ROADS

Though technologically undramatic, roads and trails were part of the transportation network. to Hollywood and western movies, we are familiar with the trails followed by western settlers. These “highways” of long-distance land travel are shown in Map 9.2 on page 161. The overland routes of westward migration, settlement, and commerce usually followed the old Indian hunting and war paths, which in turn had followed stream valleys providing the easiest lines of travel. One of the most important paths was the Wilderness Road, pioneered by Daniel Boone. Penetrating the mountain barrier at Cumberland Gap, near present-day Middlesboro, Kentucky, the road then went north and west into the Ohio Territory. Over this road, which in many places was only a marked track, poured thousands of emigrants.44 Although most of the overland roads turned into quagmires in the rainy season and into billowing dust clouds in the dry season, some of them were well constructed and well maintained through portions of their length.

MAP 9.2

Westward Travel

The massive physical barriers faced by the pioneers could be minimized by following such famous routes as the Oregon, Mormon, or Santa Fe Trails. Note that the Mormons deliberately went north of the Platte River to avoid wagon trains hostile to them on the Oregon Trail south of the river.

The most notable surfaced highway was the Cumberland Road, or “National Road,” as it was often called, which was built by the federal government after much controversy. Begun at Cumberland, Maryland, in 1811, the road was opened to Wheeling on the Ohio River in 1818 and was later completed to St. Louis. This major government undertaking was part of Albert Gallatin’s 1808 proposed plan for a system of federal roads. Despite support from many people for a comprehensive program of internal improvements, that was the only major road built in this early period by the federal government. Opposition to federal projects like this was based ostensibly on the assertion that federal participation in such an activity was unconstitutional. Recall Economic Reasoning Propositions 1, scarcity forces us to make choices; 2, choices impose costs, the highest valued alternative forgone; and 4, laws and rules matter. Sectional rivalries played a major role in blocking the proposed construction. The West, in particular, persistently and loudly called for a national road system, and at first, the Middle Atlantic states were inclined to agree. But after New York and Pennsylvania developed their own routes to the West, they did not wish to promote federally financed competition elsewhere. New Englanders, with fairly good roads of their own, were even less inclined to encourage further population drains or to improve the commercial positions of Boston’s rivals. The South, although mired in the mud, was bitterly antagonistic to any program that would add to the government’s financial needs or facilitate access to nonslave portions of the West. Despite all the opposition, Congress could not avoid appropriating increasing sums for post and military roads, but sectional rivalries over the geographic allocation of internal improvements permitted an incredibly primitive road system to survive well into the twentieth century.