User:LaurentianShield/PlankRoadDraft
A plank road was a type of road construction very popular for a brief period in the 19th century, especially in North America. Loosely speaking, plank roads include a variety of roads constructed with boards or planks as pavement, but as a major type of road construction, they were a phenomenon limited to that time period. Plank roads were some times known as the "farmers' railroad" because they offered an alternative to the perceived monopolistic practices of the railroads. Plank roads in North America (United States and Canada) were generally constructed by companies incorporated by government charter, and received a return on their investment by charging tolls.
A plank road is a dirt path or
Plank road boom
In the late 1840s plank roads led to an investment boom and subsequent bust. The first plank road in the US was built in
Three plank roads, the Hackensack, the Paterson and the Newark, were major arteries in northern New Jersey, which connected the Hudson River waterfront to the cities after which they are named on the other side of the Hackensack Meadows.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Plank_road_on_St._George_Island%2C_Alaska%2C_1938.jpg/220px-Plank_road_on_St._George_Island%2C_Alaska%2C_1938.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Puncheon.jpg/220px-Puncheon.jpg)
Plank roads in Australia
In
See also
- Boardwalk
- Corduroy road
- Board track racing
- Duckboards
- Marsden Matting- a 20th-century equivalent for airport runways
- Sweet Track and Post Track
- Old Plank Road
References
- ^ University of California Transportation Center. "The Plank Road Boom of Antebellum, New York" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-11-05. Retrieved 2006-04-25.
- ^ Klein & Majewski. "Turnpikes and Toll Roads in Nineteenth Century America". Retrieved 2006-04-25.
- ^ Cooper, W.S. (1999). Diversity's Challenge: A History of the City of Stirling. City of Stirling. p. 169.
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Further Reading
- Klein, Daniel; Majewski, John (June 1991). "Economy, Community and Law: The Turnpike Movement in New York, 1797-1845" (PDF). UCTC Working Paper (76). University of California. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
- Klein, Daniel; Yin, Chi (September 1994). "The Private Provision of Frontier Infrastructure" (PDF). UCTC Working Paper (238). University of California. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
- Klein, Daniel B.; Felding, Gordon J. (August 1992). "Private Toll Roads: Learning from the 19th Century" (PDF). UCTC Working Paper (218). University of California. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- The short film Military Roads (1943) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
- The Plank Road Craze - Background Reading
- Puncheon & corduroy roads
- Longfellow, Rickie. "Back in Time: Plank Roads". Highway History, Federal Highway Administration.