CHAPTER XI 

 ROADS AND BRIDGES 



Prior to 1850 all progressive countries were putting 

 forth great efforts in making common roads. The ex- 

 pense being very large, the work progressed slowly. 

 These roads were needed for the arts of peace and in 

 times of war. Military rulers often found it necessary 

 to use their autocratic powers in constructing permanent 

 roads in times of peace that they might have a means 

 of more rapidly moving their armies and munitions dur- 

 ing times of war. The older countries, having been long 

 under these conditions, had succeeded in making sub- 

 stantial roads along many of the principal lines of 

 travel, as between towns, though little had been done 

 for the greater proportion of the mileage of roads among 

 and within farms. Prior to the above date the local 

 communities of the United States, in some cases aided 

 by the state and even by the nation, were bravely strug- 

 gling to inaugurate a system of good roads. The coun- 

 try was new, the distances great, making the total mile- 

 age of wagon roads very large in proportion to the 

 capital invested in farms, or even in proportion to the 

 total capital of the entire country. It looked as though 

 centuries would be required to make a network of good 

 roads throughout this vast country. 



Modern road building. The people looked back to the 

 times when the Romans built great military roads lead- 

 ing from Rome toward different parts of the world. 

 They observed with interest the natural and historical 

 evidences of roadways among some of the ancient peo- 

 ple of South America, notably the Incas of Peru. They 

 studied with great interest contemporaneous road build- 



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