Eyewitness 1834: Building a better road
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Isolated from East Coast markets by the rugged Allegheny Mountains, Pittsburgh business people were always on the lookout for new ways to move goods and people.
In its final edition of 1834, the Daily Pittsburgh Gazette printed a lengthy report on a new technology that, its inventors claimed, could reduce shipping costs dramatically.
A "Wooden Track Road" could slash the cost of transporting 100 pounds of goods from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia from $2.50 -- equivalent to about $40 in modern currency -- to 84 cents [$13.50 today], according to the Dec. 31 edition of the newspaper.
"A double Track road can be made, under favorable circumstances, for about one third the cost of a McAddamized [sic] road -- one sixth the cost of a iron rail road and only one twelfth of a canal," according to the story, which appeared under the headline "CHEAP RAIL ROAD."
A "McAdam," or macadam, road was named for John Loudon McAdam, a Scottish engineer, who refined the idea of using two layers of different-sized stone to build less expensive but still durable roads. An "iron rail road" referred to the familiar raised tracks on which railroad cars, drawn by horses or locomotives, could run.
The track road proposed even cheaper construction, designed to make use of readily available wood, one of the most abundant raw materials around Pittsburgh.
An illustration accompanying the story showed 8-inch-wide wooden boards laid across wooden ties. Narrower wooden "ledges or side guides" were nailed to the outside edges of the boards. They were slightly shorter than the track boards, creating gaps to allow storm water to run off, but they still would help to keep "every description of wheeled carriages" from running off the smooth wooden rails.
The technology appeared similar to the "plank roads" constructed in Allegheny County in the 19th century, but it required much less timber.
First Published September 5, 2010 12:00 am
