The Republican., 1893-09-21
OLD GOVERNMENT ROADS.
An Extensive System of HiGhwa,
Ruilt WhAp tb1 NJ af,op NuaS Wanna

An Extensive System of Highways
Built When the Nation was Young.
The first impetus given to the
building of good roads n the Tn.
tied States was when Congress,
under the powers of the new con-
stitution, proceeded to establish
postoffices and build postroads for
the conveyance of the mails. This
connected for the first time every
town in the whole 13 states by cs.
tabhshed routes of communication
AS fast as the new states were ad.
mitted into the Union the federal
government stipulated with them
for the making of good substantial
highways, connecting their chief
cities and towns with each other
and with the rest OF the Union.
Two per cent. of the proceeds of the
sales of their public lands was set
aside for this purpose. From time
to time Congress also made large
appropriations to assist this work.
Tne first turnpike road from Bal
timore to Wheeling, 10 miles in
length, was laid out in this W V. A
similar road from Washington to
Cumberland, $50 miles long, was
also constructed about the same
time. The Cumberland road was
carried l35 miles farther, to the
east bank of the Ohio river, through
the States of Pennsylvania, Mary
land and Virginia. Then it was
extended westward 80 miles to
GAINESVILLE and thence through the
States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois
to st. Louis. This colossal chain
of public highways cost the govern
ment upward of 50, 500, 900 to con-
struct. 1t is known in history as
the Cumberland road system, and
the effect it had upon travel and
transportation was enormous. Be-
fore 1t was built it took eight days
to travel from Baltimore to Vir-
glnia. After it was finished the
journey was made in three days.
Many-other chains of highways
were constructed under the super
vision of the war department, almost
every State in the Union sharing to
some extent in this policy of inter-
nal improvement. Under General
jackson u stop was put to the ex-
penditure of money by the general
government for road building pur-
poses, but up to that time 1T had
already spent over $50, ,O00,O 900 in
creating and developing State high
ways and canals.
1t is interesting to look back at
the road making of our great-grand-
fathers. In the older States many
hundreds of miles of plank roads
were built at cost of 81, $50 per
mile. Gravel roads were also built
very extensively along the banks of
rivers. One of the best types of the
earlier roads IN this country was the
charcoal road.
This style of road was generally
lald through marshy forests. Tim
Der was cut in "a foot lengths and
piled up lengthwise in the center
of the road until the pile was about
II feet high. This pile was then
covered with earth taken from
bitches on either side of the road.
Then it was burned until the wood
was perfectly charred, and then the
plle was raked down to the width
of 10 feet, with depth of two feet
in the middle and of one foot at
either side. These charcoal roads
became very compact and free from
dust. The cost of building such a
road was about 5000 per mile. All
these early types Of roads were used
for the most part in the country
1ictr,o+s Nv, N1,l- Doo>.Ior