Show C great areat progress in in road Build bui alding irn Tou rable highways in america now estimated at miles washington driving arl ing 12 hours tour ti i uj 7 at the average speed of 34 30 i kilps illas tin nn hour tour an automobilist could over tile the III able highways tit in the united states and nearby canada in three years cars and sixteen days this estimate Is based on the it miles alies of highway cati cata loguen in it i current automobile guide book yet when hen the horseless hor beless carriages first appeared I 1 30 years 5 ears ago it was a problem to find roads on oil which they could run we me riding up the crest of the third rennis renaissance sance of american roid road building says sas it a bulletin of tile the national geographic society from its headquarters in washington mound builders tile the mysterious vanished tribe tilbe in the mississippi valley had biad the first roada aronds that were built in north america good roads versus historic roads the second high point in highway instruction waz was the rise of art trucking roads to servo bei the nation expanding vc of these tile the best example ample 1 Is a the lancaster Lanc astei to philadelphia val alley pike now incorporated into the lin coli highway begun beann in 1712 the stock subscription lancaster pike with ith its nine toll gates was ia the first stone surfaced lilg highway hway in america impetus it gave gae to roid road building faded out after 1830 in the face of tile rid nd VaLl cing steel of railroads road bull building slumped for 75 years ears until the automobile to brought in the most notable era of turn turnpike piko construction ever eer seen in any nation in all time A slightly different version erslon of road evolution aas was glen given by a backwoods kentuckian when asked who aho built the roads in his state the burner buffler tho the ingin and tile the inginger Ing ineer neer lie he replied if the question Is location of american roads his answer except for pronunciation cia tion stands correct for most of the united states the increasing interest Am Amer rl kans are giving to the things which camf down to us from our young past colo will houses colonial furniture and indian relics lias has not yet spread to roads they remain to america with less loss than any other type of treasure front from the past but the tourist to Is still more interested tit in a good road than an historic road though the traveler may ignore them the ghosts of the buffler bu filer the ingin and the pioneer crowd arod turnpikes like the national old trull trail where it crosses the pass from cumberland md over the watershed to uniontown Unton Union town pa the buffalo herd first plowed a path to grazing valleys in virginia the indian found it a good route for hunting and war so when the first english penetrated the west they called it path giving it the name of a famous delaware indian chief braddock sought it out when he hacked a road toward fort duquesne pittsburgh sonic some bay any the fame for road ought to swallow the infamy of braddicks braddocks Hrad Brad docks dl de font feat not for 25 years did another wheeled wa yeli vehicle tele push over the road hewed ile ved for the wagon trains of the english and colonial colon lul arin les brad docks rond road became lie caine the national road financed by congress that the cone conestoga going west might have easier going then earn came the earl farly v railroad and now smooth macadam when travel was travail it Is to ind find a person who does not just love to travel the forefathers spoiled spelled it travail the vast difference between journeys then find and now made necessary a new definition and the new definition a new spelling any passenger on the back sent scat who grumbles at the bumps finds one to chide at his discomfort in capt basit basil hull hall an english traveler in america about 1827 horrible corduroy roads again made their appearance in a more formidable shape he wrote of a journey jou incy by the addition of deep inky holes which utmost almost swallowed up the fore wheels of the wagon and bathed its hinder axletree axle tree the jogging and plunging to which we were now exposed and occasionally the bang when the vehicle reached the bottom of one of these abysses were so new and remarkable that wo we tried to make inake a good joke of them I 1 shall not lot compare this evenings drive to trotting up or down a pair of stairs for in that case there would be some kind of regularity but with us there was no wavering watering no pause and when we least expected a jolt down wo we went smack drish crash 1 forging like a ship in fit a head sea now for the driver of an automobile A model of oc calmness Is to be found in it a kentucky coach driver D dont ont be sirs he told ills his passengers it Is not bad its right good going it aint a going to swim the horses anything seems to be a good road where the horses will not have to swim an english passenger replied why bless you said the backwoodsman this aint no part of a priming to places that ive seed eced afore no nn how ive seed race paths in a worse fix than this wooden roads of a wooden country A wooden country the pioneers called it and a destination for much of the wood was in tile the roads when a truckers trucker 8 testing pole revealed it a too deep he cut logs and filled it up the first improved roi roads ads were wera the corduroy roads anyone can duplicate a corduroy road experience by driving down a railroad track bed without tires on the wheel rims the plank road was invented at toronto and first used in the united states at syracuse it consisted of planks three inches thick laid for a single lane with a dirt turn out the rise and decline of a state are better measured by its roads than by any other criterion says II elaire belloc and it Is apparent that as americas roads run so rails its history the plains roads of the far west marked only by oren at skulls alls and camp fires the creek roads of the illinois corn belt where the pioneers counted upon water to wash away the gumbo soil vint clung to the wagon wheels the splendid oyster shell roads roada of coast counties of the southern states ormond beach sand road where the automobile speed record was set the salt rondi roads of groat great salt lake the desert road below sea level in death valley the columbia highway that grand Cor carniche niche road of tile the west the susquehanna road that fills the canal which was expected to connect tile the mississippi valley and tile the atlantic coast the lehigh valley road that runs downhill for 30 miles on oil at an old railroad grade and the beautiful avenues of new england where elins dins that witnessed indian massacres shade fresh white concrete aria and many in a 11 y many others highways that were highways modern highways are consile conspicuous ous for their few detours I 1 if f a tree t r e e fell across a narrow trail it if the brambles got too thick it if wagons churned too deep a if a flood encroached upon the path if q forest fire clogged the trace the pioneer had to detour sometimes there were as many as alvo or six paths paralleling each other now joining now crossing now parting highways we call our modern turnpikes although most of them are low ways town down a valley indiana knew both highways and low ways the latter were used only in summer highways or ridge roads along the watersheds were the favored lines of travel how poorly they wf were re marked may be judged by the unfortunate incident of president adams and his wife losing their way tit in the forest while approaching washington from baltimore the mohawk trail of today was the alie old iroquois trail on the watershed between lake erie eric and the hudson and delaware river valleys and it connected tile the sections of the long house of the warring five nations T the he lakes to sea highway from erie eric ra to F franklin Is the old venango trail to the headwaters of the ohio later it was called shun pike the lincoln highway through ohio follows for a distance the great trail once the most important travel route in the middle west connecting pittsburgh and detroit the atlantic and pacific highway in west virginia follows the line of th the bloody war trail of nations the yellowstone trail in ohio wits was the indians lake shore trail the bittan ning path a wagon road for pioneers Is incorporated into the william penn highway in the far west the ore gon trail to la still the oregon trail but the atlantic and pacific highway follows the original santa fe trail over the present meridian trail from waco texas to wichita kans were driven the vast herds of cattle front from south texas a thousand miles to the rail head it has been suggested that the indians and buffalo probably used the railroad so closely does the line from grafton to parkersburg W va ila follow the nid trail Ilem Ilenin nants ants of it may still be seen according to reports crossing the ridges directly over the tunnels cut for the railroad |