DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHWAY TRAVEL MITMAN 331 



this contact was made and communication established with the Old 

 World, transportation as well as every other human activity developed 

 rapidly, so that by the time the modern age was well under way the 

 great margin of cultural difference between the civilizations of the 

 Eastern and Western Hemispheres had been reduced very materially. 



When the time arrived in world history for the colonization of 

 North America and particularly the United States, the people who 

 undertook the task earlj^ in the seventeenth century met with difficult 

 highway transport problems, for there were no roads — simply Indian 

 footpaths and trails. Upon meeting this difficulty by widening paths 

 and building rough roads, sleds, primitive two-wheeled carts, and 

 three-wheeled wheelbarrows were put in service, the maintenance of 

 which was the principal duty of the colonial wheelwright and black- 

 smith. Little time or labor was expended by them on vehicles for 

 travel or pleasure, but nevertheless, before the close of the century 

 the European coach had been imported and was used by a few wealthy 

 citizens ; the distinctly American chair had been evolved ; and in New 

 York America's first hack for hire had been started. With the rapid 

 growth and territorial expansion of the Colonies during the eight- 

 eenth century, there developed real transport needs to augment the 

 prevailing pack-horse trains for communication; for transporting 

 farm products to market; for supplying the outposts beyond the 

 Appalachians with food, clothing, and tools; and for bringing the 

 outpost products back to the seaboard markets. This initial incentive 

 was all that the American coachbuilders needed, and before the 

 century ended several unique vehicles had been designed and put into 

 general use, the most famous being the Conestoga wagon, named 

 for its place of origin, the Conestoga Valley, Lancaster County, 

 Pennsylvania. 



Regarding the Conestoga, Omwake* wrote: 



The probability is that the first Pennsylvania wagons were modified English 

 covered wagons, suggested by those of the English settlers in Chester and 

 Delaware Counties, the carters' or farm wagons of England, rather short and 

 wide, dumpy — but strong and serviceable. 



These wagons, however, did not fulfill all the requirements of the 

 Conestoga Valley farmers, with the result that there came into exis- 

 tence about 1730 larger, heavier four-wheeled covered wagons, pos- 

 sessing many original features. 



They differed from their English prototypes in that the Conestoga wagon bed 

 was long and deep and was given considerable sag in the middle, both length- 

 wise and crosswise, so that should the load shift, it would settle toward the 

 center and not press against the end gates ; while the bed of the English wagon 

 was flat and straight at the ends and its bows, holding the white cover, were 

 vertical. The bows of the American wagon, however, followed the line of the 



* Omwake, John, The Conestoga six-horse bell teams of eastern Pennsylvania, 1930. 



