Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-10-11

the one of rock: the former was used
during fair weather when the ground
was dry, the latter during wet weather
and throughout the Winter months.
At S to 10 mile intervals along the
Lancaster Turnpike were toll gates,
the cash income from the tolls being
used in maintaining the hard road,
paying the toll-gate keepers and re-
ducing sthe corporate debt, the pike
having been built by a private COM
pany. Even in those days, the pro-
vincials and colonials turned thumbs
down" on toll roads. Rather than pay
for the right to use the improved
thoroughfare they broke trails through
the wilderness. Some Of them even
trespassed on the pike. making de-
tours through the woods whenever
they were in the vicinity Of a toll
gate.
The second diorama illustrates the
rise of the railroad as medium OF
travel and the decline of the highway.
It presents q dramatic race. the do
ramical stimulation of thrilling cpl
sode in American history. between
Peter Cooper's diminutive Tom Thumb
locomotive and a stage horse, which
took place along the right of way OF
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad not
so far from Baltimore in 1880. At
the crisis of the contest, the locomotive
was reduced from the status Of COM
petitor to that of spectator, when the
belt that drove the blower that created
the boiler draught broke. The cumber-
some looking steel horse slowed to a
stop; its oats-and-hay -eating rival
raced on to victory. Although the
stage horse triumphed, the moral VIC
tory went to the locomotive. At that
time, the National Pike, or Old Trails
Road, was the popular overland link
which joined the Atlantic seaboard
and the fertile Ohio Valley; it ex-
tended westward from Cumberland
toward st. Louis. Roads in general
had been extended to the farthest
limits Of settlement. but promised to be
neglected potentially with the develop
ment of steel-railed transportation.
DIORAMA No. 3 deals with what
what was going on in the way Of
travel changes about 1916. The then
insistent voice of the American mo-
torist had been answered. Most
States were building highways adapted
to pneumatic-tired vehicle use. How
ever, there was lack of Co
ordination in this campaign. An i'm
proved thoroughfare in one State
would be extended to the border; the
sister State failed to duplicate this
construction performance. Motorists,
as result, would roll from the i'm
proved road into weller Of wallowing
clay, gumbo or rock and mud when
they crossed the State line. Such q
situation is shown in this diorama-a
big motor car speeding down the hard
road is halted by the distress signals
of fellow motorist, whose horseless
conveyance is stuck in quagmire OF
mud which was disappearing itself
as highway.
However, the automobile owners
raised such a hue and cry, voluble
fog of dissent against the situation,
that something worth while was done.
The Federal-aid policy Of highway
building came into being, requiring
unified action between all the States
and the National Government. The
resultant program Of highway i'm
provement gradually plugged the for
mer stop-gaps Of the motor tourists
by completing interstate routes and
facilitating travel from where you
were to where you wished to 60 with
out causing you to duck, dodge, back
track and detour In approximately
as many directions as it was possible
for you to guide your car.
The final diorama Of this historical
chain shows an ultra-modern four.
lane highway Of today. with its bus
station at q grade-separated intersec-
ton and its bordering sidewalks and
attractive landscape development.
This arterial highway type, with its
ramifications-it is the combined pro-
duction of the various State Highway
Departments and the United States
Bureau Of Public Roads-provides for
the safe accommodation Of dense,
fast-moving trafnc on the major high
ways near metropolitan centers.
This series Of dioran1as also viii be
exhibited at the convention Of the
American Road Builders Ascension
1t New Orleans In January, 1887. Two
other new dioramas also win be dis