Corduroy Road Corduroy road A Corduroy road or log road is a type of road made by placing sand-covered logs perpendicular to the direction of the road over a low or swampy area. The result is an improvement over impassable mud or dirt roads, yet is a bumpy ride in the best of conditions and a hazard to horses due to loose logs that can roll and shift. This type of road was already constructed in Roman times. Compare puncheon or plank road, which uses hewn boards instead of logs, resulting in a smoother and safer surface. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/corduroy People traveling along corduroy road c1815. http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/corduroy.htm
Lancaster Turnpike The first engineered and planned road in the United States was the Lancaster Turnpike, a privately constructed toll road built between 1793 and 1795. Connecting Philadelphia and Lancaster in Pennsylvania, its 62-mile length had a maximum grade of 7 percent and was surfaced with broken stone and gravel in a manner initially uninfluenced by the work of Telford and McAdam. However, pavement failures in 1796 led to the introduction of some of the new European methods. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-71904 Early Turnpikes in America The first American turnpike road was a state enterprise, authorized by a Virginia act of 1785. The first American turnpike to be constructed and operated by a private corporation was the Lancaster Turnpike built (1792) in Pennsylvania. Thereafter turnpikes were regularly private enterprises, and turnpike corporations held the leadership in the development of the American corporation system. The construction of turnpikes proceeded rapidly, and by 1825 a map of the Eastern states showing the turnpikes would have looked much like a present-day map showing the railroads. Famous turnpikes included the post road from New York to Boston (now part of U.S. 1), the two roads from New York to Albany (on the two sides of the Hudson River), and the roads from Albany to Buffalo, main lines of communication with the developing West. http://www.answers.com/topic/turnpike The National Road The National Road, today called U.S. Route 40, was the first highway built entirely with federal funds. The road was authorized by Congress in 1806 during the Jefferson Administration. Construction began in Cumberland, Maryland in 1811. The route closely paralleled the military road opened by George Washington and General Braddock in 1754-55. By 1818 the road had been completed to the Ohio River at Wheeling, which was then in Virginia. Eventually the road was pushed through central Ohio and Indiana reaching Vandalia, Illinois in the 1830's where construction ceased due to a lack of funds. The National Road opened the Ohio River Valley and the Midwest for settlement and commerce.
http://www.nps.gov/fone/natlroad.htm Traveling The opening of the road saw thousands of travelers heading west over the Allegheny Mountains to settle the rich land of the Ohio River Valley. Small towns along the National Road's path began to grow and prosper with the increase in population. Towns such as Cumberland, Uniontown, Brownsville, Washington and Wheeling evolved into commercial centers of business and industry. Uniontown was the headquarters for three major stagecoach lines which carried passengers over the National Road. Brownsville, on the Monongahela River, was a center for steamboat building and river freight hauling. Many small towns and villages along the road contained taverns, blacksmith shops, and livery stables. Taverns were probably the most important and numerous business found on the National Road. It is estimated there was about one tavern every mile on the National Road. There were two different classes of taverns on the road. The stagecoach tavern was one type. It was the more expensive accommodation, designed for the affluent traveler. Mount Washington Tavern was a stagecoach tavern. The other class of tavern was the wagon stand, which would have been more affordable for most travelers. A wagon stand would have been similar to a modern "truck stop." All taverns regardless of class offered three basic things; food, drink, and lodging. Traffic During the heyday of the National Road, traffic was heavy throughout the day and into the early evening. Almost every kind of vehicle could be seen on the road. The two most common vehicles were the stagecoach and the Conestoga wagon. Stagecoach travel was designed with speed in mind. Stages would average 60 to 70 miles in one day. The Conestoga wagon was the "tractor-trailer" of the 19th Century. Conestogas were designed to carry heavy freight both east and west over the Allegheny Mountains. These wagons were brightly painted with red running gears, Prussian blue bodies and white canvas coverings. A
Conestoga wagon, pulled by a team of six draft horses, averaged 15 miles a day. Steamboats Fulton's first boat, the Clermont, was tested on the Hudson River. The former painter had shipped a small steam engine from England and constructed a hull similar to that of fast oceangoing ships. In the hull, he placed the engine, and on each side, a primitive paddle wheel. At the test in 1807, the Clermont initially failed; however, after a few adjustments to the engine, the boat carried on its way to Albany, arriving thirty-two hours later. It had moved against the Hudson current at an average of five miles an hour. People familiar with the term often think of steamboats as the paddle wheel-driven boat with the shallow draft commonly seen on the Mississippi River in the 19th and early 20th centuries. While any steam powered boat qualifies as a steam boat, it is the popular image that we intend with our usage, for it was these vessels that made East St. Louis a central transportation point along the Mississippi River. There were two general types of steamboats plying the rivers of nineteenth century America. The East Coast steamboat was used in coastal bays, harbors, and rivers throughout the East Coast. This was a deep-draft vessel propelled by steam engines that drove paddle wheels or propellers. The boats that traveled the waters of the Mississippi were Western steamboats with shallow-drafts and of much cruder construction, employing a sidewheel, sternwheel, or, occasionally, propeller propulsion. The western type of steamboat also found use in the South (below Virginia) and in the Gulf Coast region. A pen and ink sketch of the Clermont Steamboats on the Mississippi grew in American legend, not just because of famous races or luxurious accommodations. These boats were a primary force in western settlement. A Southerner in New Orleans could travel to Minnesota and a Virginian could go to St. Louis. The Mississippi and the rivers that connect to it allowed travel in all directions, but the from the East Coast to the west bank of the mighty river marked a destination that allowed thousands of Americans to move west and begin populating the once calm regions frequented by many different groups of Native Americans. http://www.museum.state.il.us/riverweb/landings/ambot/tech/tech4.htm Low Water in the Mississippi, a lithograph by Currier and Ives, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois
Photo by Karen Booth http://www.bloomington.in.us/~cct/hsbridge.htm Stone Bridges http://www.hillsboroughnhchamber.com/bridges.html Stone bridges cost far more than comparably sized wooden bridges. Towns built them only on their most important roads. In the second half of the 19th century, many stone arches were built just downstream from mill dams. Bridges in these locations were in danger of being washed out by flood waters bursting through the dams. Because they were so strong and durable, stone arches also were favored by railroads. http://www.past-inc.org/historic-bridges/stone-right.html
Roads and Bridges