New Britain herald., 1929-04-16
PAUL REVERE RODE
 ALONG POST ROAD
Modern Highways Have Interest.
 ing Historical Backgrounds

Washington, D. C., April 16 - Many motorists who speed along the Old Post Road out of Boston today are unaware that Paul Revere gal loped along that same route after 2 hanging his famous lantern in Old North Church.
 Nor do travellers on the Corniche Road in the French Riviera always realize they are skimming over a sector of the Via Aurelia, a Roman "speedway" which Emperor Aureii- US begun more than two centuries before Christ was born.
 Speedway" is entirely correct as an appellation for those Roman roads, a National Geographic Society bulletin points out. We have the word of Pliny, an early geographer for it. Once Roman Emperor trav- eled 200 miles in 24 hours. in three relays of chariots. He sped at eight miles an hour. Pliny describes that record as "a wonderful thing and an instance of incredible celerity."
 English Roads Roman Highway
 "Many present day roads are tell tales of ancient history for they fol low the routes of historic highways V continues the bulletin. This is es- pecially true of highway of modern \ Europe and even of the United States. Waiting street and Stane ors of the military roads with winch Rome once adorned Britain.
 "Nobody knows who built the first road but remains have been found of a highway laid out by Che ops. builder of the Great Pyramid, in Egypt Babylon had three great highways and the first levying of tolls in the history of highways took place on one of these Babylonian routes. The Carthaginans were the most scientific road builders of an- cient times. but the details of their construction have been lost.
 Rome the Mother of Good Roads
 "'All roads lead to Rome,' was not metaphor. but a fact during the supremacy of the Roman En- pire. Roads led to the Imperial City from Dacia, present day Transylvan- ia. on the east, and Germany on the west. Another road branched from the very tim of what now is Spain. f> By the Roman laws the roads were free for the use of the public. They could belong to no one person or group of persons and the emperors were charged with their mainte- fate Sla kept them in repair. In some places service on the roads eliminated the payment of taxes. The Romans were proud Of the emperors who bullt highways. They honored them with triumphal arches and medals and named the highways after them. such as the Via Appia and the Via Aurelia.
 "The Via Appia was the Roman Lincoln Highway Over it s. Paul the Apostle travelled, untroubled by toll collectors. It was begun by Cae- sar Appius Claudis in 3l2 B. C.. and when completed reached to Brindisl on the Adratc coast. Modern trat- fife takes a new path. but the va Appia still runs it's course from Rome across the Alban hills.
 Road Maps Unknown to Romans
 "The Romans had no road maps. They published Itineraries listing the stations along the road with the dls- tances between each station. Their nearest approaches to road maps were drawings of the stations Wlfn topograhpic features of the sur rounding country
 "When the Roman Empire declin- ed road building did likewise. Char lemagne, Emperor of the Franks. began a program of road construc- ton, but after his death the devel- opment passed into a letharGy which was hardly disturbed during the Middle Ages.
 An English Road Law
 A quaint law was passed in Eng lang in the Middle Ages relative 10 the muddy and rutted highways or the day. According to the law bush eq and trees were felled for 200 feet ton either side of a road to pre- vent the gentle inhabitants of the countryside from rushing out and attacking travellers! The first toll for the maintenane of English roads was passed by Edward Ill in the fourteenth centurmy.
 '.The Incas of Peru had the most extensive highway system in the new world. Their Queen of Roads, which connected Quito and Cuzco. vas five times as long as the com pleted Via Appia. They were shrewd- CT engineers than the Romans. The latter built their roads in straight l lines, conquering all difficulties in their paths The Incas curved and graded their highways to avoid as- cents and forests.
 Napoleon Forstered Good Roads s"The father of modern road build ing is Napoleon. He systematized the \ industry and appointed body Of engineers 10 supervise the construc- ton Of French roads. Other Euro pean countries and the United States were quick to perceive the value of improved highways. Turkey, long closed to Western ways. is planning an asphalt-sur- ' faced highway from Constantinople to Angora. Every day news an- inducements bring in tidings of new 2 roads being built in lesser known parts Of the world. Automobiles de- rnand an ever widening touring ra- dius. and modern travellers no long CT fear the mythological creatures which medieval people believed in- fabited the unknown parts of the earth" Five years will be needed for the restoration of Williamsburg, colonial