variously estimated at from 1,500
to 2,000 miles. It was built of stone and was, in some parts at least,
covered with a bituminous cement, which time had made harder than the
stone itself. All the difficulties which a mountainous country presents
to the construction of roads were here overcome. Suspension bridges led
over mountain torrents, stairways cut in the rock made possible the
climbing of steep precipices, and mounds of solid masonry facilitated
the crossing of ravines. Under the rule of the Spaniards the roads of
the Incas went to ruin. In fact, throughout South America but little, if
anything, was done by the mother country to aid transportation.

North America, or at least that part of it which was settled by the
Anglo-Saxon race, fared much better in this respect. The great utility
of good roads was universally recognized even in the colonial times, but
the scarcity of capital, the great extent of territory as compared with
the population, and the want of harmonious action among the various
colonies, delayed extensive road and canal building until after the
establishment of the Union. Mistaken local interests but too often
wrecked well-advanced plans, and what road-building was done during the
colonial times was almost entirely left to individual exertion, without
any direct aid from the government.

The first American turnpike was built in Pennsylvania in 1790. From
there the system extended into New York and Southern New England. Up to
1822 more than six million dollars had been expended in Pennsylvania for
turnpikes, one-third of which sum, or over $1,000 a mile, had been
contributed by the commonwealth.

In 1800 three wagon-roads connected the Atlantic coast with the country
west of the Alleghanies, one leading from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh,
one from the Potomac to the Monongahela, and a third passed through
Virginia to Knoxville, in Tennessee. Much as was done during this period
for the improvement of the roads, stage-coach travel remained for years
comparatively slow. In 1792 Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of State,
wrote to the Postmaster-General to know if the post, which was then
carried at the rate of fifty miles a day, could not be expedited to one
hundred. Even this latter rate was considered slow on the great
post-roads forty years later. In the year 1800 one general mail-route
was extended from Maine to Georgia, the trip being made in twenty days.
From Philadelphia a line went to Lexington in