The Republican., 1900-12-06
NUMBER 80.
THE PIKE AND THE CANAL.
A Cumberlander Talks EntertaingIy to "a
New York "Tribune" Reporter.

Cumberlander Talks EntertaingIy to IA
New York "Tribune" Reporter.
Mr.. J. H. Stahlberg, who the New
York Tribune says is from Cumber-
land, gave the following interesting
talk to "a Trib1tne reporter at the
Hotel Imperial, New York, Monday
afternoon:
Passing through Cumberland, Md,
is the old National Pike, the great
connecting link between the East and
the West in the ante-railroad days.
Boldly and directly it flung its white
length toward the land of the setting
sun, and passing through Browns
vile, long town of the first import
ance on the Monongahela river, it
reached into Kentucky, and enabled
the products of the Ohio River Valley
to reach the markets of the East. A
well conceived and magnificently con
structed piece of engineering work, it
still endures, and its hard, smooth
roadbed of today bears testimony to
the efficiency and skill that its max
erS brought to bear on their work.
The road people of today find fault
with it on the ground that it follows
too direct line, with too little regard
for grades. Indeed, | have heard
many decry its engineers on the
ground that it was no great feat of
skill to lay it out, since all they ap-
parently did was to sight from hilltop
to hilltop, and run the road between.
That is practically what they did do,
and yet they had good and sufficient
reason for so constructing it. The
vehicles that rolled along the old Ma
tional pike in it's heyday were heavier
of weight, clumsier of construction
and much harder to move than are
their successors. That is to move on
the level. In other words, it required
more power to move ton in a wagon
of fifty or eighty years ago on the
National pike than it would to move
a ton in wagon of today along that
self same pike. The initial force to
be expended in starting, and on the
level, was greater than now, but
grades did not make so much differ
ence. The grades being to certain
extent eliminated, the pike engineers
followed the old axiom of straight
line being the shortest distance be-
tween two points, and built from
hilltop to hilltop"
An analogy exists today contin-
ued Mr.. Stahlberg, lin the transpor-
tation on the railroad and transpor-
tation on the modern road by horse
power. The grades of the road are
greater than those of the railroad
and it is for this reason that, while
less tractive force is required to move
a ton on the level on the railroad than
on the road, when grades are reached
their resistance is proportionately
greater on the railroad than on the
road. To move along level road a
ton requires a tractiye power of one
hundred pounds. To move a ton on
a railroad requires a tractive force of
ten pounds. That is, while one hun
dred pounds tractive power on a road
will move ton, the same power ON
railroad will move ten tons. But when
grades are reached their resistance to
the tractive power will therefore be
ten times on the railroad what they
are on the road. The Romans con-
structed roads on this principle, and
with fully as steep grades as those of
the National Pike Those famous
old Roman roads in England go from
point to point in as direct line as
possible, and with but little regard to
grade. It's curious how it works out.
We also have another relic of past
methods of transportation In Cum
berland. The old canal connecting
Cumberland and Washington is still
in use, and follows the left bank of
the Potomac from one city to the
other 1t is very quaint, picturesque
and beautiful. Originally it went
further south, being carried across
the Potomac at Georgetown on a
bridge. 1t was cut off below the cap
ital many years ago, and a new bridge
replaced the old one. The memory
of the canal will linger, however, for
the new structure is called Aqueduct
Bridge, in memory of the uses its
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