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HIGHWAYS
AND
HIGHWAY TRANSPORTATION
[Illustration:
© _Major Hamilton Maxwell_
© _Underwood and Underwood_
STORM KING HIGHWAY
A Great Engineering Project Along the Hudson between Cornwall and West
Point, N. Y.]
HIGHWAYS
AND
HIGHWAY TRANSPORTATION
BY
GEORGE R. CHATBURN, A.M., C.E.
_Professor of Applied Mechanics and Machine Design
Lecturer on Highway Engineering
The University of Nebraska_
NEW YORK
THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT 1923, BY
THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY
_Printed in the United States of America_
PREFACE
The following pages on Highways and Highway Transportation do not
pretend to be an exhaustive treatise on the subject, but rather a
glimpse of the vast development of the humble road and its office as
an agency for transportation. Possibly the grandeur of the mountains
is best appreciated by one who lives among them, who climbs their
acclivitous heights, who daily experiences their power and majesty,
and measures their magnitude by grim muscular exertion. But, even
so, it would be foolish to contend that he who gets his information
from the seat of a Pullman car receives no benefit from the hasty
glimpse, or, that his imagination is not quickened and cultured by
the experience. In writing this book, then, I have had constantly in
mind the myriads of people who have not the time, and possibly not the
facilities, to search the pages of the literature of the past for the
origin and development, or to work out their present importance, of
our amplification of roads and of road uses. It is felt that many of
these people laudably desire a conversational knowledge of the origin,
evolution and present status of highway transportation, even though it
be glimpsed by a very rapid passage through a very large subject.
The primary objects have therefore been, to sketch briefly and simply
the development of the transportation systems of the United States,
to indicate their importance and mutual relations, to present some
practical methods used in the operation of highway transport and to
make occasional suggestions for the betterment of the road as a usable
machine for the benefit and pleasure of mankind.
Any observations made or conclusions drawn are purely personal. I
entered into and have carried on the work entirely unbiased. I am
not financially or otherwise, except academically, interested in
any firm or company whose business has to do with transportation
either directly as a carrier, or indirectly as a manufacturer of the
instruments or accessories to transportation, nor does any of my living
come from societies or foundations organized as propagandists for any
particular forms of transportation, or transportation materials or
equipment. I have no admiration for the man who hopes to see the steam
and electric railways put out of business or even caused to run at a
loss by the automobile, motor express or motor bus. Neither have I
any plaudits for the man who would arrest the growth of the new forms
of transportation by drastic legal enactments and excessive taxation
in order to preserve the old. I believe there is room and need in the
United States for all forms of transportation, and that each can thrive
in its respective field just as do wheat and corn but none will thrive
if they attempt to occupy the same field at the same time.
The text is naturally divided into two parts--the development of
highways and their use. The first part treats of the relation of
transportation to civilization generally, explaining briefly how the
two have grown together like children at school, how each has helped
the other, and how the meter of one is the measure of the other.
Leaving the old world there is sketched all too briefly the development
in the United States of transportation facilities from the coastal and
natural waterways, from the pack and trail, used by the aborigine and
early settlers, through the treks of the pioneers, the periods of canal
digging, the toll road competition, and the railway frenzy, to the
advent of the modern road with the coming of the bicycle and automobile
and their wonderful accelerative impulse.
The effects of State and Federal aid upon the road conditions of the
country are fully treated as is also the planning of highway systems.
Automotive transportation for business and pleasure including rural
motor express and bus lines, and their effect on production and
marketing are described and discussed.
In the chapters on highway accidents and highway aids to traffic,
attention is called to many types of accidents, including railway
crossing accidents, with suggestions for their mitigation. Here also
are given the most recent practical rules for the regulation of traffic
in both city and country.
A chapter is devoted to the esthetics of the highway, a subject just
coming to the attention of road men who have heretofore been mostly
concerned with distances, grades, widths and surfaces, which, by
the way, are frequently mentioned in the text. As in all building
construction the first appeal was made to material things and their
relation to the pocket-book, while the last and most enduring appeal is
spiritualistic and is made to the pleasures of the imagination.
The same idea of making the road a means of catering to the
preservative and pleasure instincts of man is considered in the final
chapter on aids and attractions to traffic and travel. Safety and
warning devices are discussed as such, while comforts and conveniences
are means for luring the average citizen to the highway, to the camps
and parks, for the broadening effect upon his character, the health of
his body, and the enlightenment of his soul.
Thus we close a most hurried journey from the very beginning of roads
to their modern far superior yet very imperfect attainments. The main
thought throughout has been the road as a usable agency in the economic
and entertaining phases of life. Each equally important to the wealth,
health, and happiness of our people. The mind easily travels ahead to
a time when separate roads will be devoted to the two great ends of
business and pleasure. Then the flight of fancy passes on to still
another period of time and sees the highways made inoperative and
superfluous, overgrown by weeds and grass, for the argosies of business
and pleasure have taken to the air.
GEORGE RICHARD CHATBURN.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
March 9, 1923.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
TRANSPORTATION A MEASURE OF CIVILIZATION 1
Stages of Civilization: Direct Appropriation; Pastoral;
Agricultural -- Manorial and Feudal Systems; Handicraft --
Merchant Guilds, Effect upon Trade, Domestic System, Government
Control, Agriculture; Industrial -- Building of Canals,
Smelting Iron, Invention of Steam Engine, Railways Developed.
Some Historical Roads and their Influence: Early Highways --
Asiatic, Greek, Roman, Pre-Historic American.