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History Of Highways

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The Romans bound their empire together with an extensive system of roads radiating in many directions from Rome. Some of these early roads were .of elaborate construction. For example, the Appian Way, built southward about 312 B.C., illustrates one of the procedures used by the Romans. First.a trench was excavated to such a depth that the finished surface would be, at ground level. The pavement was placed in three courses: a layer of -small broken stones, a layer of small stones mixed with mortar and firmly tamped into place, and a wearing course of massive stone blocks, set and bedded in mortar. Many of these roads are still in existence after 2000 years.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, road building became a lost art. It was not until the eighteenth century that Tresaguet (1716—1796) in France developed improved construction methods that at a later time, .under Napoleon, made pos­sible a great system of French roads. Highway development in England followed soon after. MacAdam (1756-1836) in particular was outstanding. A road surface that bears his name is still used.

Although little significant road building, as such, was done in England before the eighteenth century, the foundations of English and thus American highway law were being laid. Early Saxon laws imposed an obligation on all lands to perform three necessary duties: repair roads and bridges; maintain castles and garrisons; and aid in repelling invasion. Soon after the Norman conquest it was written that the king's highway was "a sacred thing, and he who has occupied any part thereof by exceeding the boundaries and limits of his land is said to have made encroachment on the King himself/' Very early, applications of this law made clear that ownership of the roads actually was vested in all persons who wished to use them. Other statutes, dating as far back as the thirteenth cen­tury, required abutting property owners to drain the road and clip any bordering hedges, and -to refrain from fencing, plowing, or from planting trees,'blishes, or shrubs closer than specified distances from the center of carriageways;’ In these and other early statutes can be seen the rudiments of such presfent-day cbric'epts as the government's responsibility for highways, the rights of the public to use them without interference, and the obligations of and restrictions on the owners of abutting property.

Title Post: History Of Highways
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Author: aditya