it makes you wonder.........

[musclehead]

driving from one end of the country to the other I wonder how many of these roads started as a game trail, then a foot path, a wagon cut, dirt road, gravel road, county road/highway to U.S. highway all the way up to an interstate. 

[The Anvil]

Kinda like the derelict bridge Eddie and I came upon this past summer...



We found it at the end of a deserted road in the woods. It had clearly been a road at one time (NOT a trail) because it was almost two car widths and bedded with regularly sized stones. There was also a wire running along it's length that would poke above ground for a few meters then recede, the reappear on so on. At one point we came upon a 60's era pickup truck that had been driven just off the road and used for extensive marksmanship training. The road finally came to an end at the broken bridge you see in the pic.

The concrete pylons could have been pre-war, but the fragment of Macadam just visible on the far side was not that old. I think it was likely still in use up until about 20 years ago. So It would seem like this one started as a path then when the powerlines went in it got cut off from the main thoroughfare. A road that could have become a highway but cut down in it's youth by the lance of progress.

[old2soon]

The street i grew up in in Round Lake Illinois started out as a dirt road to a gravel road to oiled gravel to a hot mix black top surface. When we moved there from Chicago i was all of 5 years old. Joined the Navy at 19 years of age so the changes listed above took place in that time frame. When i was in the Navy (1964 1968) i ran a lot of old U S 66. Ran a lot of U S 66 when i started cross country trucking. Kinda grew up with the interstates. This past summer when i went to visit my brother (da prez) i stayed OFF the interstates as much as possible. Side roads are ever so much more interesting to run. Espescially if you ain't in a hurry-and i wasn't. As a side benefit of staying off the interstates the gas is usually but not always cheaper on the route less traveled. Also a lot of good mom and pop resturants on the side roads. Well used to be anyway. Didn't mean to hijack the thread. RIDE SAFE.

[bigfish_Oh]

I inherited a double barrel shotgun from my stepfather, he said his great,great?? grandpa brought it over from Pa to Ohio when RT 40(national road, national trail, runs parrell to I70) was a mud path.
   I always liked taking grandma for a ride, she would tell of everything that used to be there !!!

[chuckinVA]

Here's one for ya.

"Three Notch'd Road (also called Three Chopt Road) was a colonial-era major east-west route across central Virginia. It is believed to have taken its name from a distinctive marking of three notches cut into trees to blaze the trail.[1] By the 1730s, the trail extended from the vicinity of the fall line of the James River at the future site of Richmond westerly to the Shenandoah Valley, crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains at Jarmans Gap. In modern times, a large portion of U.S. Route 250 in Virginia follows the historic path of the Three Notch'd Road, as does nearby Interstate 64."

My brother had a house and some land on 250.  We often talked about getting a metal detector and checking out his property, but never did.

[Cruzen]

driving from one end of the country to the other I wonder how many of these roads started as a game trail, then a foot path, a wagon cut, dirt road, gravel road, county road/highway to U.S. highway all the way up to an interstate. 

There are probably quite a few that made it all the way up to the U.S. Highway configuration.  However, the design requirements/considerations such as sight distances and vertical and horizontal alignment configurations of most Interstates preclude the use of most of those previous right of way's though in some cases, small portions of previous roadway alignments have been modified and used. 

[musclehead]

I inherited a double barrel shotgun from my stepfather, he said his great,great?? grandpa brought it over from Pa to Ohio when RT 40(national road, national trail, runs parrell to I70) was a mud path.
   I always liked taking grandma for a ride, she would tell of everything that used to be there !!!

THE NATIONAL ROAD  U.S. 40 the first state sponsored road!

[sheets]

With the exception of the interstates and new routes constructed in the 50s ... and fast forward to this point in time... I'd hazard an assumption they all started as trails and wagon trails. Mankind just kept improving on the path of least resistance. As populations grew and numbers of vehicles increased they had to do something. I know many of CA's rural highways are simply an evolutionary improved version of what they were a hundred or more years ago. Hwy 1 north of San Francisco, 3, 36, 96, 162, 199, 253, 299, 101 north of Cloverdale, to name a few. Same-same up and down the entire State (i.e., 49 and other east west routes over the sierra's (50 & 80). The Interstates parallel the old routes in some instances. Imagine the pioneers who crossed the great salt flats by wagon and pony express.