The Developing of Transportation 



shafts, the one In front with Its tall to the front end of the 

 coach and the one In the rear with Its head to the rear end of 

 the coach, and with this arrangement the coach was car- 

 ried. The driver walked by the side of the front horse. 

 The Cabriolet was a two-wheeled cart resembhng the 

 Roman chariot, but the driver rode one of the horses In 

 order to make more room for the occupants of the cart. 



Prior to the coming of the stagecoach, there were no 

 public highways — only trails leading from one place to 

 another in the same manner as new trails are made and 

 followed in all new countries. There were no bridges and 

 even these trails were at times impassable. As mail routes 

 were established and as the necessity for exchange and con- 

 veyance of goods and merchandise Increased, a road build- 

 ing program was carried on to meet the requirements of the 

 growing needs. Just as the stagecoach called Into being a 

 program for road building among all progressive people, 

 so has the automobile during the present generation called 

 Into being the greatest road building program that civiliza- 

 tion has ever known. New thoughts are always In the 

 crude, but when a new and helpful thought is developed as 

 a basic Idea for the advancement of some branch of human 

 culture, It Is added to and Improved upon to meet changing 

 conditions. The necessity for rapid transit has developed 

 new engineering skills, modern power driven road building 

 machinery and bridge construction that have eliminated 

 curves and grades, bridged rivers and chasms and tied the 

 entire country together with solid concrete slabs. There 

 has been more road building In the United States during the 

 past twenty-five years than there had been In all Its pre- 



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