preeminently American institution, the ridge road, came about
Even this necessarily brief survey shows plainly how that
preeminently American institution, the ridge road, came about.
East and west, it was the legitimate and natural successor to the
ancient trail. With the coming of the wagon, whose rattle was
heard among the hills as early as Braddock”s campaign, the
process of lowering these paths from the heights was inevitably
begun, and it was to the riverways that men first looked for a
solution of the difficult problems of inland commerce. Eventually
the paths of inland commerce constituted a vast network of
canals, roads, and railway lines in those very valleys to which
Washington had called the nation”s attention in 1784.