Roads
Transportation revolution
The Cumberland Road
This was the road built by the federal government. It ran from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, a town on the Ohio River in present-day West Virginia. Construction began in 1815. Workers had to cut a 66-foot-wide band, sometimes through forest, to make way for the road. They had to use shovels and pickaxes to dig a 12 to 18 inch roadbed, which they filled with crushed stone. All of this was done without the benefit of today's bulldozers and steamrollers.
Roads Now
Thomas Telford and John Loudon McAdam are credited with the first modern roads. Today in America, most of our roadways and streets are paved with asphalt concrete. Trucks travel on roads now a days better than they used to because the roads are more durable then before. Especially with highways because they can't be made out of wood or stone because they aren't strong enough to support the heavy cars. They need to be made out of concrete and steel to hold the heavy cars.