The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1960-04-14
l789-l959, a Contrast
Thekla Fundenberg Weeks

A dominant motivating force in
the nations development has been
the pioneering urge. During the
latter half of the 18th century adj
venturous frontiersmen painted
glowing but true word pictures
of rich lands west of what then
seemed endless mountains. The
Imagination of people nearer the
seaboard was fired by the lure of
new lands. A surge of migration
began during the 1760s. and it
was then that some of the pioneers
began the settlement of our own
area. Before long came incentives
to pioneer in invention and indus
try. Today atomic power and outer
space becken.
Temporarily checked by the
Revolutionary War the urge again
became pressing when peace
came. 1t generated an imperative
need for better transportation
routes across the Appalachian
Mountain barrier Indian paths
and packhorse trails we're inadcqu
ate Heavy equipment, essential
tools and implements, had to be
transported. Within ten years after
its building the Braddock Road,
built for a military purpose, had
fallen into such disrepair as to be
unsuitable for wheeled vehicles.
In 1884 the states of Virginia
and Maryland took measures to
provide a road fit for wagon haul
age. 1t was to connect Winchester
with Morgantown and Clarksburg.
General Washington, by then First
in Peace, lent the weight of his
enormous prestige toward fur
thering the project Funds were pro-
vided and commissioners appointed
to survey the route and supervise
the construction. Virginia named
Joseph Nevill. Acting for Mary
land was Colonel Francis Deakins,
a veteran of the Revolutionary
war. The actual work Of building
got under way in 1886.
On May ID, 1889, Nevill reported
to Governor Randolph Of Virginia,
Il have opened them good Road
through many mountains, a dis
lance of seventy miles This in
Guided a stretch of thirty miles
across present-day Garrett County.
Road building standards of the
time were not high. Trees were
cut and their roots grubbed out
below ground level Rocks were
removed from the roadway. Little
attention was given to drainage,
but in favorable seasons the road
served its purpose many decades.
Our society has a photo
stat copy of fragment of the eX-
pense account of Deakins. Some
of the expenditures seem today
like small change. 1t is probable
that the cost of the gas and Oil
used in few days by today's
ponderouS earth moving machines
would have paid for opening a
mile of that road of the long-ago.
Road builders on this side of
the ocean were just beginning to
learn their trade. Among the
civilized nations of Europe the
art of making good roads had been
neglected during centuries. The
ancients, particularly the Romans,
could and did build enduring
roads. Some few sections of one
of the most famous ones, the Via
Appia, are still in use as originally
laid in 312 B. c,
~ Gudl III CNlltIlg W o' 'h'Ni
1889 the builders Of the National
Pike Cthe Cumberland Road, now
U. S. 40l followed the Roman pat
tern TO some extent. paving the
road with broken stone ct two
sizes.
Following the route as completed
in 1889 that part crossing the coun-
" area begins at the % foot
bridge spanning the Savage River,
Then at Bloomington new steel
and concrete bridge over the
double tracks of the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad is crossed. 1t is 100
feet long, 80 feet in width with
two side walks, and 26 feet above
the track level. This bridge and