ized road in the United States was the old Lancaster Turnpike, running from Philadelphia to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Its position among American roads is such that it deserves more than a mere mention. It has had several historians, as it well deserves, to whose accounts we are largely indebted for much of our information.[1]
The charter name of this road was "The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company;" it was granted April 9, 1792, and the work of building immediately began. The road was completed in 1794 at a cost of four hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars. When the subscription books were opened there was a tremendous rush to take the stock. The money raised for constructing and equipping this ancient highway with toll houses and bridges, as well as grading and macadamizing it, was by this sale of stock. In the Lancaster Journal of Friday, February 5, 1796, the following notice appeared:
- ↑ "The Oldest Turnpike in Pennsylvania," by Edward B. Moore, in Philadelphia Press or Delaware County American, June 22, 1901; and "The Old Turnpike," by A. E. Witmer in Lancaster County Historical Society Papers, vol. ii (November, 1897), pp. 67–86.
