C 190 ] 
A SKETCH 
OF THE TirRNPIKE RoADS IN THE STATE 01 
New-York. 
Bij IiEJ\/\lJMLA/' DE WITT^ Secretary of the Society-—Fello%v 
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences—Member of the 
Massachusetts Agricultural and Historical Societiesj IFc* Itfc. 
i HE progress of improvements in public high¬ 
ways, turnpike roads, bridges and canals, has ever 
been considered an interesting subject. There is 
an inseparable connection between these, and the 
agriculture, arts and commerce of a country. The 
condition of the former is a criterion of the advance- 
iiient of the latter. The one is a natural and ne¬ 
cessary consequence of the other. Where there 
is no agriculture, there are no roads ; and withom 
roads there can be but little commerce : Hence 
the existence of roads has been considered as a line 
of demarkation, betw^een the civilized and the sa¬ 
vage state. And hence also the excellence of public 
highways, marks the degree of general improve¬ 
ment in a country. Thus the rude essays of the 
early Peruvians, in constructing their celebrated 
great roads, has contributed to rank them amongst 
the civilized, instead of the savage nations : And 
thus the beauty and perfection of the famous Roman 
highways, characterised the flourishing state of that 
ancient empire. Thus also in our own country, 
the contrast between our present turnpike roads, 
and the dismal footpaths of the aborigines, is not 
