ROAD MILEAGE, EEVENUES, SOUTHEEN" STATES, 1914. 49 



authorized and $452,100 were sold. Detailed information showing 

 total bonds outstanding, expenditures from bond funds during 1914, 

 bonds voted and sold in 1914, interest rate, term, and purchase price 

 is shown by counties and districts in Table 35. 



ROAD MILEAGE. 



The total mileage of public roads in Virginia at the close of 1914 

 was 53,388, of which 3,909.57 miles, or 7.32 per cent of the total, 

 were surfaced. Of the surfaced roads 1,177.89 miles were macadam, 

 255.77 bituminous macadam, 822.09 gravel, 1,511.65 sand-clay and 

 topsoil, and 142.17 mUes were surfaced with other materials, princi- 

 pally shell. 



In mileage of surfaced roads Mecklenburg County stands first, with 

 315 miles, or 39.52 per cent; Chesterfield County second, with 202,5 

 miles, or 33.75 per cent; Rockingham County third, with 137 miles, 

 or 8.32 per cent; Dinwiddle County fourth, with 124 miles, or 20.66 

 per cent; and Henrico County fifth, with 120.45 miles, or 13.38 per 

 cent. Charlotte County has 106 miles, or 11.77 per cent, surfaced, 

 and Greenesville 100 miles, or 58.82 per cent. There are 21 counties 

 in the State having not less than 50 nor more than 99 mUes of sur- 

 faced road. Sixteen counties report no surfaced roads, but in 1904 

 there were 70 counties which reported no surfaced roads. 



Fifteen counties reported a smaller mileage of surfaced roads for 

 1914 than for 1909. In spite of this decrease the reports show that 

 in the 5-year period 2,006.82 miles of road have been surfaced. In 

 1909 the mileage surfaced amounted to 1,902.75, which represented 

 4.38 per cent of the total, thus indicating that the surfaced road 

 mileage more than doubled in the 5-year period, 1909 to 1914. 



Details showing the total mileage of all roads, the mileage surfaced, 

 the per cent of the total surfaced, the increase in surfaced mileage 

 over 1909, and the mileage of graded and drained earth roads in the 

 various counties are presented in Table 51. 



WEST VIRGINIA. 



By A. Dennis Williams, Chief Engineer State Road Bureau and Collaborator United 

 States Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering, 



West Virginia has a land area of 24,022 square miles, a total road 

 mileage of 32,024 and a population, according to the 1910 Census, 

 of 1,221,119. The State, therefore, has a population of 50.8 per 

 square mile of area and 38.1 per mile of road, with 1.33 miles of road 

 pdr square mile of area. Of the population in 1910 81.3 per cent, or 

 992,877, was rural, thus indicating a rural population of 31 per mile 

 of road. 



The first road laws of the State were enacted in 1872 and revised 

 in 1881. The legislature of 1907 provided for the office of State 

 61726°— Bull. 387—17 4 



