The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-16
To the Editor:

1t is a good sign and hopeful one to
sent to delegate our road making to the
convicts. All the great wagon roads of
the Old and New Worlds have been built
by compulsory labor, either by soldiers
slaves or convicts. All the great works
of the ante-C Christian period, long before
the Hebrew deliverance or the erection of
the Pyramids, have been built by slaves;
that is by conquered nations or foes van
quished in battle. Sections of old Ro-
man and Carthagenian roads are still in
evidence which are almost as good now
as when laid two thousand years ago or
more. StereoptIcon views of these were
shown by Mr.. Eldridge in his instructive
lecture before the Good Roads Congress
in Raleigh last month. He also showed
like views of modern wagon roads in va
1ious parts of Europe and the United
States-in New Jersey, Connecticut and
massachusetts,, and in our own State of
North Carolina, notably in Mecklenburg
county. Some of these ancient roads in
Switzerland and the Pyrenees and other
parts of Europe show remarkable engi-
neering skill in tunneling through
mountains, bridging ravines, skirting the
bases of precipitous cliffs, and even
glrdling their sides thousand feet above
the valleys below, where a shelf had been
cut into each face by men at work on
swinging cradles let down from the verge
above. But these great feats are far
surpassed on all the great transcontinen-
tai railroads, and even by those railroads
in our own State which traverse the
Blue Ridge and the Appalachans: the
Chesapeake and Ohio and the Southern
for example. Indeed, when it comes down
to masterpieces of engineering, the work
on the eastern approach to ASheyille
surpasses anything in Switzerland or on
earth, in the shape of wagon roads, in it's
tunnels, switchbacks, rock cuts, winds,
etc.
But feats of railroad construction were
not shown by Mr.. Eldridge, because he
thought it best to confine his illustra-
tions to the subject in hand, namely, the
making of country wagon roads. All the
same, if they have been accomplished for
the iron motors, they are certainly prac-
ticable for farm wagons and carriages
The plain truth is, that in all parts of a
tous or broken wagon road construction
is bagatelle. 1t is simply matter of
time and persistent labor, and not of
superlative skill. The art of road build
Ing is simple enough. Road beds are laid
OH systematic principles. Methods are
easily studied from the specifications.
solid foundation, a compact bed, and a
top dressing which will shed rain, as
selected and the grade determined upon.
The steepest grade on any given thor
oughfare determines the weight of load
for the entire route. unless tow horses
are employed at the tough points, which
OF course increases the cost Of freight
ing But a turnpike half built and open
ed to travel is worse than the old coun-
try road. for heavy traffic soon cuts it
up. the first rain gullies it and washes
off the top, and the previous labor is not
only lost, and new expense incurred, but
the earth which the rain carries off has
to be supplied anew. and this process
generally damages the adjacent prop
erty, public or private, and at once ex-
poses it to renewed damage from the
next succeeding rainfall The very
lOosening of the earth and throwing it
up on to the crown of the road bed with
the shovel or road machine makes de-
struction by downpour all the easier,
then the landwash is carried down the
cutters into the creeks, or spread over
the flats or meadows, and eventually
finds its way into the rivers harbors and
sounds; whereupon some enterpriSing
member of Congress moves for a Govern
ment appropriation to dredge the har-
bors and deepen the channels! And all
this distress, expense and waste of time
and patience could have been avoided or
prevented by macadamizing, or by other
treatment which would have made tho
surface impervious to rain, and at the
same time provided sluices or conduts
: for carrying off the surplus water.
All such ordinary proceedings are not
Toadmaking, but road wrecking! Instead
of permanently lettering the highways,
they just help the elements to ruin them;
and it makes no difference whether con-
vict labor is employed or that of the tax
payers, the labor is misapplied; the waste
is the same the detriment is the same
and the designation of the landscape
the same. Ultimately they ruin town;
for access is the main point else traffic
and travel go elsewhere.
Nowhere on earth nave l seen SucH Il
practical illustration of this folly as on
this main street of Fayetteville, where
| reside, and have had abundant oppor-
tunity to study causes and effects, as
we'll as neglects, and their effects. Mr..
Eldridge. of the Bureau of Road In
quiries, should bring his camera to bear
on Hay Mount The picture would
serve as an object lesson for all time,
and for all observers. The roadbed of
this thorcughfare is now ten feet below
it's original level of fifty years ago, in
some places. Traffic is carried on in an
immense gully. In one place the bottom
Of a flight of brick and stone steps which
lead to a fine mansion hangs four feet
above the street level and access can
only be had by a ladder. In another
place. where there is valley or de-
preston in the roadbed, an acre or two
of dirt has been carried aside through a
conduit and spread over a field Within
two months the convicts have worked the
road They made slightly job; but in
order to round up the roadbed they took
a foot and half of dirt from each side.
so that the approaches to every residence