Montgomery County sentinel., 1890-07-04
PUBLIC ROADS.

puDlication may be Denencial To the puD1C
interest:
State Of Maryland, Montgomery county, Set!
To Alexander Breome, Esq, County Com
missioner, in behalf of the Hon. the Coun-
ty Commissioners for said county:
l, supervisor of that part of the Rockville
and Washington City Avenue, known as
the "city road" between Rockville and
Rock Creek, respectfully report that when l
was appointed supervisor of said road it
was not public road within the require
ments of the law. 1t was only a wagon
track through gullies, mire and mudholes,
and over beds of loose stones and large and
dangerous rocks. | was furnished with no
instructions or specifications of the work to
be done, and of the modes Of doing it. My
only guide in the discharge of my duty to
you and the public was my own judgment
and experience. 1t was plain to my mind
that the only proper mode OF repairing such
road was to reconstruct it throughout its
entire length, which have done on scien-
tific and common sense principles. To have
done otherwise would have been to follow
the faulty example of my predecessors, and
to have wasted fifty or hundred dollars on
work which would not have improved the
road or benefited the public. By wasted,
| mean money paid for work 80 temporary
and unskillful in its character as to be
washed away by the first heavy rain, and
the road left in worse condition than before
the work was done, so that after series of
| years il was found in the dreadful condition
above named.
| L have made it an excellent road-perma
nently good, and u credit to myself and my
! faithful employees, and an honor to you,
| your honorable Board and the people of the
county, and so confident am the soldity
and durability of the work done that am
willing to obligate myself to keep it in its
| present superior condition during my life
for less money every year than has hereto
fore been wasted on it annually, without
permanent benefit TO the pubic-provided
! you will furnish me with road .scraper in
due time.
| The task | have performed was heavy
one, involving large amount of heavy and
difficult work, and great personal incon-
venence to myself. But it is done, and
done well.
AT the line of the corporation of Rock
vile there was u bad but time honored mud
hole, So old that the "memory OF man run
meth not TO the contrary" dug ditch en-.
tirely across the road and into the adjacent
field far enough to get sufficient fall to drain
the water quickly from the road. | put
over the ditch a trunk sixteen feet long and
four feet wide. The slls are cedar trees,
the joists white oak scantling, and the Gov
ering two inch white oak plank nailed to
the Joists with twenty penny nails. The
| water no longer lies in the road, nor is there
any deep mud there.
Between that and the top of Maddox's
hill, (about 400 yards0 was II long bank of
dirt encroachlng on the proper width of the
road and impeding its proper drainage. |
scraped it into the road, rounding its centre
an a tlxy Ma1t W.
which graded last year, has remained in
splendid condition, solid and smooth as
floor, without the slightest wash on it, not.
withstanding the extraordinary rains.
| Just below the foot of the hill spring
broke out in the road, and was being worked
into bad mudhoe cut Il ditch entirely
across the road, three feet deep, about TWEEN
ty yards below it | cut similar ditch. |
| blinded them with fence rails and filled
them nearly full with small stone, then
graded II curved valley over them about ten
| feet wide and eighteen inches deep aud piked
them with flint stones, broken small eight
or ten inches thick threw the dirt from
the bitches into the middle Of the road. To
| carry the water from the blind bitches had
| TO cut ditch on each side of the road to
| the head OF the bitches | cut last year,
distance Of about four hundred yards. The
bitches in the lower part of the bottom, cut
last year, proved to he too small To carry
the increased flow of water, and had them
cut six feet wide which answered the pur-
pose. Owing to the boggy nature of the
land the bitches had to be cut by hand. The
] entire bottom is about eight hundred yards
long; the upper half is fullers earth, and
has always heretofore been mire. The
lower half had long deep gully, with bare
| ly room on one side for wagon track. |
scraped the mud and dirt from the bitches
into the middle of the road, filled it up high
and il is now solid and dry. | made and
| piked a viaduct to carry the water across
the road and into u ditch cut in the adjacent
field. The entire bottom is now Il beautiful
solid, smooth road.
On the hill opposite the nascent town of
Autre Park u considerable part OF the road
was occupied by II long, large bank of earth
| scraped the bank into the road, rounding
it up and giving it the proper width. On
the descent of Bogley's hill there was only
a bad wagon track. There was long, deep
gully in the middle of the road, with large
bank of earth on each side of it, covered
with pine trees and stone | grubbed up
the pines, filled up the gully and scraped
the banks into the road, rounding it up to
the proper width. Between that place and
| the bottom of the hill about one hundred
yards, there was fearful mndhole, which
|
stones in it. | cut ditch through it from
one side of the road To the other, three feet
| deep, which carried the water from very
large spring in the middle of the road to the
side bitches. About twenty yards below it
| ] cut similar bitches, blinded them with
poles and filled them nearly full with small
stones and graded curved valley over them
about ten feet wide and eighteen inches
deep, which | piked with flint stones eight
or ten inches thick broken small. | cut
bitches on each side of the road To the low
est point below, deep enough TO drain the
blind ditches | had u viaduct made across
the road at the lowest point TO carry the
water across the road and into ditch cut
into the adjoining field, to carry off the wa
ter quickly. The valley across the road was
heavily pked, and had the dirt from the
bitches thrown into the middle Of the road.
| piked u track twenty feet wide from the
first blind ditch To the valley across the road
and also the wet flat between the vaduct
and the foot of the opposite hill. Between
the two blind bitches there were two other
springs near the middle Of the road which
the bitches failed to dry | cut a ditch from
each one to the lowest side Of the road and
blinded them with fence rails. That dread
ful part of the road, formerly almost impas
sable, is now dry and solid. Owing TO the
miry character of the land the bitches had
to be cut by hand
The road down the hill above Bogley's
gate was single wagon track, or miry gully,
between high bank on each side, that made
it difficult to pass. | scraped the banks into
the road, carrying the dirt To the bottom Of
the hill, 80 as to lessen the ascent, and round
up the road. cut and blinded the bitches
with piked valleys over them like those on
Bogley's hill, to dry il. | made and piked
a viaduct across the road ut the foot Of the
hill TO carry the water across the road into
ditch cut in the adjacent field piked a
track eight or ten feet wide from the via
duct 10 the fret blind ditch on the hill across
the we fiat to the foot OF the opposite hill.
The road is now dry and solid.
The road from the top of the hill at my
gate TO the valley OF Robb's branch was only
wagon track. 1t was badly washed and
encumbered with rocks and long banks Of