The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1918-06-01

(By George *. Armes, Division Engi-
neer Florida State Road Depart
ment)

I'd! george n. ArmeS, Division Engi
neer Florida State Road Depart
ment.)
Twenty years ago there were prac-
tically no roads in Florida worthy OF
mention. 1t is true that some of the
cities were paved, and all of the town.
were connected by trails, but it was
quite an undertaking to try to drive
from one county to another.
Today there are nearly 5000 miles
of hardsurfaced roads in the State
THESE highways, along with other adj
vantages,. are. making Florida famous
and tourists are coming here in great
numbers to spend their winters A,
the same time the residents are real
izing more than ever what good
roads can do for a community. and
they are now. rapidly enlisting in the
army of progress.
About 35 or 40 years ago the two
great empire builders. Flagler and
Plant, extended their railroad lines in
a regular network throughout the
peninsula and built great palatial no
tells, thereby inducing thousands of
people to move into the State.
With the advent of these new set
tiers the people found it necessary
to spread out. More land had to be
brought into cultivation and q great
interchange Of business with the sur
rounding towns was gradually built
up. This latter caused the birth of
the agitation for good roads, and ac-
cordingiy meeting was called in
Orlando and the Florida Good Roads
Association was formed. The purpose
OF this association. was to promote
highway building and the improve
ment of all the roads i'm the State.
The greatest factor Of all, however.
In the promotion Of good roads has
been the automobile, and it is nothing
unusual now to find merchants trans
acting business in several counties
during the same day.
For several years after the agita
zion for good roads began. the county
oficiais were confronted with some
very perplexing problems. Only. e
few men i'm the State had ever had
experience in road building, and II,
was therefore impossible to secure
experts in this line. Each county was
a law unto itself and each set Of coun-
ty commissioners felt that they knew
more about road work than anyone
else In the community. Very gener-
ally they were right. too. for not many
OF their fellOw-citizens had given
much thought to the matter.
The big problem was the matter OF
financing. The general fund was not
sufficient, in most cases. to even star;
road, work. AS q solution to this
problem the method, Of bonding was
adopted This was patterned, more
or less from the railroads, but it did
not occur to our county fathers to fol-
low the railroads lead any further
The lawyers work was finished as
soon as the money was raised. and a
little thing like the location or the
construction could be handled by any
one. No such word as maintenance"
was ever dreamed Of, for tho roads
would be built and it was expected
that they would "stay put"
1t was therefore not to be wondered
at that great mistakes were made, for
who was there to show the way? The
highway engineer in the United States
liz very recent addition to the ranks
OF the profession, except in extremely
small numbers. .
After a few years of experimenting
the people woke up to the fact that
their money was being wOefully vast
ed. The roads were not holding up
no maintenance funds were available
and the bonds were rapidly matur-
ing. The poor county commissioner
had to stand the brunt Of the numer-
Gus Indignation meetings, with the
usual result of the election of an en-
tirely new board.
The Florida legislature was finally
petitioned to provide for n State high
way department. After several ses-
sions of this body Of lawmakers q bill
creating the State Road Department
was enacted. In the fall of 1916 Gov.
Trammell appointed five OF the best
known good road honctarc IL, tl,o -