The Opelousas courier., 1900-06-30

GOOD ROADS NOTES ]
Across the Conti,ent.
T the first banapat nf tba A.,

~ A- ~Aoo VA k1IuGTlLA In
IA the: Waldorf-Astoria. New
G, York City, the plan Of o ma.
ftional highway from the Atlantic to
the Paciic was formally laurched and
"a definite reNte was announced.
/ One ef the principal aims Of The
club IS to provide and encourage tho
construction of good roads. and II has
already awakened considerable nnhI;c
sentiment IN favor Of improved high.
ways,
Isaac b. Porter, ex-President of the
League of American Wheelmen, prom
ised the cooperation of wheelmen
of the country in the efforts of the
Automobile Club.
Colonel Pope. after predicting that
within ten years the horse would be a
thing OF the past as a means of trans
portation in the big cities, read the
following resolutions, which were
adopted Unanimously:
That the route presenting the most
Seasible line for q national highway
from the Atlantic to the Pacific seems
to your committee to be between the
fortiath and forty-second parallels Of
latitude. This embraces Boston. from
which the route could be stretched
east to Portland. Me-, then ALBANY.
reached by a great highway from New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore. Wash.
angton, Richmond, Charleston. Sayan-
nah and st. Augustine. From Albany
running west through Syracuse,
Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls:
through Erie, Penn; Cleveland and
Toledo, Ohio; Adrian and Coldwater,
Mich. ; Elkhart and South Bend. Ind. !
from Chicago, I'LL, to Davenport, Des
Moines and Council Bluffs, Iowa. !:
through Omaha, Lincoln and Hast.
ings, Neb., starting across the Rocky
Mountains at Denver, reaching Salt
lake, and thence enthusiastically to
Sacramento and San Francisco. a
southern line reaching thence to Los
Angeles, ahda northerly one Portland.
Ore. and Seattle, Wash.
! Resolved, That in view Of the mill
tary Importance of such o highway.
n OF the advantages to those sec
tons through which it would be built.
and, furthermore, in view of the ex.
ample IN good road building it would
give to b epeople of twenty-five States
and territories, through which it would
pass, the matter be brought promi-
nently to the attention of the people of
the twenty five States and territories
concerned, in order that Congress may
be petitioned to authorize the pre-
ti1ninary surveys required for such ma
tional highway; providing, if possible,
for the completion Of the survey OF the
section between Boston ana Chicago
the first year, that between Chicago
p Omaha the second year, that be-
tween New York and st. Augustine
the third year and the remaining Sec
TOPS within the following year.
Resolved, That it be suggested to
the petitioners to prepare the compile
ton of the national highway by an APP
preparation for one-third the expendi-
ture required from the Congress of the
United States, one-third by the States
for those portions lying within their
respective boundaries, and one-third
by the counties, townships and cities
through which the road shall pass,
while the wne of all property bene-
flied be asked to donate the right of
why.
Et is the further opinion of the COM
mittee that, in view of the rapidity of
motion which science is substituting
for the slower forms of roadway travel,
aud in view of conditions which many
recent tests upon the great highways
Of France and England have already
made clear, two points should be kept
in mind with reference to construction
first, ample width, and! second, the
avoidance OF curves. One hundred
and twenty feet is shown in the boule-
ward which Massachusetts, has built
leading out Of Boston. to be not too
great a width. One-half this width
might be built in the first instance,
but by oil means should the g1tire
right OF way be secured. HRlmpos-
sibility of avoiding collisions between
carriages moving rapidly around
curves calls attention to the necessity
for long, straight lines 10 a way that
did not present itself in the earlier
days Of highway engineering.