Road, an open highway for the passage of
vehicles. The noun, road, is akin to the verb,
ride, and indicates that the road is to
be distinguished from the footpath. [...]
So far as quality is concerned, America
has not been famous for road building, but,
in point of quantity, a plea may be entered.
During the three centuries of white occupancy,
over 2,151,000 miles of road have
been constructed - enough to follow the
equator around the globe eighty-six times
and a lap over. About 40,000 miles are
paved or are surfaced with stone, over
100,000 miles are surfaced with gravel, and
about 10,000 miles have been surfaced with
special materials. [...]
One of the first steps toward better roads
is the organization of districts large enough
or at least long enough to include an entire
road. Local road building is a failure. This
was demonstrated in England at an early
day. The enormous freight traffic carried
on by the carters between York and London
kept the roads in a mire that the local
parishes could not mend. It was necessary
for the government to take hold of the matter.
Likewise, in this country, it is not only
impracticable, but unfair, to expect local
communities to keep main thoroughfares in
order.
A second step that should be taken is the
payment of road taxes in money instead of
labor. It is all well enough for the first
settlers, men without money, to get together
for a day or two to build roads; but such
a system is primitive and does not result in
good roads. Money, too, expended judiciously
under competent supervision, will do
in ten years more to provide creditable roads
than a century of the system of "working
out" a road tax under which one-half of
those called have no heart in the work and
the other half are impatient to be at home
plowing corn.
More time and money should be spent in
preventing roads from getting into bad condition.
An ounce of gravel by way of
prevention is better than a pound of cure
thrown into a later mud hole. It is not
enough to build roads. They must be
watched. A man, a cart, a horse, and a
gravel pit kept busy all summer are worth
five times as much toward maintaining good
roads as the same amount of expenditure
crowded into a hurried week between corn
planting and corn plowing.
Methods of road building must differ in
different localities. In all soils it is necessary
to take the water away from the road
by drainage, or take the road away from
the water by elevating the roadbed. It is
useless to build a road without first providing
for a dry roadbed. Standing water
and traffic will reduce any soil to a quagmire.
The first step toward building a
permanent road is a system of permanent
drainage. Tile drainage is apt to prove
most satisfactory. Ordinarily a tile laid
along under one gutter with an occasional
twenty-foot cross spur will be sufficient.
Drainage of this sort is not expensive nor
is it hard to lay. The chief difficulty lies
in securing a proper outlet.
Next to drainage comes grading. Most
roads are too wide. The narrower the roadway,
the needs of traffic and the passing of
teams provided for, the easier it is to keep a
road from soaking full of water. The surface
should be rounded slightly to shed
water. Ruts should be filled as fast as
they form. Here is where a caretaker on
the road for the season gets in his best
work. Instead of allowing water to stand
in ruts and soften the road bed, he prevents
ruts from forming and keeps his road dry;
for a well built, well hardened road turns
water like the roof of a barn.
THE GOOD ROADS MOVEMENT.
The movement in the interest of good roads in
the United States is of comparatively
recent date. The bicycle and the automobile
have been important agents in creating
the sentiment for better roads, but
until recently the great majority of farmers
have opposed increased taxation for
improving highways. But the economic
value of good roads has been so clearly
demonstrated by the United States Department
of Agriculture and the state agricultural
colleges that the farmers now realize
that money expended for good roads is
money wisely invested. A good road
enables the farmer to market his produce at
much less expense and at the same time
when it will sell at the highest price.
In 1913 the Department of Agriculture
organized the
Office of Public Roads.
At first the assistance of the department was
limited to the "good roads train," which
was in charge of competent road engineers
and equipped with the best road-making
machinery. The train visited all parts of
the country, stopping at important rural
centers where a short piece of road was
made. The coming of the train was advertised
several days in advance so that
those interested might be present to learn
what they could from the demonstration.
In 1914 Congress appropriated $25,000,000
a year to be divided among the states
for the improvement of roads, and the Sixty-fifth
Congress (1917-1919) contracted
to expend $266,750,000 within the next
three years. This sum was to be apportioned
among the states in accordance with
the amount each state appropriated for improving
highways. By this plan, eventually
$535,500,000 will be expended in improving
the highways of the country.
Rural communities are realizing that
road making requires a good degree of
engineering skill, and state colleges
offering courses in road engineering. The
old road district is becoming a thing of
the past and the roads are passing under
the control of the county, the state or
nation.
NATIONAL HIGHWAYS. The United States
builds and maintains the roads in the
national parks. Besides these the government
has constructed only one national
road, the Cumberland Road, extending
from Baltimore, Md., to Vandalia, Ill. A
national highway has been projected to
connect all the national parks, and a movement
has been started to construct an international
road from Winnipeg to the Gulf of Mexico. A
number of highways of
national scope are being constructed by the
respective states through which they pass.
The most important of these are:
Lincoln Highway,
a road extending from
Newark, N. J., to San Franscisco, California.
The road was named for Abraham
Lincoln. Its length is 3,331 miles and it
is the longest road in the world. Beginning
at Newark, N. J., the route extends southwest
to Philadelphia, thence westward
across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada
and California. It passes through
Pittsburgh, Mansfield, Joliet, Council
Bluffs, Omaha, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City
and Sacramento. A branch extends from
Cheyenne to Denver, and another extends from
Reno to Carson City. Markers at frequent
intervals identify the entire route.
Dixie Highway. This is a surfaced road
extending across the United States from
north to south. Beginning at Mackinaw,
Mich., two routes extend along each side of
that state and cross Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky
and Tennessee, uniting at Chattanooga.
Thence the route extends through
Georgia, touching Atlanta and Macon, to
Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Miami, Fla.
A branch connects Chicago and Indianapolis.
It is expected that this highway will
increase automobile travel between the
North and the South, and encourage the
building of better roads in the states that
it crosses.
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