The Roman roads Roman roads, ancient system of highways linking Rome with its most distant provinces. The roads often ran in a straight line, regardless of obstacles, and were efficiently constructed, generally in four layers of materials; the uppermost layer was a pavement of flat,
..... Click the link for more information. , however, are famous. In Italy and in every region that the Romans conquered, they built roads so durable that parts of them yet remain serviceable. The Roman roads were generally straight, even over steep grades. The surface, made of large slabs of hard stone, rested on a bed of smaller stones and cement about 3 ft (91 cm) thick.
From the fall of the Roman Empire until the 19th cent., European roads generally were neglected and hard to travel. People usually walked, rode horses, or were carried in sedan chairs. Goods were transported by pack animals. In France, Louis XIV and Napoleon built good roads for military purposes. Elsewhere on the Continent roads were not much improved before the middle of the 19th cent. In Great Britain two Scottish engineers, Thomas Telford Telford, Thomas, 1757–1834, Scottish civil engineer. He greatly improved road building in England and Scotland. He introduced the use of a base of large stones surfaced with compacted layers of small stones.
..... Click the link for more information. and John L. McAdam, were responsible for the development of the macadam road (see pavement pavement, the wearing surface of a road, street, or sidewalk. Parts of Babylon and Troy are believed to have been paved; Roman roads were noted for their durable stone paving. Cobblestones were common from late medieval times into the 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. ). The expansion of the Industrial Revolution brought this and other road improvements to the Continent, although the emphasis was on railroad railroad or railway, form of transportation most commonly consisting of steel rails, called tracks, on which freight cars, passenger cars, and other rolling stock are drawn by one locomotive or more.
..... Click the link for more information. construction until after the invention of the automobile.
In the Americas the Inca empire was remarkable for its fine roads. In what is now the United States, however, the waterways were the normal mode of travel for Native Americans, and their trails, though numerous, were often simply footpaths. These were used by white settlers and were eventually widened to make wagon trails. The increasing use of stagecoaches led to some improvement, and the turnpike turnpike, road paid for partly or wholly by fees collected from travelers at tollgates. It derives its name from the hinged bar that prevented passage through such a gate until the toll was paid. See also road.
..... Click the link for more information. , or toll road, was introduced at the beginning of the 19th cent. Although the planning and building of road arteries, notably the National Road National Road, U.S. highway built in the early 19th cent. At the time of its construction, the National Road was the most ambitious road-building project ever undertaken in the United States. It finally extended from Cumberland, Md., to St.
..... Click the link for more information. , marked the early years of the century, canals canal, an artificial waterway constructed for navigation or for the movement of water. The digging of canals for irrigation probably dates back to the beginnings of agriculture, and traces of canals have been found in the regions of ancient civilizations.
..... Click the link for more information. and then railroads took precedence.
The invention and mass production of the automobile made the road became paramount again. Hard-surfaced highways were stretched across the entire land in a relatively few years. The building of roads became a major branch of engineering, and even the most difficult obstacles were surmounted. Roads have helped greatly to equalize and unify large heterogeneous nations. In the United States the Interstate Highway System consists of 42,793 mi (68,869 km) of roads (all but a few miles of which are completed) connecting every major city. Other well-known road networks which serve to unify large areas include Germany's Autobahn, the Trans-Canada Highway, and the Pan-American Highway. An ambitious, 23-nation agreement to link Asia with a network of highways was signed in 2004.
Bibliography
See L. J. Ritter and R. J. Paquette, Highway Engineering (1967); G. Hindley, A History of Roads (1972).
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