Roman Construction Methods: The Road

Roman Construction Methods:

The Road | The Arch

The Romans probably discovered how to build roads from their pre-Roman ancestors, a tribe
called Etrusci or Tusci from Northern Italy, commonly referred to as the Etruscans. The Romans for
many reasons became excellent road builders. Roman building methods were adapted and
improved as time went on and as skills improved.

There were laws governing the construction of roads dating from 450 BC; for example, stating that
the width should be 2.5 metres and also stating the rights of passage on the Empire's roads. The
9,000 miles of roads that were built in Britain represented a fraction of the total of over 55,600
miles built throughout the Empire. The network of roads stretched from Britain east to the Silk
Road and the trade routes to China. As an example of how the roads improved communication, it
was possible for the official mail to travel 500 miles a day using this system. Overnight
accommodation for travellers was placed at 15 mile intervals along the main routes.

Vitruvius (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio 75-15 BC) was a military engineer, architect and builder. What
makes him important is that he wrote the De Architectura, the only Roman work on Roman
architecture of the time that is known to have survived. Dedicated to the emperor Caesar
Augustus, it is now known as The Ten Books and describes many Roman and Greek building
methods.

During the invasion roads were vital to the success of the conquest of Britain. As the legions
pushed north disregarding the old track ways, they laid roads called via munire (tribute roads) to
link the forts they established. Many of the early settlements were built near these forts; later new
towns developed near the major roads.

The next type of road to develop was a network of minor trade roads called viae rusticae (rural
roads) built to serve local trade and manufacturing centres. Last to be built was a network of local
paths and service roads, some of which were unsurfaced, known as viae terrenae . These linked
local buildings such as shrines, houses and estates to the network.

The Roman road system allowed the rapid spread of Christianity. The apostles and many Christians
travelled across the Empire easily, Roman troops even providing some protection on the way.

Building Roman Roads

The first thing to remember about Roman roads is that they were built wherever the military
surveyors wanted. There were no planning restrictions and any objections of the local population
were at the bottom of the list. This is one reason why they are so straight1; the route did not have
to go round anything apart from natural obstacles. Initially the Romans built roads mainly for
military transport, to allow the rapid movement of troops and to transport the supplies to sustain
them.

When things quietened down, the civilian use of the road began with settlers who followed the
army into newly pacified areas. The areas near the military bases often formed the first
settlements. After the settlers came the traders and farmers, using the roads to move goods and
produce. These could be moved quickly and safely and breakages were fewer and food could
travel further and arrive in a fresh condition. Consumption of luxury goods and items from other
parts of the Empire also went up as a result of the improved road access.

The road system was so effective that as the Empire came to an end invading armies travelled
along them to attack the heart of the Empire itself. In the final years of the Roman occupation of
Britain some roads were blocked to hinder raiders. When the Empire collapsed the road network
fell into decline and practically disappeared. The communication system provided by the Roman
road network was not rivalled until the 19th Century when the railway system spread throughout
Europe.

The Method of Building a Roman Road

There were five main stages to the building of a standard Roman road:
Stage 1 - Surveying the Route: Teams were sent out to plan the route of the proposed road and
place markers for the building teams. This was often a job for the military engineers who used a
groma to survey and plan the route of the road. It appears that plans were made of the proposed
route connecting the surveyed points. This enabled the builders to adjust the route to avoid
natural obstacles or to use established river crossings. The road was then staked out by the
surveying team.

Stage 2 - Clearing the Route: This was a two-part process. First the route was cleared of all
obstacles. Trees in the path of the road were felled and any rocks or stones were removed to be
re-used in the roads construction. The second part involved the digging of the foundation trench.
The average dimensions were one metre deep and 2.5 metres wide. A heavy plough was often
used to break up the ground surface to make the digging easier.

Stage 3 - Lining the Bottom: Next came lining the bottom of the foundation trench with a layer of
large stones, which was then topped with a layer of rubble, ramming it all down to form a solid
foundation to prevent subsidence.

Stage 4 - The Foundation Layers: The foundation layer was then covered with a layer of smaller
coarse stones. These were easier to level and compact firmly. The final foundation layer was a
layer of sand or a mixture of cement2 sand and gravel; it was on this surface that the road surface
was laid.

Stage 5 - Kerb Stones: The next stage saw the laying of kerb stones at the outer edges and then
surfacing the remaining inner surface. A variety of surfacing materials were used, closely fitted
stone slabs or heavy gravel being the most common. A stone surface was often given an additional
surface of compacted gravel. All roads were given a cambered3 surface to shed rain water and to
aid drainage.

The final makeup of the road was determined by three factors: its intended use, the materials
available locally and the terrain it was crossing.

The Method for Roads on Soft or Wet Terrain

The terrain was an important factor on soft or boggy ground. There could be no ditch as in stage 2;
instead the road was supported on timber foundations. Large baulks of timber were laid on the
ground surface, and fixed in places with piles driven into the soft ground. On top of these there
were laid lengths of timber in pairs parallel to the direction of the road giving the appearance of
railway sleepers and rails.
The second stage of this process was either to pack the spaces between the timber rails with
brushwood or, on even wetter ground, to lay timber across the timber rails. In the case of the
brushwood packing, it was laid down in bundles in two layers laid in opposite directions to each
other.

Roads on Wetter Ground

On this type of ground surface much more timber was used to form a continuous surface on which
stone slabs or similar materials could be then laid, as in stage 5. In some cases the stone dressing
was omitted and a simple wooden road was laid. The final surface layer was of coarse small stones
that were levelled and compacted firmly. This layer was often topped with sand or a mixture of
sand and gravel. The surface layer was then laid; the smaller course stones were easier to level,
and this layer was also compacted firmly. Sometimes the layer was topped with sand or it
consisted entirely of a mixture of sand and gravel.

After the finishing of the road surface there were two final things to do: construct an agger, or
embankment, on each side of the road; and then dig a drainage ditch on each side also. The agger
was built from the spoil from the road's foundation trench and from the drainage ditches dug each
side of the agger. This lifted the road slightly above the level of the surrounding countryside. This
cleared area also made it difficult to set an ambush for troops or travellers as the area improved
the view of the road ahead and travellers could see any potential dangers.

Milestones

The Milliarium Aureum4 was the milestone that was placed in Rome, on the orders of Augustus, as
the starting point from which all mileages to other parts of the Empire were to be measured.
Milestones on Roman roads gave the distance to Rome as well as local information, and were
placed 1,000 paces apart. All roads were provided with milestones which showed the distance to
each town on that section of the road served. Often the milestone gave the date of the road's
construction and the name of the Emperor.

Upkeep and Maintenance

Initially, the cost of the road was borne by the state; after that it was the responsibility of the local
government to raise the money to keep the road in good repair. An official called the Curatores
Viarum was appointed who had to raise the money to maintain the roads in his care.
Improvements and maintenance work would be carried out by slaves or other forced labour and
prisoners. Roman roads were not free. There were tolls collected at the towns along the course of
the road. As a point of interest, the bridges were a particular source of revenue. This explains the
survival and continuous use of fords along the routes.

The best Roman road to visit today is found in Sutton Park in Birmingham; the visitor can walk it in
safety as it has not been commercially used since the Romans left Britain.

Roman Road Map

The Austrian National Library is home to a parchment scroll The Tabula Peutingeriana, created in
the Middle Ages. This is a copy of a road map from the late Roman Empire. The seven-metre
parchment shows a network of Roman roads from Spain to India. The scroll is listed on Unesco's
Memory of the World Register.

Some of the Major Roman Roads in Britain

These are not the only roads built in Britain but are the best known. The names of the roads are
not Roman names. Instead, they date back only as far as Saxon times, although they they are
names we still use today. For example, the name 'Ermine Street' is not the road's original Roman
name but, rather, the Saxon name for the road, 'Earningstraet' the road of Earn's folk. The Romans
named the road after the Censura or Censor5 who was responsible for its construction, or simply
by where it went. Some of the better-known roads in Britain are listed here in approximate order
of length:

Watling Street: Watling Street, the most important Roman road which runs East to West across
Great Britain from Dover (Portus Dubris) to Brecon (Gaer, Y Gaer).

Ermine Street: The north – south road running up the eastern side of Great Britain. Starting in
London (Londinium), it proceeds north and after the River Nene crossing, the road heads north
into Lincoln (Lindum). This supported the Fosse Way providing access to the north.
The Fosse Way: An important north – south road running up the western side of Great Britain. The
road runs from Exeter (Devon) in the South to Lincoln (Lincolnshire) in the North, forming one of
the main routes in Roman Britain.

Stane Street: Stane Street connected the ports of the south east to London and Lincoln using
Ermine Street and connecting the east coast ports travelling on the Fen Causeway and the Peddars
Way crossing the Wash via the Kempstone Holme next the Sea ferry.

West Coast Military Road: Connecting the defensive elements of the west coast from the port of
Ravenglass (Glannoventa) to the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall at Bowness (Maia).

Stanegate Military Road: An east-west road connecting the Stanegate Fort Carlisle (Luguvalium) to
the Stanegate Fort Corbridge (Corstopitum). This road and its forts formed the original northern
frontier, until the building of Hadrian's Wall.

Stone Street: This road is an extension of Watling Street from Brecon (Gaer, Y Gaer) to Caerleon
(Iscia Silurum) connecting Watling Street with the port on the Severn estuary.

Other Notable Roads

Dere Street: A north-south road connecting York (Eboracum) to Chew Green at the eastern end of
the Antonine wall.

Akeman Street: London (Londinium) to Cirencester (Corinium Dobunnorum).

1One of the other reasons was the Roman method of surveying which lent itself superbly to long
straight roads.2Not always used on all roads.3Higher in the middle than at the edges.4The Golden
Milestone.5The holder of the post of Censor was an elected position, with an official term of five
years. Part of the duties of the office was to control public finances which included road building.

Roman Construction Methods: The Arch

 Roman Construction Methods:

The Arch | The Road

Though not a Roman invention , the arch was used extensively by Roman engineers in many
1

types of buildings, including bridges, gates and aqueducts. Elaborate arches could be
extended in a tunnel-like fashion to form a barrel vault; two barrel vaults overlapping at 90
degrees formed a cross-shaped 'groin vault'. Taken to extremes, a groin vault develops into
a dome. The Flavian Amphitheatre in Rome, more popularly known as the Colosseum, was
formed from a series of pillars and arches.
A Roman arch2 was built of stone with a concrete core for durability. The shape of the arch
naturally causes the weight of the structure to compress the arch, transferring the forces to the
columns or piers supporting the arch. This means that the construction is always in a state of
compression (the state in which stone and concrete are strongest), and the forces created by
the weight of the structure are equal on each side, cancelling each other out 3. This has meant
that many of these bridges had a very long useful life - many are still in use today.
The method of construction was simple. The masons cut large wedge-shaped stone blocks
equal in size and shape. They were tapered so that when laid out they formed a half circle.
When the arch was constructed, the last stone4, at the top of the arch, was fitted and locked
the others together. This meant that the arch could distribute the weight evenly throughout,
forming a very stable structure. The most common uses of the arch are the bridge and
aqueduct.

A Roman Arch Used In Bridge Building

Sooner or later, all roads may need a bridge - they were built to cross valleys or rivers and to
avoid long detours. The key to the Roman bridge is the arch, making the construction of
complex and large bridges possible.

The Stages of Building a Roman Bridge

There are five main stages to the building of a standard Roman bridge:

Stage 1 - Choosing a Crossing Point

The river banks were surveyed for a suitable site for the crossing point. Ideally the banks would
be firm and the bed of the river firm and stony. Bridges were often built on or near existing
fords for this reason. Teams were sent out to plan the route of a proposed road and often
altered the course to use a suitable river crossing point. This job was often given to
the military engineers.

Stage 2 - Digging a Foudation

The foundations for a single-arch bridge were cut into the banks at each side of the river. The
foundations were built of stone, with rubble and concrete infill. Good foundations were
important as they prevented the arch of the bridge from spreading and collapsing. Multi-arch
bridges use arches which are more upright than standard arches, with longer straight piers
supporting a semicircular arch. The piers are often braced with a stretch of masonry known as
a travertine rib or missionary band5, which helps protect against sideways movement caused
by pressure from the arches above.

Stage 3 - Building the Arch

The stone arch was constructed over a timber frame that was the intended shape of the arch.
The inside of the arch was stone lined as were the outer walls.

Note, the maximum height of an arch was 21 metres, to avoid collapse caused by twisting
forces; the maximum span was approximately 34 metres. If extra height was required, it was
gained by placing a second set of smaller arches on top of the first, and in some cases a third
row of yet smaller arches6. The maximum recorded height was 51 metres in three rows of
arches.

Stage 4 - Completing the Stonework

When the arch was finished, the stonework of the rest of the structure it was supporting was
completed. The method used in laying the stonework, known as stretcher and header 7,
resulted in incredibly strong structures which could be further strengthened with stone joints
and metalwork. The size of the stone blocks was reduced as the bridge got higher. The core of
the arch and the road bed were often of rubble and concrete infill.

Stage 5 - Laying the Road Surface

The parapets were built of stone and the road surface was laid. All single-arched bridges were
slightly higher in the middle than at the edges to shed rain  water and aid drainage.
Multi-Arch Bridges

Starting with the same initial stages, the only difference was the construction of evenly-spaced
piers on the riverbed. This was achieved by sinking two concentric rings of wooden piles into
the riverbed to form enclosed areas. The space between the rings was packed with clay
forming a simple coffer dam and the water and mud bailed out, allowing the piers to be
constructed on firm dry ground. The cut stone piers were hollow and were filled with large
uncut stones, rubble and concrete to form small islands. These were the pier foundations.
Construction was then completed as previously described in stages 3 and 4.
Because multi-arch bridges tended to be longer than single-arch ones, they normally had a
slight slope from one end to the other to improve drainage.

Record-Breaking Roman Bridges

 The Oldest Still Standing: Pons Aemilius in Rome, built in 62 BC.

 The Longest: The Bridge of Apollodorus (also known as Trajan's Bridge) over the

River Danube. Although this bridge stood for less than 200 years, the record it set for
longest bridge was not broken for another 1,000 years.

 The Largest Arch: Pont romain de Vaison-la-Romaine (The Roman Bridge) over the

River Ouvèze in France.

Roman Concrete
Roman concrete was made with slaked lime, sand and volcanic ash. The method of making
this was forgotten and it was not until the 19th Century that anybody thought of a mixture that
was better, when Portland cement was invented. Roman concrete could set under water in
much the same way as modern concrete.
The trick to making good concrete is to get the silicon in sand to chemically bind to the calcium
from the limestone (calcium carbonate). Portland cement uses fine china clay. The Romans
used volcanic ash which is, essentially, fine, pure crystallised sand (silicon dioxide). The
reasons modern cement is better than Roman cement is not because it is stronger or longer
lasting (it can be, but many commercial varieties aren't), but because the clay can be pre-
mixed with the treated lime mixture (slaked lime) and then ground into a powder (clinker) and
stored in rough conditions in paper bags. Roman cement had to be mixed on site and slaked
lime is very dangerous when wet and is not easy to store. To keep it dry they had to use
sealed amphoras.

Roman Aqueducts
An aqueduct in its simple form is a bridge to move water, to supply a town or settlement. This
was built in the same way as a bridge over a river. The main difference between an aqueduct
and a bridge is that the level of the water channel was precisely engineered to provide a slight
slope or fall to allow the water to flow. The most striking forms are those that consist of three or
four rows of arches, built one on top of the other to achieve height to span a valley.

Some of the best examples of Roman aqueducts are:

 Pont du Gard, France 19 BC.

 Fréjus, France 51 BC.

 Mainz, Germany 72 BC.

1
Originally the arch was a Mesopotamian idea. 2Also known as a voussoir arch.3To such an extent that

some arches were built without any mortar.4Years later, the last stone at the top of an arch became

known as a keystone and became larger than the rest as a feature; in Roman times, the top stone was

the same shape as all the others.5This is a course of a different type of stone which protrudes slightly at

the sides. It stabilises the top of the pier and provides a foundation to the arch. 6Most often seen in

aqueducts, but the best example is perhaps the Flavian Amphitheatre in Rome. 7This meant one layer or

course of stones was laid lengthways and the next was laid end outwards.

Back in Time
Building Roads
By Rickie Longfellow

The oldest constructed roads discovered to date are in former Mesopotamia, now known as Iraq.
These stone paved streets date back to about 4000 B.C. in the Mesopotamia cities of Ur and
Babylon. The location in the land of the Sumerian people offered fertile soil and, with irrigation,
crops and livestock were raised successfully. The Sumerians used meticulous brick-making skills,
forming identical mud bricks for building. After drying they would take them to the site of a temple
and set them in place with bitumen. Bitumen is the natural sticky black substance in asphalt.
Centuries would pass before asphalt was used in Europe and America.

Glastonbury, the Ancient Isle of Avalon in Somerset, England, was the site of an interesting
discovery when timber roads were discovered in a swampy area. Glastonbury, known for King
Arthur’s legends and believed to be the actual site of Camelot, has had a pilgrimage since ancient
times as it is home to Glastonbury Abbey. Bringing much early “traffic” into the area and requiring
roads for the transportation of carts and animal-drawn wagons, the timber roads served the
purpose, but more advanced roadways were in the future.
 Country roads in “Small Town America” now paved.

Strangely, a Scottish man named John Metcalfe, born in 1717 and blinded at age six, built many
miles of roads and bridges in Yorkshire, England. The roads were built in three layers: large stones,
a mixture of road material, and a layer of gravel. Two other Scottish engineers, Thomas Telford and
John Loudon McAdam are credited with the first modern roads. They also designed the system of
raising the foundation of the road in the center for easy water drainage. Telford improved road
building further by analyzing stone thickness, road traffic, road alignment and gradient slopes.
Sound familiar? This method became the norm. Telford is well known for many engineering
successes involving bridges, canals, roads, harbors and docks. The Menai Suspension Bridge in
North Wales, completed in 1826-is considered one of the greatest examples of iron works ever built.
McAdam, born in 1756, designed roads with harder surface using broken stones placed in
symmetrical, tight patterns and covered with smaller stones. His design was called “Macadam” after
his name, and was a huge achievement in road construction in the 1800s. This design led to the
bitumen-based binding called Tarmacadam. One of the first “tar” roads was laid in Paris. The
famous Champs-Elysees of the 1600s was covered with asphalt in 1824 signifying it as the first
modern road in Europe. By the late 1800s, America would be paving roads. One of the first was
Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C.

Were you born before the electronic crosswalk

signs?
On February 5, 1952, the first “Don't Walk”
automatic signs were installed in New York City.

Today in America, most of our roadways and streets are paved with asphalt concrete. Asphalt
concrete is a simple product in appearance produced primarily by adding asphalt cement to sand
and rock. According to Bob McQuiston, FHWA Pavement and Materials Engineer for the FHWA
Ohio Division, however, that simple appearance can be very deceiving. In highway applications
today, especially on the heavily trafficked, heavily loaded Interstate System, special care must be
taken to ensure adequate performance of the pavement. For example, asphalt cements today are
often modified with various products, such as polymers, to provide added stability to the mixture and
 avoid both displacement under traffic and fatigue-related distress. At the same time, the “binder”
selected must remain soft enough during cold winter periods to minimize thermal cracking. Special
criteria often apply to the sand or “fine aggregate” component and the rock or “coarse aggregate” in
the mixture. High quality and very durable fine and coarse aggregates are crushed to an angular
shape and properly sized prior to incorporation in the final product to provide additional stability to
support heavy truck loading. Pavements built today can be engineered to meet a variety of needs-
greater durability, enhanced skid resistance to improve safety; and, a smoother ride to satisfy the
traveling public.

Paved roads allow for quicker travel and a smooth ride.

Whether constructing a new pavement or preserving an existing one, asphalt meets many of
today’s needs in maintaining our extensive highway network in the United States.

 History of Roads
 History of Parking Meters
 History of Traffic Lights
The first indications of constructed roads date from about 4000 BC and consist of
stone paved streets at Ur in modern-day Iraq and timber roads preserved in a
swamp in Glastonbury, England.

Late 1800s Road Builders

The road builders of the late 1800s depended solely on stone, gravel and sand for
construction. Water would be used as a binder to give some unity to the road
surface.
John Metcalfe, a Scot born in 1717, built about 180 miles of roads in Yorkshire,
England (even though he was blind).
His well drained roads were built with three layers: large stones; excavated road
material; and a layer of gravel.
 Modern tarred roads were the result of the work of two Scottish engineers, Thomas
Telfordand John Loudon McAdam. Telford designed the system of raising the
foundation of the road in the center to act as a drain for water.
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Thomas Telford (born 1757) improved the method of building roads with broken
stones by analyzing stone thickness, road traffic, road alignment and gradient
slopes. Eventually his design became the norm for all roads everywhere. John
Loudon McAdam (born 1756) designed roads using broken stones laid in
symmetrical, tight patterns and covered with small stones to create a hard surface.
McAdam's design, called "macadam roads," provided the greatest advancement in
road construction.

Asphalt Roads
Today, 96% of all paved roads and streets in the U.S. - almost two million miles -
are surfaced with asphalt. Almost all paving asphalt used today is obtained by
processing crude oils. After everything of value is removed, the leftovers are made
into asphalt cement for pavement. Man-made asphalt consists of compounds of
hydrogen and carbon with minor proportions of nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen. Natural
forming asphalt, or brea, also contains mineral deposits.
The first road use of asphalt occurred in 1824, when asphalt blocks were placed on
the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Modern road asphalt was the work of Belgian
immigrant Edward de Smedt at Columbia University in New York City.

Ads
 Roads
 Gravel Road Construction
 Asphalt Road Paving
 Natural History
 Road Traffic Management
By 1872, De Smedt had engineered a modern, "well-graded," maximum-density
asphalt. The first uses of this road asphalt were in Battery Park and on Fifth
Avenue in New York City in 1872 and on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C.,
in 1877.

Road design
 
 Via Domitia at Arbessum, near Montpellier. photograph by Benoît Strépenne, 2006 (Wilkipedia)

The Romans built roads to last. In fact they were like massive walls, up to one metre high, sunk into
a trench with the top providing the road surface. Following the digging of drainage ditches, which
also provided some of the fill, the road was built up in four layers: slabs embedded in mortar formed
the foundation; masonry made up the second; the third, called the nucleus, consisted of
agglomerates; finally, the rolling surface could be simply broken stones, paving stones, or bricks
depending on traffic.

With the collapse of the Roman Empire this or in fact any technology was lost for more than a
thousand years. The absence of durable roads only really began to be felt with the increase in
numbers and size of wheeled traffic during the seventeenth century following a rapid expansion of
trade. At first vehicles were seen as a damned nuisance by those unfortunates made responsible
for roads but without funds or knowledge do anything about them. Having tried unsuccessfully to
minimise wear and tear by use of controls on weight, axle width, number of horses used, and width
of wheels, all of which were easily evaded, serious attempts began during the middle of the 18th
century to design roads that would accomodate the traffic.

People disagreed about how roads should be constructed. Some proposed that they should be
concave, or even placed in a trench and periodically flushed out. Many travellers remarked that this
had happened by default anyway, to the extent that the roads had sunk so much that they could no
longer see the surrounding countryside. The more enlightened suggested they be sloped across
their width. However, certain basic principles began to be enunciated, notably the most important,
that of sound drainage. Around 1750 Trésaguet in France and Metcalfe in the UK proposed a
method of construction relying on a firm well-drained foundation of large rocks topped by
progressively smaller ones, forming a convex surface to make it more impervious to water.
This proved extremely strong but also highly expensive to build and maintain. Around the end of the
eighteenth century Telford in the UK proposed a similarly robust concept, perhaps too much so for
traffic needs (he had been looking forward eagerly to steam-powered vehicles), with the result that it
was rather expensive due mainly to its thickness and very solid foundation, intended to compensate
for unstable roadbeds.

It was left to Macadam at the beginning of the 19th century to develop the far more economical
approach which is still used today in adapted forms, ususally with a coating of bitumen to seal it.
This calls for very good subsoil drainage to keep the roadbed firm, resulting in a road much thinner
and cheaper to build. In fact he insisted that thickness should be dictated only by the need to
protect the roadbed and keep it dry rather then to provide the high load bearing capacity
underpinning the approaches of his predecessors.

Roads in ancient Israel

Paved Roads

Roman were experts at surveying and building roads. They would plan out a strategic
route and remove any obstacles in its path. Then they would dig a trench about 3 feet
deep and 10-25 feet wide, depending upon the importance of the road.
Illustration of a Roman Paved Road

The 4 Layers
The deepest portion of the trench was filled in with a layer of large stones tightly fitted
together. This was strategic in preventing puddles and keeping the roads from
freezing, which caused cracks. 

The second layer was filled with smaller stones compressed together and filled with
concrete.
The third layer was filled with gravel and flattened out smoothly.
The fourth and last layer was a pavement of large smooth stone slabs.

Every major road had curbs and drainage ditches.

The largest roads were in Rome and on its borders, to bring a sense of awe to anyone
from the outside. They sometimes reached 50 feet wide.
Photo of a Roman Road

Network of Roads in the Roman Empire

Network of Roads in the Roman Empire

Robbers and Thugs

During the time of Jesus it was very dangerous to travel in certain parts of Israel. Even
though there was added security in various parts of the Empire, there were bandits
that would lie in wait and attack unsuspecting merchants. The wealthy merchants
could be noticed easily because their goods were packed high on the backs of their
donkeys and camels. Robbers were known to hide in the hills, make their attack, and
return to caves and other hiding places. 

The ancient Jews learned the art of commerce very quickly. They became renown
throughout the world as successful traders within and without the borders of their
country. 

The Land of Israel 

The Province of Syria 

Via Maris

One of the most important trade routes in the Middle East during ancient times was
the Via Maris. The Latin term, meaning "Way of the Sea" is referenced in Isaiah 8:23 in
the Tanakh (in the Christian Old Testament it is Isaiah 9:1) as "Derech HaYam" or
"Way of the Sea." The Latin name comes from the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the
New Testament, in Matthew 4:15. The term "Via Maris" comes from the Romans and
hence the terminology "Via Maris" tends to be an exclusively Christian reference to the
Sea Road. Other names for the Derech HaYam/Via Maris include "Coastal Road" and
"Way of the Philistines." From the coast to Damascus, the route is called the Trunk
Road. The Via Maris travels and is also known as the International Coastal Highway.
The International Coastal Highway is still a major route in modern-day Israel. 

The "Way of the Sea" is one of three major trade routes in ancient Israel – the Via
Maris, Ridge Route, and the King's Highway. It is situated from the Galilee to the North
to Samaria to the South, running through the Jezreel Valley. At the Philistine Plain, the
Way broke into two branches, one on the coast and one inland (through the Jezreel
Valley, the Sea of Galilee, and Dan), which unites at Megiddo ("Armageddon"). The
location of Megiddo vis a vis the Via Maris explains why Megiddo was a very important
route for travel and trading city in ancient Israel. The Way of the Sea connected the
major routes from the Fertile Cresent to Mesopotamia (from Egypt to modern day Iran,
Iraq, Turkey and Syria).The road was the main thoroughfare running north/south from
the Sinai along the coastal plain through the Jezreel valley, Beit Shean and on until
Damascus

Throughout the centuries, once the Jews were exiled from Israel, the Jezreel Valley, in
which the route traverses, became abandoned and the area became an infested
swamp. Zionist pioneers, however, drained the swamp from the time of the first land
acquisition in 1921, and the valley has been transformed into a fertile, fruit-bearing
plain.
 

King's Highway
The King’s Highway was a very ancient trade route that was important in Biblical
times. The highway started in Egypt and went up through the Sinai Peninsula over to
Aqaba and up the eastern side of the Jordan River to Damascus and the Euphrates
River.

The King's Highway is mentioned in the Bible in Numbers 20:17-21:

"Please let us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards,
nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the King's Highway; we will not
turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.'"
Then Edom said to him, "You shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against
you with the sword." So the children of Israel said to him, "We will go by the Highway,
and if I or my livestock drink any of your water, then I will pay for it; let me only pass
through on foot, nothing more." Then he said,"You shall not pass through." So Edom
came out against them with many men and with a strong hand. Thus Edom refused to
give Israel passage through his territory; so Israel turned away from him. "

"Numerous ancient states, including Edom, Moab, Ammon, and various Aramaean
polities depended largely on the King's Highway for trade. The Highway began in
Heliopolis, Egypt and from there went eastward to Clysma (modern Suez), through the
Mitla Pass and the Egyptian forts of Nekhl and Themed in the Sinai desert to Eilat and
Aqaba. From there the Highway turned northward through the Arabah, past Petra and
Ma'an to Udruh, Sela, and Shaubak. It passed through Kerak and the land of Moab to
Madaba, Rabbah Ammon/Philadelphia (modern Amman), Gerasa, Bosra, Damascus,
and Tadmor, ending at Resafa on the upper Euphrates...The Nabataeans used this road
as a trade route for luxury goods such as frankincense and spices from southern
Arabia. During the Roman period, the King's Highway was rebuilt by Trajan and called
the Via Traiana Nova." - Wikipedia
 

Judea

It was King Herod’s goal to make Jerusalem the most impressive city in the world. He
would go to any means to impress the world with his Hellenized buildings and
magnificent Greek architecture.
 

Legionary Camps in Israel and the Province of Syria

"Tiles found in Caesarea Maritima, built in the second decade BC, suggest that the
legion was at that time based in Judaea. Later X Fretensis moved to Syria. In 6 AD it
was stationed in that province together with legions III Gallica, VI Ferrata, and XII
Fulminata. In the same year, Publius Sulpicius Quirinus, governor of Syria, led these
legions in the suppression of the revolt that sprung out after the deposition of Herod
Archelaus. Under Nero, in 58-63 AD, X Fretensis participated in the campaigns of
Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo against the Parthians. First Jewish-Roman War. Ruins of the
city of Gamla, conquered by X Fretensis in 68 AD. X Fretensis was centrally involved in
the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73 AD), under the supreme command of Vespasian.
In 66 AD, the X Fretensis and V Macedonica went to Alexandria for an invasion of
Ethiopia planned by Nero. However, the two legions were needed in Judaea to
suppress a revolt. After spending the winter in Ptolemais Ace (modern Acre, Israel), X
Fretensis and V Macedonica relocated in the coastal city of Caesarea Maritima (67/68).
This was due to the large number of legions being mobilized in Ptolemais, under
Marcus Ulpius Traianus, future governor of Syria and father of the emperor Trajan.
During that same winter, the Caesarea camp of Xth and Vth hosted Vespasian, who
was forced to go to Rome the following year, where he seized power. Vespasian's son,
Titus finished the suppression of the revolt.

By 70, the rebellion in all of Iudaea had been crushed, except for Jerusalem and a few
fortresses, including Masada. In that year X Fretensis, in conjunction with V
Macedonica, XII Fulminata, and XV Apollinaris, began the siege of Jerusalem,
stronghold of the rebellion. The Xth camped on the Mount of Olives. During the siege,
Legio X gained fame in the effective use of their various war machines. It was noted
that they were able to hurl stones that weighted a talent (about 25 kg) a distance of
two furlongs (400 m) or further. The projectiles of their ballistae caused heavy damage
to the ramparts. According to Josephus (vol. III of his history of Judaean war) Larcius
Lepidus was the commanding officer of the X Legion. The siege of Jerusalem lasted five
months and the besieged population experienced all the terrible rigors of starvation.
Finally, the combined assaults of the legions succeeded in taking the city, which was
then subjected to destruction." - Wikipedia

Ancient Roman Roads

"When the fullness of time came, God brought forth His Son, born of a woman, born
under the law." (Gal 4:4)

The Roman road was the bloodstream of the empire. Merchants paid taxes to Rome on
all their transactions, and they needed the roads to carry their goods to an ever-
widening market. Legionnaires marched upon them swiftly gaining efficient access to
battle. In a sense, the roads were funding and facilitating Roman expansion.

Yet God had a higher purpose. A new kind of merchant would soon be traversing the
entire Mediterranean area, not one who transports his treasure to the city
marketplace, but one who is a treasure, and who carries true riches, - not to sell, but
to give away freely. The transforming good news of God’s forgiveness through Jesus
the Messiah was imbedded into the hearts of the Apostles and early believers, and God
prepared those roads for them to walk upon and lead others into His path.

A new kind of soldier would be running these well built thoroughfares to fight, - not
flesh and blood, but a spiritual warfare that would liberate entire civilizations from the
bondage of Satan’s tyrannical oppression and coercion, to a Kingdom ruled by love,
service and willing devotion.

Throughout history ‘the road’ has provided an excellent metaphor for life’s journey.
With amazement, we can look back over the winding grades of difficulty, the narrow
pass of opportunity, the choice between security or adventure, when our road divided
and we had to make the call.
Yes, all roads led to Rome, specifically the Forum, in the ancient empire of old, where
an Emperor judged the players in the arena for their conduct before him. Our personal
road will eventually and inevitably cease at the throne of Almighty God. It is He who
must judge our travel upon this earth, in the blinding glory of His eternal justice.
Compelled by His love, He placed sin’s damning penalty upon His Own Son, instead of
us, so that we could freely receive the "thumbs up!" from Him who loves us beyond all
measure.

Painting of a Roman Highway

Highways in Smith's Bible Dictionary

Highways
Though during the sway of the Romans over Israel they made a few substantial roads
for their carts and chariots, yet for the most of the time, as today, the Jews had
nothing such as we call roads, but only footpaths through which animals walk in single
file. These are never cared for, no repairs are made or obstacles removed. This fact
brings into striking prominence the figure of repairing a highway for the return Of the
captives, or the coming of the great King. On special occasions kings had roads
prepared for the progress of their armies, or their own going from place to place.   Full
Article

Roman Roads in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE

7. Cities of Galilee:
In material ways too Rome opened the way for Christianity by building the great
highways for the gospel. The great system of roads that knit then civilized world
together served not only the legions and the imperial escorts, but were of equal
service to the early missionaries, and when churches began to spring up over the
empire, these roads greatly facilitated that church organization and brotherhood which
strengthened the church to overcome the empire. With the dawn of the pax Romana
all these roads became alive once more with a galaxy of caravans and traders.
Commerce revived and was carried on under circumstances more favorable than any
that obtained till the past century. Men exchanged not only material things, but also
spiritual things. Many of these early traders and artisans were Christians, and while
they bought and sold the things that perish, they did not lose an opportunity of
spreading the gospel. For an empire which embraced the Mediterranean shores, the
sea was an important means of intercommunication; and the Mediterranean routes
were safer for commerce and travel at that period than during any previous one.
Pompey the Great had driven the pirates off the sea, and with the fall of Sextus
Pompey no hostile maritime forces remained. The ships which plied in countless
numbers from point to point of this great inland sea offered splendid advantages and
opportunity for early Christian missionary enthusiasm.   Full Article

Highways in Easton's Bible Dictionary

Highway. a raised road for public use. Such roads were not found in Israel; hence the
force of the language used to describe the return of the captives and the advent of the
Messiah (Isa. 11:16; 35:8; 40:3; 62:10) under the figure of the preparation of a grand
thoroughfare for their march. During their possession of Israel the Romans constructed
several important highways, as they did in all countries which they ruled.  Full Article
 

The Bible Mentions the "Highway" Often

2 Kings 18:17 - And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish
to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to
Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper
pool, which [is] in the highway of the fuller's field. 

Isaiah 19:23 - In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian
shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the
Assyrians. 

Judges 21:19 - Then they said, Behold, [there is] a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly [in a
place] which [is] on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from
Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah. 

Jeremiah 31:21 - Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward
the highway, [even] the way [which] thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to
these thy cities. 

Isaiah 62:10 - Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up,
cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. 

Isaiah 36:2 - And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king
Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of
the fuller's field. 

1 Samuel 6:12 - And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh, [and] went
along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside [to] the right hand or [to] the left;
and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh. 

Mark 10:46 - And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a
great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side
begging. 

Isaiah 7:3 - Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and
Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's
field; 

Isaiah 40:3 - The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 

Isaiah 11:16 - And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left,
from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. 

2 Samuel 20:13 - When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after
Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri. 

Proverbs 16:17 - The highway of the upright [is] to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way
preserveth his soul. 

Isaiah 35:8 - And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of
holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it [shall be] for those: the wayfaring men,
though fools, shall not err [therein]. 

2 Samuel 20:12 - And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when the
man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field,
and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that came by him stood still. 
 
 

The Motor
Museum in
 
Miniature
The History of British roads, part one.
The first roads 
   One of the things we should remember at this point is what the word ‘Road’ means. To us when we say road
we think of a hard surfaced carriage way with raised footpaths either side, but that’s not the whole story.
   A ‘road’ was originally ‘a right of way’; a route over which the people exercised their right to travel freely, with
their vehicles or animals, rather than the physical surface they moved over. Even the 1984 act states this :-

                                                                "the land over which a public right of way exists is known as a

highway”.

   Although most highways have been built into tarmac roads to ease the passage of all types of traffic, the
presence, or absence, of a made road has nothing to do with the distinction. A dirt track with the right of way
can be considered a road.
   Humans Migrated into Britain following the retreat of the ice age, around 10,000 years ago. These people
were hunter gatherers with no roads or transport; they simply roamed where the search for foods took them. 
   After Britain became cut off from mainland Europe, about 8,000 years ago some of these peoples slowly
started to move around territories that would suit their needs for the time of year. By 6,000 years ago
settlements were becoming permanent and farming was becoming the way to produce food rather than going
out looking for what might be lying around.
   As societies develop, so does trade. Moving animals and goods to market becomes ever more important and
local routes without any formal construction simply occurred. Historically this continues to happen until around
1800.
   In approximately 4,000BC two important things happened, the invention of the wheel and the taming of the
horse. The earliest examples of wheels aren’t from Britain but as such things seem to develop rather than
being one ‘Eureka’ moment it’s hard to imagine that these early Britons hadn’t discovered easy ways to roll
heavy loads around.
   It is quite possible that wheels and axles evolved as running sleds over rollers slowly caused groves in the
rollers. Eventually some bright spark had the idea of joining two slices of tree trunk with a stout pole, thus doing
away with the heavy rollers. Then, by attaching this wheel and axle combination to a flat load bed, a hand cart
is born, scale that up and attach a horse or ox and you can move a considerable amount of goods over long
distances.

   In the Bronze Age roads became recognisable routes, negotiated amongst tribes and settlements, and
marked with large wooden posts or standing stones. One such stone, known as the ‘Growing stone’, can be
seen beside the A40 from Abergavenny to Crickhowell close to Gwernvale Dolmen.
   It is thought to mark the important route through the hills of the Black Mountains to the north and the eastern
edge of the Brecon Beacons to the south. A route later formalised by the Romans who called it the Via Julia.
   The use of wheels really took off with the advent of metal tools. Tools meant the shaping of wood became
easier; holes could be drilled through the tree trunk slice to make it lighter. Make the holes increasingly bigger
and spokes start to appear. Now the idea of making wheels in sections occurs and they can be bound by iron
rims.
   But wheels left ruts in the soft earth roads quickly churning them into mud. So the Ancient Britons became
adept at making road ways, and importantly, different styles of road to suit the local conditions too.
   The Sweet Track, in the Somerset Levels, is a raised wooden footpath crossing marsh lands. It is dated
through dendrochronology to between 3807 and 3806 BC, pretty much 6,000years ago! On the Fore shore of
Swansea another track way has been discovered. This one made by mats woven from narrow branches of oak
and alder, covered in a thin layer of brushwood to provide a level walking-surface. This was also an aid to
crossing marsh lands, but in an area where there were no known dwellings. The road was made specifically to
go somewhere. This dates from around 2,000BC.
   The “Upton Track” across the mudflats along the Severn estuary is another wooden road dating from around
400 years BC. 
   At Geldeston, in Norfolk, a timber road likely built by the Iceni tribe, dated by dendrochronology to around 75
BC has been discovered preserved in peat.
   The Iron Age road discovered at Sharpstone hill from around 100BC is most impressive. It has a
bed of brushwood and river silt with rounded river stones set into the silt to provide a solid road
surface. Grooves in the silt/stone surface have been discovered raising the belief that the road was
used extensively for trade by carts. Furthermore, the dimensions of the road are large to say the
least. It is 4.5m wide and rising 50cm above the surrounding ground level. 
   Some of the ways the archaeologists know these roads were constructed in a sophisticated way are their
findings at Sharpestone Hill. 
1 - The original ground appears to have been prepared by the burning of the vegetation on top. Burnt sand and
stones were found at the base of the roadway.
2 - Over this a layer of brushwood was laid then a layer silt/river mud seems to have been very quickly put on
top is this. The archaeologists found some of the elder brushwood branches to be encased in mud and well
preserved. This is thought to be an attempt to consolidate the surface which may have been in an area of wet
land. The mud is also important as the micro morphological evidence in the also helps to give evidence of the
type of vegetation and micro-life that was prevalent when the road was made, and suggests the deposited
material was collected from another location. This ‘foundation’ layer was 4.5m wide, quite a size considering
the type and frequency of traffic we might suppose existed at the time.
3 – The actual road surface was a dual layer system with a mix of gravel and small stones bound in a silty
sand with a layer of smooth river cobbles compacted down onto this. These stones were not from the
immediate vicinity but most likely brought up from the river Severn which is only about 3km away. Together
these layers provided a strong all-weather surface that was about 50cm higher than the ground surface, and it
was cambered to aid water drainage. Something else that was really very advanced considering drainage was
almost forgotten by the 1700s!
4 – It was also found that the road had kerbing, gullies and post holes alongside it on the southern side;
suggestive of a boundary fence of some sort.
5 – Archaeologists also found that the road had been overlaid in similar fashion at least twice until
the final road width was over 7m wide. Another discovery was areas that appeared to be repairs
rather than a full resurfacing, wheel ruts caused by wagons must have been a problem then (just as
now).
 
   Pits were found in the surrounding area and one which was actually under the road. The pit beneath the road
was located at a point where the three historic parishes met, and must have held a substantial post of about
70cm diameter. The interpretation placed upon this is that it may have been a marker post suggesting the
road's origins thus lie in a Bronze Age drove way that ran over the hill, within a landscape already identified as
containing occupation and funeral remains from that period. 
   The discovery of a Roman style road overlaying the original foundations of another much earlier road, dating
from the Iron Age, is now prompting archaeologists in other parts of Britain to re-examine other more typically
Roman-looking roads to see whether they too were originally constructed by Britons.  There are known routes
that were used throughout pre-history, largely these early routes were just that but as time went on wooden
road ways were constructed, but this is the first of this type of engineered road and clearly built before the
Romans arrived. This road was probably part of a road that might have been as long as 40 miles running
through the British Iron Age kingdom of the Cornovii, linking the hill fort of the the Wrekin, near Telford, with
Old Oswestry hillfort. 
   Such a road might have been for the prestige of local tribal leaders, and for linking hillforts but it must have
been used for normal daily life moving animals, farm produce and goods. 
   Another road which has had to be rethought is “the Danes’ road” in Ireland. Originally named so as it was
thought to be of the Viking era or later people started to question this assumption in the 1980s and with the aid
of tree ring dating it was found the wood this road was cut in 148BC. This road is also interesting as it’s
sophisticated construction, of raised Oak planks over birch runners, was wide enough for two carts to pass
each other.
   It has also come to light that there are many wooden roads across Europe built in the same way at the same
time. Furthermore the thought that Romans built the first roads has been undermined as the first important
Roman road, built in 312BC, the Appian Way, built after the “Upton Track” in south Wales.
   Recent research suggests that Roman roads were often simply placed over the paths made by local traffic. It
now appears Roman roads were only completely straight when built anew by the Romans to go directly from
one distant area to another.
   Now; if we consider this evidence, along with evidence of the adoption of European farming methods and
grave goods that have come from much further afield, it is clear that there were no howling, uncivilised
barbarian ‘Brits’ when the Romans arrived. There was already an established network of tribes, towns and
trade routes which linked Britain to the continental countries; and they had wheeled vehicles.
   It is known that by the time the Romans ‘arrived’ in Britain, around 2,000 years ago, the Ancient Britons had
large numbers of chariots which they used for warlike purposes. A basic frame of basketwork covered with
animal skins rolled on wheels of up to 16 spokes with iron or bronze hubs. Two 'yoked' horses pulled the
chariot, and they certainly surprised the Roman troops during their Invasion!
 
   Very few hints of the wooden carts of the past remain as wood degrades so easily. There are
fragments of carts found across Europe that have similarities and these parts have been brought
together to give us an idea of what it might have looked like. What is clear is that the complicated
fittings of harnesses meant that few Iron Age farmers would have had a horse or a cart; most
people would have walked carrying their own load. Over the next few hundred years the
domestication of animals increased, the skills of building carts and uses and designs of carts
increased. Fast, light carriages were pulled by horses with heavy wagons being pulled by oxen. 

History of road transport

Roman roads fell into disuse and wheeled vehicles more or less disappeared throughout Europe
until they began to make a slow comeback nearly a thousand years later during the Middle Ages.
Movement of goods and people was then largely on foot or by pack animal and tracks were
sufficient. Bridges, usually the responsibility of the religious orders, were the main priority as water
crossings were often hazardous.

Trade between cities was on the increase and movement by coastal shipping was too slow and
unreliable.Something had to be done about roads and it was not long before the first
comprehensive if ineffectual legislation on maintenance was drafted. Large waggons such as is
shown above, of maybe two to four tons capacity and drawn by as many as six horses or oxen
began to appear on the scene towards the end of the sixteenth century. Public coaches began to
appear also. They were slow, covering not much more than twenty km in a day, and amazingly
uncomfortable, being totally without springs or even spoked wheels. In any case people generally
travelled little if at all and rarely for pleasure due to the terrible roads, particularly bad in winter.
The spread of private toll roads in the UK and the construction of the state-managed network in
France, together with an expanding postal service went hand-in-hand with a rapid growth in road
transport during the eighteenth century. By the end of it, in the UK at least, nearly all major cities
were within a days' journey from London by stagecoach (so called because they changed horses
every hour or so at stages, which were also inns). These could average 15 km an hour carrying
about twelve passengers, but were, of course, very expensive. Travel by coach was not for
everybody. A long days' journey of 300km, to say, Leeds, would have cost well over a weeks'
wages for a skilled worker, in tolls, transport and innumerable tips to notoriously rapacious coach
drivers and staff at the inns. The equivalent in price today would be a return trans-Atlantic ticket.

Early in the nineteenth century, the converging technologies of road construction and light high
pressure steam engines stimulated the introduction of motorised road vehicles. In the UK and to a
far lesser extent, France, a number of interurban and local services started up during the 1830's.
Some operated reliable scheduled services carrying up to eighteen passengers at average speeds
of up to 25km per hour.

Gurney 12 bhp steam coach: top speed of 16kph; ran four trips per day between Gloucester and Cheltenham (13km) for four months
in 1831

However, at least in the UK, powerful forces were conspiring against them. The politically powerful
landowners had invested heavily in rail transport and stood to lose too much from competition. They
effectively suppressed motorised road transport for sixty years through legislation imposing a speed
limit of 5km and cleverly made it self-policing by requiring that a vehicle be preceded by a man on
foot with a red flag.

In any case rail proved itself to be probably the right choice at the time for cheap mass transport.
Roads would not have stood up to heavy motorised traffic, given the weak maintenance
management structures of the time. Although rail infrastructure was more expensive to build than
roads because of the moderate grades and sweeping curves that the relatively low-powered and
inefficient locomotives demanded, when allied to low-friction steel rails it ensured low unit operating
costs. Rail fares plummeted in the space of a few years and mass travel became possible with the
coming of the third class ticket. Leeds was now not much over a day's wages from London. By the
1860's, most British cities were linked to London at average speeds of up to 80kph. It didn't really
get much better than that for the next hundred years.

The high-speed internal combustion engine, with a far superior power to weight ratio, appeared in
the 1860's. Relying on gas it was still very cumbersome until with liquid fuel it literally exploded on
the scene in the 1880's as a highly mobile form of motive power. Vehicle technology rushed to meet
it and by the turn of the century motorised road transport was, if not yet commonplace, under
intense development.By the first world war it dominated local transport of goods and people. By the
second it had overtaken rail for long distance travel and subsequently took over goods transport.
 As car prices dropped, bottoming in the UK at 100GBP in the thirties, private ownership percolated
rapidly through descending income levels, becoming general in the 60's. Themotorcar has now
rivalled the weather as a source of conversation for almost a hundred years. It will continue to fill
conversational gaps, but as its popularity wanes and its banality increases (as has, to be fair, its
reliabilty), it will perhaps generate no more than the polite interest we would now accord to vacuum
cleaners.

The Plank Road Enthusiasm in the Antebellum

Middle West
Carl Abbott∗

The common roads of the United States are inferior to those of any other civilized
country. Their faults are those of direction, of slopes, of shape, of surface, and
generally of deficiency in all the attributes of good roads.

William M. Gillespie

Our people have not been in the habit of looking to the English colonies, at this day,
for models of enterprize … but It is as true as it is mortifying, that our provincial
neighbors across the Lakes are vastly in advance of us with regard to this, the great
road improvement of the age.

Philo White1

The possibility of surfacing common country roads with sawed lumber, an innovation
which for a brief time promised to revolutionize rural transportation, received public
notice in the United States as early as 1843. In that year, a series of articles describing
the construction of plank roads in Canada was published in the RochesterDemocrat and
widely copied in other New York papers. At the same time a short, unsigned
communication "On Plank Roads in Canada" was appended to the annual report of the
United States commissioner of patents. This anonymous letter concluded, after
sketching Canadian experience with such thoroughfares, that they were at the least
potentially valuable improvements for regions where stone was scarce and timber
abundant.2

Interest in country and interurban plank roads increased in upper New York during the
following year. One group of promoters not only organized to build a plank road from
Syracuse to the town of Central Square but also sent one of its number to Canada to
investigate the feasibility of importing this northern innovation to the United States.
Other New Yorkers organized similar companies, and


  Carl Abbott is a graduate student in American history at the University of Chicago,
∗

Chicago.
1
  William M. Gillespie, A Manual of the Principles and Practice of Road-Making:
Comprising the Location, Construction, and Improvement of Roads. and Railroads (10th
 ed., New York, 1871; first published, 1847), Preface; "Report of Mr. [Philo] White, on the
Subject of Plank Roads," Wisconsin Territory, Council Journal (1848).
2
  J. Snow, "Plank Roads–New Improvement," Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, XVI
(April, 1847), 369; Report of the Commissioner of Patents for 1843, U.S., Senate
Document 150, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., Appendix 32, p. 229. Plank roads differed sharply from
the well known corduroy roads. Whereas the former consisted of a smooth surface of sawed
lumber laid on a carefully prepared foundation, the latter, which had been in common use
throughout the continent for some decades, were made by laying whole logs across a
roadbed at right angles to its course. Such cheap and easily constructed roads were often
laid in swampy sections of newly opened frontier areas. However, because they were
intolerably rough and quick to decay, they were usually replaced by less crude
thoroughfares as a region developed. Edwin C. Guillet, The Story of Canadian
Roads (Toronto, 1967), 59-63.

in April, 1844, the state assembly's Committee on Roads and Bridges presented a
special report on "various petitions for the incorporation of sundry plank road
companies." It noted that "all the applications for plank or timber road charters
proceed from the northwestern portion of our State … and have doubtless been
prompted and stimulated by similar improvements in the neighboring provinces of
Upper and Lower Canada." After reporting that investigations in the British provinces
had shown the utility of the innovation, the committee predicted that such roads would
3
complete "an entire and beneficial revolution" in the upper parts of the state.

The system of road building to which New Yorkers were beginning to devote their
attention had been in use in Upper Canada for nearly a decade. Apparently, the first
road in North America to receive a plank surface had been finished near Toronto in
1836. Although the Rebellion of 1837 had retarded the spread of the improvement, the
provincial Board of Works had undertaken a program of construction in 1839. By 1861
the governments of Upper and Lower Canada had laid 162 miles of planking and
private companies 214 more.4 To a degree the popularity of the roads was based on
their low cost and the availability of materials. Even more they commended
themselves to the public by their smoothness. A number of delighted travelers thought
them "as smooth as a billiard table" and compared riding on them to gliding across a
carpet or the floor of a ballroom.5

As knowledge of Canadian success with this improvement spread, a plank road craze
developed in northwestern New York. According to official sources the state's first such
highway was put into operation near Syracuse in July, 1846. Within a year the increase
of applications for charters and the demand for a simple method of incorporation
caused the legislature to enact a general law for the organization of plank road
companies. Fifty-two companies were organized under this act in 1848, eighty in 1849,
and about two hundred more in the 1850s.6 The enthusiasm also spread to
Pennsylvania,


3
  William H. Bogart, "The First Plank Road Movement," Hunt's Merchants'
Magazine, XXIV (January, 1851), 63-65; "Report of the Committee on Roads and Bridges,"
 New York, Assembly Document 197 (1844); Joseph A. Durrenberger, Turnpikes: A Study of
the Toll Road Movement in the Middle Atlantic States and Maryland (Cos Cob, Conn., 1968),
144.
4
  George P. deT. Glazebrook, A History of Transportation in Canada (Toronto, 1938),
120; Eighty Years Progress in British North America(Toronto, 1864), 127.
5
  Guillet, The Story of Canadian Roads, 66-69; Edwin C. Guillet, Pioneer Travel in
Upper Canada (Toronto, 1963), 166; Glazebrook, A History of Transportation in
Canada, 120.
6
  "Report of the Committee on Roads and Bridges, in Relation to a General Law for
Plank Roads," New York, Senate Document 50 (1847), 3; "Report of the Secretary of State
in Relation to Plank Roads," New York, Senate Document 74 (1850), 3-10;
Durrenberger, Turnpikes, 145.

[Figure]
which passed a general plank road act in 1849, and to New Jersey, where the
innovation was especially popular in the state's isolated southern section. Throughout
the Middle Atlantic states some seven hundred companies were chartered and about
7
seven thousand miles of plank highways completed by 1857.

This new development in transportation did not go unnoticed by nationally circulated

publications. In 1847 Hunt's Merchants' Magazine responded with a descriptive article
entitled "Plank Roads–New Improvement." Niles' Weekly Register commented two
years later that plank roads were "growing into universal favor."8 By the early 1850s,
when plank highways had become an integral part of the economy of upstate New
York, national journals began to celebrate their virtues. The New YorkTribune praised
their ease of construction and stated that the roads added immensely to the
transportation facilities of the state, while the Scientific American wrote that these
roads would be the means for "completely reforming the interior or rural transit trade
of our country." Hunt's Magazine commented editorially that "every section of the
country should be lined with these roads," and published an article which claimed that
"the plank road is of the class of canals and railways. They are the three great
inscriptions graven on the earth by the hand of modern science. … In the list of
improvements which have given to this age the character which it will bear in history
above all others–the age of happiness to the people–the plank road will bear a
prominent place …"9

For people seriously interested in building a plank road, such general testimonials to
their advantages were hardly satisfactory sources of practical information. To satisfy
the need for detailed technical knowledge, New York experts published several
elaborate plank road manuals during the early years of the enthusiasm. In 1847 a
report of the state Senate's Committee on Roads and Bridges included a detailed
discussion of the construction and operation of plank roads. Three years later George
Geddes, the engineer of the first New York road, published his Observations on Plank
Roads, and in 1851 another New York engineer, William Kingsford, brought out
his History, Structure and Statistics of Plank Roads in the United States and
Canada. Another widely quoted source was A Manual of

7
  Wheaton J. Lane, From Indian Trail to Iron Horse: Travel and Transportation in
New Jersey, 1620-1860 (Princeton, 1939), 162-64; Durrenberger, Turnpikes, 144-45. As
indicated in Durrenberger, New York chartered 352 companies to 1857, Pennsylvania
chartered 315, New Jersey chartered 25, and Maryland chartered 13.
8
  Snow, "Plank Roads–New Improvement," 268-69; Niles' Weekly Register, LXXV
(April 4, 1849), 221.
9
 New YorkTribune, quoted in Springfield (III.) Register, February 12,
1850; Scientific American, V (March 23, 1850), 209; "Progress of Plank Roads in New York
and Canada," Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, XXVII (October, 1852), 509; Bogart, "The First
Plank Road Movement," 63.

the Principles and Practice of Road-Making by William M. Gillespie, a professor of

10
engineering at Union College.

These authorities agreed on most issues arising from the "recent innovation of
covering roads with planks." Although sometimes acknowledging that such roads were
a "new and untried experiment" whose novelty might be responsible for some of the
interest shown in them, they quickly passed on to unqualified endorsements of the
advantages of the improvement.11 According to these men the function of the new
roads could be summed up in a single sentence: "Plank roads are the Farmer's
Railroads." Although railroads were considered superior to plank roads for long
distances and for the transport of extremely heavy or bulky goods, plank roads were
preferable for "the home use–for the transit which is begun and ended in a day …
which increases the happiness and profit of the farm." There was further consensus
that such highways were valuable not only for the farmer who wanted to haul his
produce to market but also for "many thriving villages … whose business would not
warrant the construction of a railroad" but which nevertheless needed "convenient
avenues to and from their locations." Plank roads, in short, were "the feeders of
railroads and canals," of more use to the country's farming than to its commercial
population.12

In describing the essentials of plank road construction, these writers followed closely
the methods worked out in Canada.13 Few New York engineers would have argued with
the following summary of building techniques: "In the most generally approved
system, two parallel rows of small sticks of timber (called indifferently sleepers,
stringers, orsills) are imbedded in the road, three or four feet apart. Planks, eight feet
long and three or four inches thick, are laid upon these sticks, across them, at right
angles to their direction. A side track of earth, to turn out upon, is carefully graded.
Deep ditches are dug on each side, to ensure perfect drainage; and thus is formed a
Plank Road."14 In addition, the surface of the road was frequently covered with fine
gravel or sand to protect it from horseshoes and steel rimmed wheels, and the edges
of the planks were staggered so


 10
  "Report of the Committee on Roads and Bridges, in Relation to a General Law for
Plank Roads"; George Geddes, Observations on Plank Roads(Syracuse, 1850); William
Kingsford, History, Structure and Statistics of Plank Roads in the United States and
Canada (Philadelphia, 1851); Gillespie, Manual, 230-53.
11
  Gillespie, Manual, 230; "Report of the Committee on Roads and Bridges, in
Relation to a General Law for Plank Roads," 2; see also Kingsford,History, 28.
12
  Gillespie, Manual, 249; Bogart, "The First Plank Road Movement," 64; "Report of
the Committee on Roads and Bridges, in Relation to a General Law for Plank Roads," 7-8;
Kingsford, History, 20; see also Scientific American, VII (January 17, 1852), 141.
13
  "Report of the Committee on Roads and Bridges, in Relation to a General Law for
Plank Roads," 4-6. For Canadian techniques see Guillet, The Story of Canadian Roads, 66-
69.
14
  Gillespie, Manual, 231.

that wagons could more easily turn onto the road. If the planks were not spiked down,
dirt was heaped over their ends to help hold them in place. For all except the most
heavily traveled roads it was thought sufficient to lay a single track of eight foot planks
paralleled by a track of dirt on which vehicles could turn out to pass. Instructions for
building plank roads also stressed that the planks should lie directly on the surface of
the ground since any air allowed underneath caused dry rot. Moreover, experts warned
that mud would squeeze between the planks of a poorly drained road, fouling the
surface and creating cavities beneath. There was, however, serious disagreement on
how best to overcome these technical problems. Some engineers believed that very
light stringers would settle into the earth, keeping the planks on the soil. Others
argued, against strong opposition, that stringers formed a kind of trough which held
15
water under the road and should therefore be dispensed with altogether.

Agitation for plank roads in the middlewestern states followed closely on the initial
interest in New York. In the latter part of 1844 and the first months of 1845
Indianapolis and Fort Wayne editors commented on the innovation, and newspapers in
Cleveland and Chicago reported series of meetings, called for the promotion and
organization of plank road companies.16 From Cleveland a committee of interested
citizens dispatched an emissary to investigate the construction of plank roads in
Canada and published a report in the ClevelandHerald in April, 1845. In Illinois
advocates of a Chicago-Rockford road, among whom were such leading Chicagoans as
J. Young Scammon and Walter Newberry, obtained a charter early in 1845 and also
sent an engineer to Canada to bring back first hand information. 17 In none of the cities,
however, did this activity produce results. In 1846 plank roads were still considered an
"experiment," and a Chicago magazine remarked that the possibility of constructing
such


15
  Gillespie, Manual, 234-44; Kingsford, History, 21-22; Geddes, quoted in Scientific
American, V (April 27, 1850), 254; Charles E. Clarke, "A Letter on Plank Roads," in
Kingsford, History, 36-39. It was recommended that the plank track be laid on the right
side coming into town, so that farm vehicles carrying heavy loads to market would have the
right of way.
 16
 ChicagoDemocrat, September 11, December 4, 1844; ChicagoGem of the
Prairie, December 1, 1844; IndianapolisIndiana Journal, May 14, 1845; Charles R.
Poinsatte, Fort Wayne during the Canal Era, 1828-1855: A Study of a Western Community
in the Middle Period of American History (Indiana Historical Collections, Vol. XLVI;
Indianapolis, 1969), 241; ClevelandHerald, August 24, December 4, 1844, January 3, 14,
February 3, 17, 1845, quoted in Annals of Cleveland: A Digest and Index of the Newspaper
Record of Events and Opinions (Cleveland, 1938).Annals of Cleveland is a paperbound,
mimeographed series of volumes containing excerpts from Cleveland newspapers. There is
a volume for each year beginning in the 1840s and continuing into the twentieth century. It
was a Works Progress Administration project.
17
 ClevelandHerald, April 3, 1845, quoted in Annals of Cleveland; Prairie Farmer, IV
(October, 1844), 246; Charles A. Church, History of Rockford and Winnebago County,
Illinois (Rockford, 1900), 192; ChicagoDemocrat, December 4,1844.

18
thoroughfares had by that date "passed out of the public mind."

After this apparent hiatus interest in plank roads began to revive in the Middle West in
1847. Articles appeared in newspapers from Indiana to Iowa, the widely read Prairie
Farmer carried an editorial advocating the planking of roads, and the region's first such
highway was finished in 1847 between Milwaukee and Watertown.19 By the following
year the issue was being discussed and companies organized in every state of the Old
Northwest. The interest in rural plank roads was perhaps increased by a simultaneous
application of the new surfacing technique to the formidable problem of paving the
streets of western cities.20 So rapidly did interest burgeon that four middle-western
states–Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois–set up standardized procedures for
the incorporation of plank road companies by the spring of 1849.21

To satisfy the need of middlewesterners for reliable information on both the economic
advantages and the methods of construction of plank roads, western magazines
carried numerous articles on such highways. Chicago's Prairie Farmerreprinted a short
article by George Geddes, quoted from a pamphlet issued by a committee of Racing
citizens entitled "Plank Roads: A Report on their Utility and Economy," and excerpted
Gillespie's Manual.22 The Western Journal and Civilian, published at St. Louis, also
reproduced Gillespie's chapter


18
 ChicagoJournal, April 21, 1845, January 19, 1846; Prairie Farmer, VII (April,
1847), 123.
19
 . Bayrd Still, Milwaukee: The History of a City (Madison, 1948), 51; Richard C.
Overton, Burlington West: A Colonization History of the Burlington Railroad (Cambridge,
Mass., 1941), 48; Prairie Farmer, VII (April, 1847), 123; IndianapolisIndiana
Journal, February 12, July 12, 1847.
20
  At the same time that they advocated plank roads in the country and between
towns, Chicago newspapers also urged the planking of the city's downtown streets.
Following a few small scale experiments, the city undertook a major program of street
planking in 1849, laying twenty-seven miles of such pavement by 1854. Bessie L. Pierce, A
 History of Chicago (3 vols., New York, 1937-1957), II, 318; Elias Colbert, Historical and
Statistical Sketch of the Garden City (Chicago, 1868), 42-43. Cleveland also began to plank
its streets in 1849 to the delight of at least one of its newspapers. ClevelandDaily True
Democrat, October 7, November 16, December 1, 1848, May 5, July 19, 1849, quoted
in Annals of Cleveland. On the basis of the Chicago and Cleveland experience Milwaukee
began to put the same surface on its streets in 1852 and other cities noted the innovation
with interest. Still, Milwaukee, 237-38; Galena (111.) Jeffersonian, October 4, 1851. Since
streets in these young cities were as much storm sewers and sanitary sewers as they were
thoroughfares, the experiment had little hope of success. Pools of foul and stagnant water
accumulated beneath the plank surfaces, rotting the wood and producing fountains of filth
every time a wagon or pedestrian ventured onto the loose planks. Colbert, Historical and
Statistical Sketch, 42-43; Mayor Levi Boone, Inaugural Address (Chicago, 1856), 5-6. By
1857 Cleveland was rapidly tearing up its remaining planks, while the Chicago City Council
decided in the same year that paving with gravel was cheaper than planking.
ClevelandLeader, April 28, 1857, quoted in Annals of Cleveland; Alfred T. Andreas, History
of Chicago. From the Earliest Period to the Present Time (3 vols., Chicago, 1885), I, 194.
21
  Remley J. Glass, "Early Transportation and the Plank Road," Annals of Iowa, XXI
(January, 1939), 517-18.
22
 Prairie Farmer, VII (April, 1847), 123; VIII (March, 1848), 74-75; IX (July,
November, 1849), 228-29, 347.

on plank roads, quoted from a New York paper "for the purpose of showing the
favorable opinion entertained of plank roads in that part of the country," and
summarized a report to the Wisconsin territorial Council. In addition theWestern
Journal and Civilian published an original discussion of plank roads by Joseph E. Ware
23
of St. Louis and agitated in its editorial columns for their construction.

Middlewestern newspapers which printed letters and reports by local experts and
extracts from eastern publications were an additional source of technical information
for plank road builders.24 Customarily, however, newspapers played a more direct role
in the generation of the plank road mania. A typical western editor considered the
boosting of his locality his chief journalistic task and had little hesitation about making
himself the champion of a new transportation improvement. John Wentworth's
ChicagoDemocrat, for example, carried article after article about plank roads, and
Indianapolis editors assured their readers that plank roads were a pleasant and
practical means of travel rather than an experiment. 25 In Cleveland the Daily True
Democrat repeatedly asked its readers why the city had no such roads, delivered
lectures on their value, and in 1851 trumpeted: "Push on these highways of the
people." In Missouri the editor of the ColumbiaWeekly Statesman similarly made the
advocacy of local plank roads the paramount issue for his paper in 1851.26

This local emphasis in middlewestern newspapers fitted with the normal business
organization of plank road companies, most of which were promoted, financed, and
controlled by the inhabitants of the regions which they served. In the usual case a
small group of promoters planted publicity in local papers, secured a charter, and
 peddled stock by holding a series of public meetings in the counties traversed by the
road.27 In some instances promoters also secured public aid for their


23
 Western Journal and Civilian, I (July, 1848), 381-82; II (January, 1849), 5-6; IV
(May, 1850), 91-98; V (March, 1851), 335-41; Joseph E. Ware, "Construction of Plank
Roads," Western Journal and Civilian, VI (June, 1851), 171-77.
24
  Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette, February 19, 1848, quoted in Balthasar H.
Meyer, A History of Early Railroad Legislation in Wisconsin (The State Historical Society of
Wisconsin Collections, Vol. XIV; Madison, 1898), 221; Burlington Telegraph, February 20,
1851, and MuscatineJournal, December 7, 1850, in John E. Brindley, History of Road
Legislation in Iowa (Iowa City, 1912), 70; Gem of the Prairie, March 8, 1851;
ChicagoDemocrat, January 22, 1848, July 15, 1849.
25
 IndianapolisSentinel, February 10, 1849; IndianapolisLocomotive, December 23,
1848, October 22, 1849; ChicagoDemocrat, October 2, 9, December 9, 1848, January 16,
February 1, 1849.
26
 ClevelandDaily True Democrat, November 3, December 4, 12, 1848, April 24,
1849, March 21, 1851, quoted in Annals of Cleveland; Paul C. Doherty, "The Columbia-
Providence Plank Road," Missouri Historical Review, LVII (October, 1962), 53-55.
27
  For example see George A. Boeck, "A Decade of Transportation Fever in
Burlington, Iowa, 1845-1855," Iowa Journal of History, LVI (April, 1958), 133-39; Ben H.
Wilson, "The Burlington Road," The Palimpsest, XVI (October, 1935), 309-11;

28
project.  After sufficient stock had been subscribed and payments had begun to trickle
in, the company was ready to order lumber and to put the first few miles under
contract, usually building outward from the most important town served. Since cash
was scarce in most parts of the Middle West, stock usually sold slowly and in small
amounts and was often paid for with deeds to real estate or promises of labor. As a
consequence two or three years sometimes were required to build a road fifteen or
29
twenty miles long.

Once their highway was in operation, the builders of a plank road reaped their profits
from the tolls they charged on the passage of horsemen, vehicles, and animals.
Maximum rates were set for the earlier roads in their individual charters and for the
later by the general state laws under which they were incorporated. Although the rates
varied from state to state, they were somewhat higher in the Middle West than in New
York.30 Because construction costs were low and roads were short, the total investment
in each company was usually measured in the tens of thousands of dollars. A good
return on capital might therefore be expected with a small amount of traffic. 31

The enthusiasm for plank roads was perhaps stronger in Ohio than in any other state
during the late forties. Nine companies were chartered during the initial attention in
1845, eight with the revival of interest in 1848, and thirty-seven in 1849. Eighty-nine
companies were incorporated in 1850, but only sixty-two the following year. The
innovation was most popular in the northern half of the state, especially in the counties
within forty miles of Lake Erie. A number of roads were also incorporated in the state's
 hilly eastern section. Almost none, however, were built in the Miami and lower Scioto
valleys.32 Instead, the heavily developed southwestern corner of Ohio


 Ben H. Wilson, "Planked from Keokok," ibid., XXVII (December, 1946), 370-75;
Overton, Burlington West, 48-49.
28
  Randolph C. Downes, Canal Days (Lucas County Historical Series, Vol. II; Toledo,
1949), 93; Boeck, "A Decade of Transportation Fever," 135.
29
  For the prevalence of small shares, the scarcity of cash, and the slowness of
construction, see Second Annual Report of the President of the Central Plank Road
Company (Indianapolis, 1851); Minute Book of the Southern Plank Road Company
(Michigan City), John B. Niles Papers (Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington);
Samuel Hanna to Allen Hamilton, November 11, December 31, 1850, Allen Hamilton Papers
(Indiana State Library, Indianapolis).
30
  Robert Dale Owen, A Brief Practical Treatise on the Construction and Management
of Plank Roads (New Albany, 1850), 69-71; IndianapolisJournal, October 3, 1849. In 1853
the New York legislature made rates roughly equal to those in Indiana and Illinois.
Durrenberger, Turnpikes, 144.
31
  Owen, Treatise, 86-87. Few New York roads had a capital of more than $50,000,
while the Central Plank Road, one of the largest roads in Indiana, had a subscribed capital
of $83,250 in 1850. Second Annual Report … Central Plank Road Company, 6.
32
 Ohio, "Report of the Secretary of State for 1885," 211-16; CincinnatiMercury, April
30, 1849; Ohio, "Report of the Auditor of State for 1852"; William F.
Gephart, Transportation and Industrial Development in the Middle West (New York, 1909),
146, 222.

33
relied on numerous macadamized turnpikes built during the previous fifteen years.

The onset of the excitement in Michigan was contemporaneous with activity in Ohio.
Several dozen charters were granted in 1848, and the press of work forced the
legislature to pass the West's first general plank road act in March of that year. During
the next several years such roads proved "highly profitable" to their builders and "very
popular" with the public. Moreover, they played an important part in the state's
economy, not only linking its smaller towns but also connecting such cities as Lansing
and Grand Rapids to the slowly developing rail network.34

In Indiana the interest in plank roads was more widespread than in Ohio but somewhat
later to develop. The state's first plank roads were finished in 1849 near Indianapolis
and Fort Wayne.35 Governor Joseph A. Wright commented to the General Assembly in
that year that "no public improvement seems to commend itself to the public with
more favor," while the IndianapolisJournal noted that plank roads were attracting
attention all over the state.36 In 1850 both the MadisonCourier and the Indiana
Statesman noted the prevalence of a "plankroad spirit."37 At the same time Robert Dale
Owen, who had been sent by an Indiana company "to visit that portion of western New
York where plank roads were first introduced into this country," published his
observations in a book widely disseminated and highly acclaimed by Indiana editors.
 Within a hundred or so pages he excitely endorsed the improvement, discussed the
methods of construction and economic advantages of plank roads, and recommended
the writings of Geddes and Gillespie.38 By the following year 400 miles of such
highways were in use and hundreds more near completion.39


33
  Charles Cist, Cincinnati in 1841 (Cincinnati, 1841), 80-81;
CincinnatiGazette, September 14, 1850; "Dayton, Ohio," Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, XXVI
(May, 1852), 572-77; Ohio, "Report of the Commissioner of Statistics for 1857," 39.
Macadamized pavement was named for its inventor John L. McAdam, who introduced it in
England in 1815. It consisted of a firm base of large rocks overlaid with layers of
progressively smaller stones. The whole surface was bonded together by the weight of
passing vehicles and by a crude cement of stone dust and water. Guillet, The Story of
Canadian Roads, 65-66.
34
  Willis F. Dunbar, Michigan Through the Centuries (2 vols., New York, 1955), I,
224-25; Balthasar H. Meyer, dir., History of Transportation in the United States before
1860 (Washington, 1917), 300; Michigan Central Railroad, Fourth Annual Report (Boston,
1850), 16.
35
  William R. Holloway, Indianapolis: A Historical and Statistical Sketch o) the
Railroad City (Indianapolis, 1870), 90; Poinsatte, Fort Wayne during the Canal Era, 242-44.
36
  Indiana, Documentary Journal (1849-1850), 96; IndianapolisJournal, October 9,
1849.
37
 MadisonCourier, December 4, 1850; IndianapolisIndiana Statesman, October 2,
1850.
38
  Owen, Treatise, 1-2, 37, 41; Richard Leopold, Robert Dale Owen (Cambridge,
Mass., 1940), 266.
39
 Second Annual Report … Central Plank Road Company, 4.

[Figure]
Newspapers continued to propose new projects in 1852 and 1853, and plank roads
served most of the state's larger towns, from Madison, New Albany, and Jeffersonville
40
in the south to Michigan City, South Bend, and Fort Wayne in the north.

The timing of the plank road fervor in Illinois was much like that in Indiana. The state's
first such road was finished near Chicago in September, 1848.41 Its financial success
set off a wave of charter applications to which the General Assembly responded by
passing a general plank road incorporation law early in 1849.42 During the next three
years plank roads were built into surrounding farm lands from most of the important
towns in the northern part of the state.43 Newspapers reported that the roads returned
excellent profits and that their stock was in great demand.44Even as interest in
railroads began to take hold, editors continued to diagnose the existence of a "plank
road fever," and perhaps 600 miles were put into operation by the end of 1851.45

Wisconsin experienced a similar burst of plank road agitation in 1848. Newspapers

were filled with letters and reports of meetings in the wake of the financial success of
the state's first plank road, and the territorial legislature incorporated sixteen
 companies.48 The state Senate's Committee on Internal Improvements reported that
"the public mind throughout the state is largely occupied with the subject of road
improvements" and recommended to those interested in detailed information about the
economic value, financial prospects, and construction of plank roads a well researched
report prepared by Philo White and presented to the territorial Council earlier in the
year.47 In the next several years lake towns built numerous roads into the grain
growing counties in the center of the state and attri buted


40
 IndianapolisSentinel, July 13, 1853; IndianapolisJournal, January 29, 1852;
IndianapolisLocomotive, May 8, 1852; MadisonBanner, August 26, 1851;Cotton's Map of
the State of Indiana (New York, 1853); Richard S. Fisher, Indiana: In Relation to its
Geography, Statistics, Institutions, County Topography, Etc. (New York, 1852), 36.
41
 ChicagoTribune, December 28, 1850.
42
  Milo M. Quaife, Chicago's Highways Old and New (Chicago, 1923), 132; Arthur C.
Cole, The Era of the Civil War, 1848-1870 (Springfield, 1919), 28.
43
  Judson F. Lee, "Transportation as a Factor in the Development of Northern Illinois
Previous to 1860" (Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of History, University of Chicago,
Chicago, 1917), 30; Galena Gazette, October 29, 1849; Joliet Signal, April 10, 1849;
SpringfieldRegister,January 28, 1850.
44
  Ruby Yetter, "Some Aspects in the Commercial Growth of Chicago, 1835-1850"
(M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Chicago, Chicago, 1937), 58;
Quaife, Chicago's Highways, 132; ChicagoDemocrat, July 31, 1850.
45
 SpringfieldRegister, February 20, 1850; Gem of the Prairie, March 8, 1851;
Cole, The Era of the Civil War, 28.
46
  Still, Milwaukee, 51; Meyer, History of Early Railroad Legislation in
Wisconsin, 220; Moses Strong, History of the Territory of Wisconsin, from 1886 to
1848 (Madison, 1885), 591-92.
47
  Report of the Committee on Internal Improvements," Wisconsin, Senate
Journal (1848), 57; "Report of Mr. White, on the Subject of Plank Roads."

48
much of their growth to "the advantage of a plank road."  Many of the projects were
backed by prominent citizens, and few had trouble raising needed funds, especially
after the legislature voted to allow municipalities to purchase the stock of such
corporations. As Wisconsin booster, John Gregory, wrote in 1853, "it would be difficult
49
to enumerate all the plank roads built, in progress, and in contemplation."

The craze for plank roads in Iowa and Missouri was less widespread and of shorter
duration than in the states of the Old Northwest. The first charters in Missouri were
issued in 1849, and activity reached it height in 1851 when the legislature set up
standard procedures for "the formation of associations to construct plank roads." 50 In
the same year interest also peaked in Iowa as the various Mississippi River towns
sought to tap the valleys of the Des Moines and Iowa rivers. In the town of Burlington,
a center of the craze, promoter James Grimes wrote to his father in February, 1851:
"We have a great railroad and plank-road fever here now. We have nearly completed a
plank-road thirty miles west of this place. I am president of the company … and I think
 it will pay well." As in Missouri, however, interest in plank roads began to dwindle
almost as the first roads were finished. Only fifty miles of road were actually laid and
the state chartered only fourteen companies during the entire course of the
enthusiasm.51

Besides building plank roads during the late forties and early fifties, westerners also
discussed at length their value and advantages. Some writers were so carried away
that they praised the innovation as one of the great improvements of the age. A
Burlington correspondent linked them with railroads and steamboats as one of the
century's greatest inventions, and an Illinoisian wrote simply: "God bless the man who
invented the plank road." In St. Louis theIntelligencer contended that the general
plank road law was the most significant


48
 Western Journal and Civilian, IX (October, 1852), 26; John Gregory, Industrial
Resources of Wisconsin (Chicago, 1853), 300-306; Daniel S. Curtiss, Western Portraiture
and Emigrants' Guide: A Description of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa (New York, 1852), 38,
40, 52.
49
  Gregory, Industrial Resources of Wisconsin, 239; Alice E. Smith, Millstone and
Saw: The Origins of Neenah-Menasha (Madison, 1966), 40-43; Marshall Strong to Richard
Ela, July 13, 1849, in "Letters of Richard Emerson Ela," Wisconsin Magazine of History, XX
(September, 1936), 82-85.
50
  David D. March, The History of Missouri (2 vols., New York, 1967), I, 599; North
T. Gentry, "Plank Roads in Missouri," Missouri Historical Review, XXXI (April, 1937), 273.
51
  Curtiss, Western Portraiture, 330; Glass, "Early Transportation and the Plank
Road," 525-28; Brindley, History of Road Legislation in Iowa,65-68; Boeck, "A Decade of
Transportation Fever in Burlington, Iowa," 140, 143; quotation in Overton, Burlington
West, 49. Grimes was elected governor of Iowa in 1854 and helped to organize the
Republican party in that state; he was also a promoter of the Burlington Railroad and
served in the United States Senate.

52
measure ever to come before the Missouri legislature.  More practical writers stressed
that plank roads were particularly suited to the needs of the West. The editor of
the Western Journal and Civilian considered them "better adapted to the condition and
general economy of our state, than any other mode of improvement yet discovered."
The Wisconsin Senate's Internal Improvements Committee thought that the "peculiar
adaptation of plank roads to the physical condition and business wants of Wisconsin"
made them the "ne plus ultra" of road making. Owen summed up the same idea:
"These roads are as certain to become universal in Indiana and other forest-covered
States, as men are certain, when the choice between one dollar and five dollars is
53
offered to them, to select the latter."

Westerners agreed with New York authorities in their appraisal of the economic
functions of plank roads, believing that such highways would supply traffic for other
lines of transportation. Governor Wright of Indiana, for example, asserted that they
would become "the channels through which the surplus products of the country will
find an outlet to the great thoroughfares of the state." 54 Missourians valued plank
 roads as potential feeders of their state's river commerce; Milwaukeans, as auxiliaries
of the town's lake trade.55 At Fort Wayne they were built "in aid of the business of the
canal," and Chicagoans hoped that they would feed their city's canal boats, schooners,
and freight cars.56

Time and again western advocates emphasized that plank roads were not a substitute
for railroads and assured their readers that a community which committed itself to
improving its highways did not by that action forego its chance to be linked to the
nation's growing rail net.57 Conversely, enthusiasts argued that railroads could not
themselves replace the plank road since farmers would still need good roads on which
to haul their produce to rail depots and market towns.58 Even the Michigan Central and
Illinois Central railroads agreed with this latter opinion. The Michigan Central informed
its stockholders


52
  Letter to BurlingtonTelegraph, December 10, 1850, quoted in Brindley, History of
Road Legislation in Iowa, 64; Letter to Peoria Press, 1853, quoted in Quaife, Chicago's
Highways, 137; Doherty, "The Columbia-Providence Plank Road," 59.
53
 Western Journal and Civilian, II (January, 1849), 6; "Report of the Committee on
Internal Improvements," 57; Owen, Treatise, 13.
54
  Indiana, Documentary Journal (1849-1850), 96.
55
  Curtiss, Western Portraiture, 40; Western Journal and Civilian, II (January, 1849),
6; March, History of Missouri, I, 600.
56
 The Indiana Gazetteer (Indianapolis, 1850), 155; Curtiss, Western
Portraiture, 53; Prairie Farmer, X (July, 1850), 224; Springfield (111.)Register, March 13,
1851; Henry Brown, Present and Future Prospects of Chicago: Address to the Chicago
Lyceum, Jan. 20, 1846 (Chicago, 1876), 7-8.
57
  Owen, Treatise, 17; Doherty, "The Columbia-Providence Plank Road," 57.
58
  "Report of Mr. White, on the Subject of Plank Roads," 327; Prairie Farmer, VII
(April, 1847), 123; Gem of the Prairie, March 8, 1851; IndianapolisJournal, March 27,
1850.

in 1850 that the construction of a number of plank roads promised to give "all the
advantage of so many branches, without the inconvenience and loss which generally
result from … small branch Railroads"; in 1853 the management of the Illinois Central
considered transporting free of charge lumber for plank roads built from its depot
59
towns.  The consensus on the differing economic functions of the two modes of
transportation was stated by Owen: "Each … has its appropriate sphere; the railway as
a great, leading thoroughfare … the plank road to afford communication between
smaller towns and villages, to form neighborhood and cross-roads, often at right
60
angles to a railroad line, supplemental to it, and terminating at its stations."

These improved facilities for local transportation were expected to be especially

valuable to farmers. Promoters of individual roads attempted with at least occasional
success to muster financial support in the country through which their highways would
pass by stating that land values would rise, that crops could be sold for a larger profit,
and that it would become more feasible to market firewood in neighboring
 towns.61 Even writers with less of a personal interest at stake concurred that for all
types of farmers "no scheme was ever devised that afforded so rich an assurance of
immediate and positive benefits." A railroad executive agreed that "this kind of Road
for moderate distances, appears better adapted to the wants of such an agricultural
population as ours than any other."62

Westerners realized that any enhancement of the ability of farmers to market their
produce would also increase the business of the region's commercial centers. In
Cleveland the Daily True Democrat asserted that the completion of plank roads to
Wooster and Warren would help the city's trade more than all the railroads in
contemplation. Fort Wayne citizens hoped that the construction of a system of plank
roads to supplement the Wabash and Erie Canal would sharply increase the town's
commerce; Chicagoans and Toledoans anticipated that their cities' roads would act as
a tonic for an uneven retail trade.83 At the same time residents of smaller centers saw
in


59
 Michigan Central Railroad, Fourth Annual Report, 7; Illinois Central
Railroad, Fourth Annual Report (Chicago, 1854), 27. Also see Exhibit of the Peoria and
Oquawka Railroad Company (New York, 1852), 7.
60
  Owen, Treatise, 17; see also Gregory, Industrial Resources of Wisconsin, 16.
61
  Brindley, History of Road Legislation in Iowa, 63-64, 69-70; Owen, Treatise, 9-14.
For a farmer who expected land values to rise, see Milo M. Quaife, ed., An English Settler in
Pioneer Wisconsin: The Letters of Edwin Bottomley, 1842-1850 (The State Historical
Society of Wisconsin Collections, Vol. XXV; Madison, 1918), 203
62
  Ware, "Construction of Plank Roads," 177; see also "Report of Mr. White, on the
Subject of Plank Roads," 311; Michigan Central Railroad,Fourth Annual Report, 16.
63
 ClevelandDaily True Democrat, November 18, 1848, quoted in Annals of
Cleveland; Indiana Gazetteer, 155, 229; ChicagoDemocratic Press, Review of Commerce

[Figure]

A, living room; c, recess for single bed; B, bedroom; b, bed; C, pantry; d, shelving; D, portico; E, summer
kitchen; G, toll bar covered; HK, end of roof; a, stove chimney; e, steps; m, attic landing; n, cellar landing.
Cost estimate was $350 to $400. Owen, Treatise, 73-74.

Reproduced from Robert Dale Owen, A Brief Practical Treatise on the Construction and Management of Plank
Roads (New Albany: Kent & Norman, Publishers, 1850), frontispiece. Courtesy Lilly Library, Indiana
University, Bloomington.

plank roads a means by which they could contest for the commercial mastery of
agricultural hinterlands. While Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and other cities
contended with canals, railways, and steamboats for trade of entire states, lesser
towns sought by rival highway improvements to become the commercial centers of
their surrounding counties.
 After describing the role which plank roads could be expected to play in the region's
economy, western advocates customarily turned to the innovation's advantages over
other transportation facilities. Apparently no one seriously claimed that plank roads
were superior to railroads in their physical capacity to carry goods, but some writers
did suggest that they were economically more practicable improvements for frontier
communities. They could be built for about one tenth the cost of railroads and they
were more practical for daily use because they could be successfully operated with a
low volume of traffic.64 In addition, plank roads were public thoroughfares open to all
rather than incorporated monopolies whose profits enriched a few capitalists and
whose policies might discriminate against individuals or communities.65

Enthusiasts were more generally agreed that plank highways were in every way
preferable to other types of roads. Plank road boosters usually dismissed dirt roads
with the comment that a team could draw three times, or four times, or six times as
much on a plank surface.66 Proponents also claimed that plank roads were superior to
the well regarded macadamized turnpikes because planks offered considerably less
resistance to the passage of vehicles than did broken stone surfaces. They more often
stressed, however, that plank roads were both easier and cheaper to build, especially
in the level lands around the Great Lakes where stone was scarce and pine boards
cheap.67 Many discussions make it clear that plank roads were valued


 for 1853 (Chicago, 1854), 53; ChicagoDemocrat, December 9, 1848, February 1,
1849; ToledoBlade, June 29, 1850, quoted in Downes, Canal Days, 93.
64
  Doherty, "The Columbia-Providence Plank Road," 58-69; "Report of Mr. White, on
the Subject of Plank Roads," 304-306; Western Journal and Civilian, II (January, 1849), 5;
Milwaukee Sentinel, January 6, 1848, quoted in Meyer, History of Early Railroad Legislation
in Wisconsin, 220; ToledoBlade, March 25, 1848, quoted in Downes, Canal Days, 94;
ChicagoDemocrat, February 16, 1848.
65
 ChicagoDemocrat, October 9, 1848; Meyer, History of Railroad Legislation in
Wisconsin, 221, 259.
66
  Owen, Treatise, 77; Doherty, "The Columbia-Providence Plank Road," 53-54;
Madison (Wis.) Argus, December 5, 1848, quoted in Benjamin H. Hibbard, The History of
Agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin (Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 101;
Madison, 1904), 138.
67
 Western Journal and Civilian, IV (May, 1850), 73-76; ClevelandHerald, August 24,
1844, quoted in Annals of Cleveland; Indiana Statesman,October 2, 1850; "Report of Mr.
White, on the Subject of Plank Roads," 310; Lee, "Transportation as a Factor in the
Development of Northern Illinois," 33. Plank road enthusiasts in New York expressed
identical opinions on the superiority of plank to gravel surfaces. Kingsford, History,6-9;
Gillespie, Manual, 249; "Report of the Committee on Roads and Bridges, in Relation to a
General Law for Plank Roads," 7.

as a substitute for macadamized highways largely because they could be built with
68
little money, little effort, and little skill in engineering.  They seemed, in other words,
a perfect improvement to be adopted in the poor and underdeveloped states of the
 Middle West. As one writer said, "plank roads ought to be constructed where want of
69
sufficient capital precludes the possibility of building a better."

Despite the ease of constructing plank roads and their undisputed value to the
community, it is unlikely that many businessmen would have sunk money injthem had
there not been some basis on which to hope for a good return on the capital invested.
The New York writers on whom westerners drew heavily for information customarily
cited the favorable financial experience of New York companies and stressed that any
heavily used road would surely yield a profit. 70 Western authorities, who placed
considerable reliance on the reported success of early eastern roads, also found their
expectations confirmed by the high dividends declared by the first roads in the
vicinities of Chicago and Milwaukee.71 In the early fifties it was commonly thought that
well made plank roads would be "monstrously" profitable; none would pay less than
ten per cent, many would pay twenty per cent, and some were forecast to return thirty
or forty per cent per year.72

The hope that plank roads would yield a profit was predicated in part on their low
initial cost. Even more, however, it was based on the belief that the surface of such a
road would last for about ten years after it was laid. Western entrepreneurs could
confirm this expectation by reference to eastern experts who agreed that softwood
planks would last seven or eight years and hardwood almost twelve. 73 Early western
writers, who had no firsthand experience on which to base their estimates, simply
paraphrased New York authorities. They assured their readers that oak planking would
last at least ten years and asserted that until complete renewal was necessary, repairs
would cost only ten dollars per year for each mile of road.74 It was on such


68
  Owen, Treatise, 90-92; Gregory, Industrial Resources of Wisconsin, 240-41;
Madison. (Ind.) Banner, April 4, 1850; Indiana, Documentary Journal (1849-1850), 96.
69
  Gregory, Industrial Resources of Wisconsin, 15; Strong, History of the Territory of
Wisconsin, 591. It is interesting to note that no effort was made to substitute plank roads
for the existing network of macadamized turnpikes around Cincinnati. The failure suggests
that despite its higher initial cost, gravel provided a more efficient and long lasting surface.
70
  Kingsford, History, 10; Gillespie, Manual, 247, 251.
71
  Curtiss, Western Portraiture, 53; Owen, Treatise, 85; ChicagoDemocrat, October
2, December 9, 1848; "Report of Mr. White, on the Subject of Plank Roads," 326-27.
72
 Indiana Statesman, October 2, 1850; Gem of the Prairie, March 8, 1851;
Quaife, Chicago's Highways, 132.
73
  Kingsford, History, 10; Gillespie, Manual, 248; "Report of the Committee on
Roads and Bridges, in Relation to a General Law for Plank Roads," 5.
74
  Ware, "Construction of Plank Roads," 176; Owen, Treatise, 83; "Report of Mr.
White, on the Subject of Plank Roads," 323; O. G. Gates, Secretary of the Kentucky

sanguine estimates that many companies based their calculations of the profits they
75
could anticipate and the funds they would need for repairs.
 As plank road companies began to discover in the early fifties, however, planks
decayed with unexpected rapidity. To be sure, westerners were aware that it was
imperative to guard against deterioration. Since it was thought that the presence of air
underneath a road reduced its life by as much as two thirds, authorities warned
particularly that "the plank should rest solidly and immoveably on the ground." 76 When
the first roads wore less well than anticipated,. plank road advocates retained their
optimism and proposed that the unexpected problem could easily be overcome. They
advocated the use of oak instead of pine and recommended the avoidance of heavy
stringers which might hold the planks off the ground. 77 In fact, however, such simple
measures could not take care of the problem of decay. In the soggy prairies, where
plank roads were popular, it proved impossible to keep the roads properly drained. At
times, spring floods even floated planks off roadbeds and scattered them over the
countryside. When the rains abated, the sun warped and twisted planks until the roads
were unusable. Under such conditions, many plank pavements disintegrated in less
than two years.78

The effects of such unexpectedly rapid deterioration were disastrous for many plank
roads. Since most companies had expected to get close to a decade of service from
their planks, few had made any effort to set aside a sinking fund adequate to repave
their roads within a few years. Some firms, seeing a bleak future ahead, paid out all
their earnings as dividends. Other roads lacked enough revenue to meet even the low
costs of day to day operation. As planks rotted, traffic declined and farmers became
less and less willing to pay tolls, leaving the corporations with even less money for
maintenance and with no hope for future profits. In many instances firms escaped this
hopeless spiral by abandoning their roads entirely, leaving the boards


 Board of Improvements, "Report," DeBow's Review, IX (September, 1850), 336.
75
  "Report of the Directors of the Dubuque and Sageville Plank Road
Company," Annals of Iowa, XXII (July, 1939), 79; Letter to Columbia (Mo.)Weekly
Statesman, quoted in Doherty, "The Columbia-Providence Plank Road," 68.
76
  Owen, Treatise, 55, 55-60; see also Ware, "Construction of Plank Roads," 176.
77
 Prairie Farmer, XI (August, 1851), 253-54; Ware, "Construction of Plank Roads,"
172-77; Letter from the president of a Chicago plank road company, in Prairie Farmer, IX
(June, 1849), 191; ChicagoTribune, Review of Commerce for 1851, in Hunt's Merchants'
Magazine, XXVI (April, 1852), 442; Gem of the Prairie, June 21, 1851.
78
  Quaife, Chicago's Highways, 135-36; Prairie Farmer, XI (August, 1851), 253-54,
401; Gentry, "Plank Roads in Missouri," 274, 281; Berry R. Sulgrove, History of
Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana (Philadelphia, 1884), 15.

79
to be confiscated for fences and the roadbed to be cared for by the county.

The experience of the Central Plank Road Company of Indiana shows the way in which
financial problems doomed such thoroughfares. Organized in 1849 to plank the
segment of the National Road passing through Hancock, Marion, Hendricks, and
Putnam counties, the corporation quickly ran into difficulties. The initial coat of the
 road was high, averaging $2,300 per mile, and receipts were low. The road returned
profits of only ten per cent even when no allowance was made for the replacement of
planks, and as early as 1851 the firm's officers questioned whether it would be
possible to finance repaving. At the same time the management had to cope with a
controversy over the collection of tolls near Indianapolis. Within a few years much of
the surface had rotted or had been removed, and the company had abandoned efforts
to overcome its problems. The IndianapolisFreie Presse complained: "Fürs Halsbrechen
Zoll zu bezah-len, ist etwas hart."80

Because of the prohibitive cost of maintaining a usable surface, plank roads vanished
from most parts of the West as rapidly as they had appeared. Apparently, no new
roads were commenced after 1854 in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, or Iowa. By
1855 most Indiana roads had been abandoned and only 150 miles were operating in
Illinois. Two years later Ohio had only thirty-nine miles in use.81 Similarly, most roads
in Missouri and Iowa were forsaken by the middle of the decade. By 1858 a western
paper could use "worn-out plank-road" as a synonym for something dead and
useless.82


79
  Waukegan Gazette, July 19, 1851; Quaife, Chicago's Highways, 137;
Leopold, Robert Dale Owen, 267. Illinois responded to this problem by allowing plank roads
to be absorbed or replaced by railroads. ChicagoDemocratic Press, March 3, 1855. Indiana
prohibited the collection of tolls on roads in bad repair and along with Wisconsin authorized
counties to take over abandoned roads. Logan Esarey, A History of Indiana (2 vols.,
Indianapolis, 1918), II, 840-41; "Road Improvements in Indiana," Indiana Magazine of
History, III (June, 1907), 83; State Highway Commission of Wisconsin, A History of
Wisconsin Highway Development (Madison, 1947), 17.
80
 IndianapolisLocomotive, March 1, 8, 1851; Second Annual Report … Central Plank
Road Company, 4-8; IndianapolisFreie Presse, December 4, 1856, February 12, 1857. "It's
a hard thing to pay a toll to break your neck."
81
  Esarey, History of Indiana, II, 839-41; Ohio, "Report of the Commissioner of
Statistics for 1857," 73-74; Illinois, Illinois Reports (1855).
82
 Madison (Ind.) Courier, April 14, 1858. Canadian and New York plank roads also
ran into trouble in the early fifties for the same reasons–rapid deterioration of the surfaces
and lack of adequate provisions for keeping them in repair. In 1854, only seven years after
the enactment of the general incorporation law which had given the enthusiasm its first
official sanction, the New York legislature passed a bill permitting plank road companies to
abandon their roads or to resurface them with gravel. Almost all eastern companies which
survived the middle of the decade were destroyed by the Panic of 1857.
Durrenberger, Turnpikes, 151; Guillet, The Story of Canadian Roads, 71; George R.
Taylor, The Transportation Revolution (New York, 1951), 31; J. L. Ringwalt, Development
of Transportation Systems in the United States (Philadelphia, 1888), 167.

In the upper Midwest, on the other hand, plank roads survived a few years longer. Six
new roads were chartered in Minnesota in 1854 and thirty-three in Wisconsin between
1854 and 1856; at least 300 miles of plank highway were still in use near Detroit in
 1855.83 In the later fifties, however, the roads were also abandoned in the lower parts
of these states, "for however valuable they might be as wagon roads, for a limited
distance," they were unable to meet the needs of rapidly growing commercial
cities.84 Only in the counties bordering the Michigan and Wisconsin pineries did the
cheapness of lumber make possible the continued construction of plank roads.83

From start to finish, therefore, the enthusiasm for plank roads lasted for little more
than a decade in the Middle West. Despite the initial interest in 1845 the real onset of
the craze awaited the apparent success of the first New York roads in 1846 and 1847,
the publicity given these roads by Hunt's Magazine and Gillespie's Manual, and the
passage of the New York plank road law, which may have seemed a kind of official seal
of approval. Certainly western advocates in the late forties found it useful to stress the
prosperous outcome of the experiment in the East. The center of the excitement,
moreover, lay along the shores of the Great Lakes, where contact with New York and
Canada was most frequent. From 1845 through 1848 interest centered in the flat, wet
lands of northern Ohio, northern Indiana, eastern Wisconsin, and Michigan, spreading
into hillier areas across the Mississippi and in the Ohio Valley only in 1849 and 1850.86

The rapid dissipation of interest in 1853, 1854, and 1855 can be attributed in large
part to the fact that roads built in the first years of the fad had begun to reveal their
drawbacks by the early fifties. At the same time, railroads crowded plank roads from
the public mind. By 1854 and 1855 every small town had its railroad hopes and its
railroad projects which absorbed capital and entrepreneurial talent that a few years
earlier would have been devoted to the promotion of plank roads. Only in areas where
lumber was extraordinarily cheap did the outmoded improvement last beyond 1857.

The eagerness with which westerners seized upon the idea of plank roads clearly
reflected the miserable condition of the region's


83
 Fifth Annual Minnesota Yearbook for 1855 (St. Paul, 1855), 18; Wisconsin Highway
Commission, A History of Wisconsin Highway Development, 228-30; Robert E.
Roberts, Sketches of the City of Detroit (Detroit, 1855), 43.
84
  Smith, Millstone and Saw, 43-44, 50; Edward D. Holton, Commercial History of
Milwaukee (The State Historical Society of Wisconsin Collections, Vol. IV; Madison, 1857-
1858), 275.
85
  in Wisconsin one or two plank roads were chartered each year between 1857 and
1866. Wisconsin Highway Commission, History of Wisconsin Highway Development, 228-
30. For Michigan see references to plank roads in a veto message of 1867. George N.
Fuller, ed.,Messages of the Governors of Michigan (4 vols., Lansing, 1925-1927), II, 613-
15.
86
 ChicagoTribune, December 28, 1850; Galena Gazette, October 24, 1849.

common roads and the exorbitant cost of moving goods between farms and local
markets. Americans were well aware, as one plank road advocate put it, that "no
country can prosper as long as its farmers and miners haul their products and imports
 87
on wagons over natural roads."  To a large extent the very seriousness of the problem
contributed to the failure of plank roads by disposing otherwise sober businessmen to
receive a potential solution with too little common sense and too many optimistic
miscalculations. In any event, the discrediting of plank roads in both East and West
"left most short-haul transportation literally stuck in the mud, there to remain until the
88
later age of the rigid-surface road and the internal combustion engine."

87
 Western Journal and Civilian, IV (May, 1850), 72.
88
  Taylor, The Transportation Revolution, 31.

Published by the Indiana University Department of History.