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Page 15 text:
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THE XPEGTATGD to center, and the stone was carefully broken into pieces small enough to pass through a two-inch ring. The first real improvement in road-building naturally began at the centers of population. Philadelphia was a center from which many roads radiated. These were among the first to be improved. Improvement throughout the state, how- ever, was slow. Lack of knowledge of road building and no effectively organized system for carrying out improvements, hindered progress. Then too the building of canals and railroads turned transportation from pack-horse and wagon to these THE HAT TAVERN AND SIGN BOARD LANCASTER COINTY. PHILADELPHIA HOAI • improved means of travel. Highways lost their importance. As late as 1900 conditions of travel by vehicle over highways, except near large centers of popula- tion. were far from satisfactory. With the coming of the motor car, however, a rapid change took place. T he establishing of the Department of Highways and the generous provision of public funds for road building, have resulted in the con- struction of eight thousand four hundred thirty-nine miles of splendid highways that give easy and swift communication between all parts of the state. The opening of roads through Pennsylvania was naturally followed by the opening of taverns for the accommodation of travelers. By the middle of the eighteenth century the taverns were of importance, not only to the traveler but as centers of life and news of the community in which they were situated. They kept horses and supplied passengers with accommodations. It is interesting to learn that there was a distinction between the taverns and wagon houses. The taverns were for the accommodation of travelers arriving by carriages or coach; I ] • From Earle: Stage Coach ami Tavern Days. Fseil liy permission of the Macmillan Co.
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Page 14 text:
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through central Pennsylvania. Each of the routes mentioned was broad enough to permit two pack-horses to pass each other without serious damage to their loans, fly 1 83, these routes had become so widened that freight trattic by means of wagons was firmly established; wagons pushed further and further west until they came down the western slope ot the Alleghenies. However, practically nothing was done toward what can really be called road building until alter the Revolutionary War, tor it was not until wheeled vehicles came into general use that the widened trail became a road. THE GENERAL WASHINGTON TAVERN KNOWN LAVEK AS Mil,I.KlfS TAVERN. LANCASTER. PENNSYLVANIA By the year 1790, wheeled vehicles were common, and another step in road improvement became necessary. Cars and wagons could use the roads only in good weather, as the mud at other seasons made them impassable, particularly in stretches through lower grounds. To improve this condition, about 1800, cordu- roying came into use. Corduroying is the process of laying logs close together to form a solid roadbed and then covering the surface with earth. The corduroy roads, however, soon proved unsatisfactory. The rains washed away the earth, and wagons and carriages were jolted to pieces over the rough surface of the ex- posed logs. Macadamizing was the next step in road building. The roads, built of layers of broken stone, were wider than any single track of any of the routes followed before, although thirty feet was the maximum breadth. The first and most interesting macadamized road in our state—in fact in the country—was the old Lancaster Turnpike, running from Philadelphia to Lan- caster, and completed in 1794. This road had a regular slope from side-ditch [10] • From Earle: Singe Poach and Tavern Days. Used l r permission of the Macmillan Co.
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Page 16 text:
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THE PECTAT®P consequently, a tavern keeper usually refused to give lodgings and meals to a wagoner who was expected to content himself with the humbler wagon houses. T he names of some of the inns were characteristic of the times, a number of them having been named after Revolutionary heroes. Near the twentieth mile- stone of the Lancaster Turnpike was the famous General fVarren tavern, which was a house of entertainment for Revolutionary leaders. Here the Tories met to make their plans, and Major Andre also visited the inn to make a map of the surrounding country for spying purposes. Five miles beyond the Warren were three old inns, the Sheaf of ff heat, the Ship Tavern, and the Exton, which arc still standing. These are only a few of the taverns and inns that became famous. I hat the highways were lined with them, so to speak, is shown by the fact that along the Lancaster Pike there were sixtv-one taverns inside the sixty-six miles from Philadelphia to Lancaster. If some of these old inns which still remain could relate the history of their past, they might reveal interesting chapters in the lives of the generations who helped to establish not only our state, but our nation. II Early Means of Travel Charlotte Cramer Before the colonization of North America by the Europeans the Indian’s only means of traveling overland was on foot. However, after the introduction of the horse into America, the Indian contrived a vehicle known as the Indian travail—a device consisting of two poles and cross-bar that dragged on the ground behind the Indian pony. When he undertook a journey, the man put his squaw, papoose, and household goods on the travail, while he walked beside it. The first carts of the white man were nearly as crude as this Indian travail. These carts with immensely high and solid wheels made by taking a thin cross sec- tion of a great log, could go safely wherever oxen could draw them. The hubs of the carts were usually three feet from the ground; this raised the body of the cart clear of any ordinary stream at a ford. The carts were also narrow enough to pass along the paths of the pack-horses. By the end of the seventeenth century, the settlers saw the need for wheeled vehicles in the cities and near the sea-coast. To meet this need, three distinct types of wheeled vehicles appeared. The first was a two-wheeled private coach made for town use only. As springs were unknown at the time, the brightly painted body of wood or leather swung on stout braces of wood. A dozen or more of these two- horse carriages existed in Philadelphia before 1700. Another type of vehicle, known as the chair, appeared at the same time. Then, by simply adding a covered top of leather to this carriage-for-two, the chaise was made. [12]
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