Thom Faircloth asked a good question, "What were the roads like that we have been talking about?" At the beginning, they were trails. When traversed by humans, not much improvement was needed as a person is very adept and can overcome many obstacles by his skills. When horses were used, little additional improvement was needed, perhaps some widening. When wagons entered the flow along the road, definite improvements were needed. Trees had to be cut to widen the road, some of the roughest spots had to be smoothed out.
But after all was said and done, the surface was still dirt and the tree stumps remained. The wagons rolled over the stumps. The tools that were used were the axe, the spade and the pickax (used for loosing up soil and rocks and for prying up roots). To quote Charles Teeter in a similar situation, "The pick and the shovel were frequently brought into use to grade down the sides of deep gutters (gullies) so that they might be crossed." He additionally says that the shovel and the pickax were the two tools that have done more toward developing the West (in the nineteenth century) than all others combined. But still, as you may imagine, little work was invested into the roads because the people doing the "investing" were not going to reap any rewards after they got their party or their wagon through.
So initially the roads were minimal, with unimproved surfaces. I have some personal experience with the conditions of such roads. I was born in Oklahoma in the first part of this century on a farm which was accessed by a dirt road. Periodically, the dirt was leveled or smoothed out to fill in the holes. But holes and ruts developed with regularity, especially after the rains which loosened or softened the soil. Then attempts to use the road by car, wagon, or tractor, would create ruts that were axle deep. Progress became next to impossible. Pity the poor mailman trying to make his rounds. He often found that the best roads were through the pastures or farmland.
Back in eighteenth century Virginia, rolling roads were used to get the tobacco to market. Very large casks, I believe about 800 pounds with tobacco was typical, were used. Imagine oversized barrels made of wood. The tobacco was packed into them firmly to relieve the stress on the cask. The barrel was tipped on its side and an axle was fashioned through the barrel. Shafts were fixed to the axle and the cask was pulled by animals, probably oxen. The road had to be a good road if the barrel was to survive the trip. It needed to be smooth so that the cask would not be destroyed or punctured by rocks and tree stumps. It needed to be dry to keep the tobacco dry. The road had to be reasonably level so the animals could pull it uphill and avoid be run over by the cask on the down slopes. So the economic necessity of getting the goods to market forced the best roads to be the tobacco rolling roads.
Overall, the state of the roads was primitive. Their design prevented travel many weeks during the year. Any one road would evolve toward something better as more people worked on it. To carry heavier loads, some surfacing was desirable but it was expensive. Later, to help with these expenses, tolls were charged. Perhaps the best image to have in one's mind is the picture of the two ruts of the Oregon Trail as it crossed the prairie. That was a typical road. In Virginia, I have visited the ruins of a road where the road bed has sunk or eroded so deeply into the earth that a wagon on the road would not be visible from a short distance away. You might say the early roads were a concept, not a reality.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.