ASSOCIATION OF FAIR MANAGERS. 201 



and began to be carried into ettect. Now, however, tlie broad, smooth 

 highways of England are a splendid supplement to her railway system, 

 and a joy to the touring cyclist and automobilist. 



Early explorers In ancient Peru and Mexico found roads that were 

 firm and smooth, connecting all principal points. Humboldt beheld with 

 astonishment the great highAvay of the Incas — twenty feet broad and of 

 smooth, even surface. On investigation he found that it was Constructed 

 much like tlaose of ancient Rome, only the bond was asphalt, as was the 

 top layer. This great road he found to extend two thousand miles, and 

 was duly furnished with ditches, aqueducts, bridges, ferries and even post- 

 houses. His wonder was greatly increased when he found that these 

 builders, instead of carrying their roads over hill and mountain, had actu- 

 ally anticipated the modern by tunneling through them. 



Within the territory now covered by the United States, except the 

 almost obliterated roads of the mound-builders, whicli were of inferior 

 construction, there were none presented to the eye of the early explorer 

 save the Indian trails, which mainly led along the watercourses and 

 through the mountain gaps. 



Our notions of road-making were brought from England, and be- 

 longed to the time of the "Merry Monarch" rather than a later day. Ac- 

 cordingly the white settlers plowed parallel furrows twenty feet apart 

 and scraped the dirt to the center, so that when the autumnal rains de- 

 scended this dirt Avas converted into mud, which teamsters were glad to 

 escape when they could by guiding the cattle to the higher, unbroken 

 and solid ground. No wonder that in the histories of those days we read 

 so much concerning "bad roads," "heavy roads," with frequent "stick- 

 ing," "miring down," followed by "doubling of teams," much cracking of 

 whips and vociferous profanity. As in the mother country, there came 

 to be toll roads, of somewhat better construction than those of the public. 



In 1796 Congress authorized the construction of a national road. 

 This was afterward constructed more or less completely, beginning at 

 Baltimore, Maryland, and extending through a part of Pennsylvania, 

 through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. It was projected upon a large scale; 

 its extreme width was eighty feet, thirty feet of which was composed 

 of broken stone, gravel and sand, the whole laid, in many places, upon a 

 foundation of large blocks of stone. These dimensions may be taken as 

 indicative of the fatiiers' conception of the future greatness of our coun- 

 try and its needs; but if so, they may also indicate that it never entered 

 their minds that the motive power of travel would be other than that of 

 hoi'ses and cattle. If they misconceived the future, we are to be charged 

 with a like weakness, who abandoned substantial road-making upon the 

 advent of the railroads, as if no other road would ever be required, where 

 we are now beginning to perceive that we need these more than ever, not 

 only to supplement the railroad, but also, by means of autos and traction 

 engines of a swifter sort, to even compete with them. 



