overcome, stones. big and
little, were simply filled in year after year
until bottom was found. There are to-day
spots along the old pike with six or seven
feet of stones in them, and they are always
dry, as result.
The repairing of the turnpikes was done
in a systematic and scientific manner. These
repairs were not confined alone to one season
of the year, as they are now all over Penn
svlvania. The old-time road makers, it is
said, would have laughed at the very idea Of
having good pixies if the repairing was all
to be done in one month out of twelve. In
fall they opened up all the "wa:er-tables"
and culverts along the pike to clean them
out for the winter, something that is never
thought about these days. Then the repair
ing of bad spots In the road was kept up all
the year around, during both the summer
and winter, as we'll as in spring. The
manager, superintendent or sequeStrator of
the pike, whatever was his title on the vari-
Gus divisions, kept strict watch over the
part of the road under his supervision.
Wherever it needed repairs he would either
mark on the fence rails opposite, with chalk,
''stone," or he would drive stake into the
ground at the bad spot to indicate to the
road-gang where repairs were necessary.
When Travel Began to Decrease.
Laborers were kept at work all the year
breaking stones and filling them in. OF
course, in those days the wages Tor such Ia
boring work as breaking stone were lower
than they would be now. In 1852 the first
cessation Of this systematic repairing took
place between Bedford and Pittsburg,
Travel had began 10 wane on the pike be-
cause Of the canal. by 1860 all such repair-
ing had stopped, because then the traffic of
the State was largely drifting to the Penn
sylvania Railroad. Although the last toll
gate between Pttsburg and Greensburg was
only abolished ten years ago, there was lit
tie or no repairing by the persons taking
toll, and that is now the great burden OF
complaint against the toll-takers east Of
Bedford.
Between Pittsburg and Bedford. where the
townships support the road by taxation, the
system of repairs is travesty on the good
workmanship Of our forelathers. 1t amounts
TO practically nothing, the dirt of the gut
ters merely being heaped up In the middle
over the stone-work Of half century ago.
With such solid stone foundations. why
couldn't the townships have continued the
policy of dumping broken stone on the TOP?
In originally making this pike, lime
stone was generally used, for the reason
that il was plentiful in Bedford, Somerset
and Westmoreland counties on this side of
the dividing crest of the Alleghenies, and
on the other side there was also abundance
of it. Yet here and there you may still find
stretches of road where the ordinary rock of
tne mouhthln anu nelu nave Deen USED. 1t
isNnot sandstone, but ofa sort of monde.
script character. 1t proved sufficiently
hard for road purposes, and was broken up
and used to advantage. In my previous
letters, l have frequently quoted farmers In
various parts of the State who believed that
even sandstone would answer for maca-
damizingA if plenty Of il was filed in upon
the road year alter year.
What has been the result of this policy in
originally constructing and maintaining the
Pittsh.,=.. la philadalnhia .a;I-ao 1Ir-iI