America's Highways 1776–1976: A History of the Federal-Aid Program/Part 1/Chapter 1
Colonial
Legacy
The Indian canoe.
The Wilderness Road.
The young Nation that emerged from the War of Independence had a weak government and a primitive transportation system. The rivers and the sheltered coastal waters, such as Long Island Sound, Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound, were the principal highways for travel and commerce. Extending back from these arteries were roads in various stages of development. A very few of these, near the largest cities, were “artificial roads,” ditched and sometimes hard-surfaced with gravel or with “pounded stone.” The rest were improved only to the extent of removing stumps and boulders and leveling the worst irregularities of the ground. Many of these roads were impassable for wheeled vehicles in winter or during the spring thaw. Travelers crossed small streams by fording and the larger ones by ferries. Bridges were few and far between.
On the fringes of settlement, the “roads” were really only horsepaths, unsuitable for wheeled vehicles. The Wilderness Road through Cumberland Gap, located by Daniel Boone in 1775, was such a pack trail.[N 1]
General Braddock’s military road, constructed in 1755, was chopped out to a width of 12 feet-wide enough to pass the train of 150 Conestoga wagons in a single file—but by 1758 it had reverted to a trace through the forest. The other main transmountain road, the Pennsylvania Road, had been widened in 1758 during the French and Indian War to pass General John Forbes’ wagon trains, but was otherwise unimproved.
- ↑ However, a Kentucky historian has called the Wilderness Road “. . . a monument to the skill of Boone as a practical engineer and surveyor. It required a mind of far more than ordinary caliber to locate through more than two hundred miles of mountain wilderness a way of travel which, for a hundred years, has remained practically unchanged. . . .”[1]
Cable ferry over the Colorado River. In the early days, this method was frequently used to cross rivers.
One of the first road signs in America—hieroglyphics on Basset rock, near Washington, Utah.
Early Postal and Stagecoach Service
Despite the primitive condition of the roads, a land postal service was operated by the colonial authorities between the principal cities of the eastern seaboard. In 1729, 4 weeks were required to send a letter from Boston to Williamsburg, Virginia. For the most part, the mail was carried on foot or by post riders on horseback who averaged about 4 miles per hour, with no night travel.
The mails were speeded up considerably during Benjamin Franklin’s long tenure as Deputy and Associate Postmaster General, from 1737 to 1757, and 1762 to 1773. Within a year after his appointment, Franklin had so improved the service that a letter could be sent from Philadelphia to Boston and a reply returned in 3 weeks. After 1764, Franklin made the mails move day and night between Philadelphia and New York, and this fast service was later extended to Boston.[2]
As early as 1750, there was a regular stage-wagon[N 1] service from Philadelphia to New York via Trenton and Brunswick. Just before the Revolution, passengers could travel by stage from Philadelphia to the Paulus Hook (now Jersey City) ferry in 2 days in good weather, and public passenger stages were available for the journey from New York to Boston.[3]
Local Authorities Responsible for Roads
Under colonial laws patterned after those of the mother country, roadmaking and mending were responsibilities of the local governments—the towns in New England and the counties in other colonies. In the former, the elected town officers, among them a surveyor of highways, were charged with the upkeep of highways, private ways, causeways and bridges; and were authorized to remove obstructions from the highways, to dig for stone, gravel, clay or marl in any land not planted or enclosed, and to command the labor, on appointed days after public notice, of all persons over 16 years of age for work on the roads.[4]
In Virginia, the County Court, composed of eight or more gentleman inhabitants elected by the freeholders and approved by the Governor, was responsible for the condition of the roads and bridges. The court could contract for necessary road work or direct that it be performed gratis by the “tithable males” under the direction of the precinct surveyors, or foremen. Tithable persons were local residents over 16 years of age, whether free, slave, or indentured. Owners of two or more tithables could send them as substitutes in lieu of working in person.[5]
- ↑ A covered springless vehicle fitted with rigid wooden benches for carrying passengers.
The Flying Machine.
Rolling tobacco to market.
Model of Nantucket, Mass. fish cart. The barrel takes place of wheel and makes traction easier on sandy roads.
The other colonies had similar provisions for keeping their roads in repair, and all of them authorized the local authorities to require compulsory road service or its equivalent in cash. This “statute labor” was for years the principal resource available to local governments for road work in the colonies and later in the States, but other resources, such as private subscriptions, donations by public spirited citizens, assessments on adjacent property, or the proceeds of public lotteries, were occasionally available.[6]
There were hundreds of private ferries on the rivers. These ranged from canoes and small rowboats to flat-bottomed barges capable of carrying a wagon or several cattle. The right to operate a ferry was obtained from the colonial legislature or the county by a grant or contract, under which the ferry owner was allowed to collect fixed fees in compensation for his services and the use of his property. Ferry proprietors were considered to be public carriers, responsible for the life and property of their passengers.[7]
The English practice, begun in 1663, of permitting the local authorities or private persons to raise money for roadbuilding and maintenance by charging user tolls did not spread to the colonies. Except for payment of ferry fees, a traveler could freely use the roads, such as they were, from Maine to Georgia.
REFERENCES
- ↑ Address by T. H. MacDonald, Chief, Bureau of Public Roads, in Washington, D.C., October 6, 1926.
- ↑ A. Rose, Historic American Highways—Public Roads of the Past (American Association of State Highway Officials, Washington, D.C., 1953) p. 32.
- ↑ Id., p. 34.
- ↑ Id., p. 62.
- ↑ Id., p. 64.
- ↑ Id., p. 23.
- ↑ Id., p. 45.