tions; and was thus prepared to cash in on the Federal investment when the Cumberland Road reached the Ohio River.
The Erie Canal.
Virginia incorporated the Northwestern Turnpike in 1831 as a State-owned enterprise, with the Governor as president of the board of directors, to build a turnpike road from Winchester to “some point on the Ohio River to be situated by the principal engineer.” The principal engineer was Captain Claudius Crozet, formerly professor of engineering at West Point, and perhaps the ablest road engineer in America at this time. This road was completed to Parkersburg on the Ohio River in 1838, at a cost of $400,000.[1]
The standards and costs of the many turnpikes varied widely. Some were graded and ditched, but unsurfaced. Most were surfaced with gravel or pounded stone. The pounded stone surface was very expensive because all stone had to be quarried and broken by hand labor.[N 1] After 1846 some roads were surfaced with wooden planks laid on heavy sills. Average construction costs for turnpikes varied between $550 per mile to as high as $14,000 per mile.[2]
The turnpike movement eventually spread into all the States, and by 1850 there were hundreds of companies operating thousands of miles of roads and canals. These contributed tremendously to the States’ internal development by opening new lands to settlement, by reducing the cost of haulage from the farms to the markets, and by stimulating the development of industries. Indeed, the construction of these privately financed public works was, itself, a major industry in the early 1800’s.
At first, only citizens of the United States were allowed to own road and canal stock, but this restriction was later waived to attract European investment capital. Some States subsidized turnpike and canal companies by tax exemptions and by purchasing shares in the ventures. The charter granted by Kentucky to the Ohio Canal Company, for example, not only authorized the Governor to subscribe for 1,000 shares on behalf of the State, but also extended the privilege to the United States Government and to five other States bordering on the Ohio River.
With certain notable exceptions, such as the Erie Canal, the profits on toll road and canal investments were modest at best. Most of the charters contained provisions for reducing tolls when profits reached a certain level, usually 12 or 15 percent per year. The Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company’s charter required that when profits exceeded 15 percent per annum 1 percent of the same shall be reserved “for the establishment of schools, and the encouragement of the arts and sciences. . . .”[3]
- ↑ The first practical mechanical stone crusher was patented by Eli Whitney Blake, in 1858.
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