Evening star., 1928-01-29
AMERICAS GREATEST HIGHWAY
IS READY FOR TOURIST SEASON
Federal Route No. l, From North to South,
In Use for 800 Years, Passes Most
Famous Places of y. S. History.

. traffic at least-the most important In
terState road.
Economically 1t is important because
| it connects the great manufacturing
and industrial cities of the Atlantic Sea-
board, and also because 1t Is the most
Eastward through road on which all
streams are bridged. Consequently. 1t
draws a very considerable local traffic
from the peninSular territory to the
East.
Leading Tourist Route.
Connecting semi-tropical Florida
with North temperate Maine. this road
is the principal tourist route from the
large Eastern cities to the Winter re-
sorts of the South and the Summer
resorts Of New England. Its strategic
| value as a military road in time OF
war is the conclusive element whlcn
stamps this road as the most important
| everything considered. in the entire
United States. or Western Hemisphere,
| for that matter.
Washington, the National Capital. is
situated on the best improved stretch
| in this 2,32l-mile boulevard. From
Ellsworth, Me-. through the large East
ern cities to Richmond. Va. there Is
| a dvstless, all-year pavement Tor the
entire SS4 miles. through regions rich
| in historic events and still panorama
callv beautiful. South of Richmond
| and including the last Is miles that
are now being completed. there Is pro-
cressive improvement of the roadway.
Although the present improved con-
dition of the road is the result OF only
| 30 wears of intensive Work by the nlgn-
way departments OF the several States
in cooperation with the Federal Gov
ernment, the route has been a Travelled
way Of the first Importance Tor more
than three centuries.
1t was first developed as an artery
of communication in the five principal
localities from which radiated all the
primary travel movements in this
country. The focal points of settlement
were located in eastern Massachusetts,
in the vicinity of New York Bay ana
the valley of that great river OF the
mountains which We now know as the
Hudson; in the Connecticut River VAL
ley and the shores of Long Island
Sound, in the country surrounding the
shores of Delaware Bay and the Dela-
| ware and SusQuehanna Rivers, and in
the Chesapeake Bay region. including
| the Valleys of the James and other
Virginia rivers.
Marked Out During 1886.
As early as 1886 efforts were made
to facilitate travel over the general line
| of the present route At first these
were limited to the blazing of trees to
mark the way. the building Of crude
bridges over the deepest ravines. the
locating of fords over shallow streams
and the establishment of canoe ferries
across the wider rivers.
Later as first the pack horse and
subsequently the cart and stage coach
! and Conestoga wagon came to replace
the primitive foot travel of the earliest
days the road was widened, the low
places were "corduroyed" and finally
there were added in places artificial sur
| faces of stone and gravel similar In
many respects to the macadam and
gravel roads Of the present day.
BY the close of the seventeenth CEN
tury Boston. New York and Philadel-
phia had become hustling and thriving
towns and travel between them by
horseback and pack horse was common.
The first coaches appeared in the
| streets OF Boston in 1887 and were
severely frovned upon by that Puritan