The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1959-02-06
THE RUGGED LIFE
OF TOLL ROADS IN
THE UNITED STATES

1
roads veined the wildernesses o.
Colonial America, the system ha!
had it's ups and downs.
| At present toll roads are going
through a golden era. American
cars speed to and fro on more
than 5000 sweeping miles of turn
pike, compared to less than 30(
miles a decade ago. A motoris'
can drive from the East to Chi
cago without hating for a stol
signal or crossroad.
Some road planners believe tht
toll-road boom is doomed, howev.
| err, by the multimillion-dollal
Federal program intended to pro.
vice 10000 miles of free, super.
highways in the next Is years.
Long Period of Neglect
After the road-building Roman
Empire fell by the wayside about
AID. 500, roads became a pressing
problem in Western Europe, the
National Geographic says. Nc
major roads or bridges were bull
for about five centuries. Old thor.
oughfares became quagmires in
winter and dust bowls in summer.
No one travelled for pleasure.
In England inhabitants of ev-
cry parish were supposed to keep
up their roads, but it was a very
real problem for them to muster
unpaid labor and materials. Hence
the roads went from bad to horri-
BILE.
"Soon after the Restoration
(1660), this grievance attracted
the notice of Parliament" the
English historian Macaulay wrote,
"and an act, the first of our many
turnpike acts, was passed, impos-
ing a small toll on travellers and
goods, for the purpose of keeping
some parts of this important line
of communications in good re-
pair"
Toll roads spread like webs
throughout England in the 18th
and 10th centuries They were not
wholly popular. People had got
used to the notion of the Kings
Highway, term meaning perpet-
ual right of passage over anoth-
er's land. Rioters pulled down toll
houses and gates.
The American colonies We're
having road troubles, too. Vir-
ginia in 1852 passed the country's
first road act, providing that high
ways "shall be layd out" in con-
venient places. Rough road sys-
TENS developed slowly.
A century and a half passed
before Pennsylvania granle>. i,
Philadelphia and Lancaster Turn
pike Company permission in 1892
to build a road between the two
cities. The 62-mile-long turnpike
was the first good road of nation
al Importance. 1t lay "a feet wide
and was surfaced with stone. The
hackers expected to make money,
and they did. Fine stages with
silken draperies racketed along the
all-weather road. 1t was flanked
with &c taverns, inns, and hostels.
Other Turnpikes Built
The Lancaster Turnpike's enor-
nous success triggered boom in
turnpikes. Private companies
spread networks of such roads
throughout New England and the
East. New York State alone char
tered some 500 turnpike and toll
bridge companies during the per-
iod. By 1880, the United States
had $1,000 miles of surfaced
roads, most of them turnpikes
stemming out from sizeable towns
Even SO 19th-century roads
were generally dreadful. The
statesman Harrison Gray Otis.
writing his wife, described the
condition of the Washington-Bal-
timore road in 1915: "The Blad-
ensburg Run, before we came to
the bridge, was happily in nc
place above the horses bellies. AS
we passed through, the driver
pointed out to US the spot right
under the wheels where the stage
horses last year were drowned. =
/ The nations first golden era OF
toll roads lasted roughly from
1900 to 1880 when canals and rail
roads began sounding its death
knell.