Historic roads are driving our heritage home

Posted by Bill on Monday, February 8, 2010   |   3 Comments

Roads, more than the rail lines or the airways, are at the heart of travel. I am going to devote a few posts to historic roads, what we can learn from them and why we should save them. This is the first post in an eight-part series.

Roads are the threads that bind our history together, and there’s much to be learned about the history and development of cities, industries and individual companies, states—the nation as a whole—by studying these vital links. Besides, as aficionados of the open road, how could we travelers not love historic roads?

We speak of “living in the fast lane” and “hitting the road again.” An economy and culture build on the importance of roads has given us the “drive-in,” drive-up” and “drive-thru.”

Some roads are legendary: the Alaska Highway, Route 66 and “The Great White Way” (Broadway in New York). Yes, it’s virtually impossible to separate our roads from our life and living. They are wound in, around and through one another.

John Ruskin (1819-1900), an English author, poet and artist, had some great advice for future generations regarding historic structures: “Old buildings are not ours. They belong, partly to those who built them, and partly to the generations of mankind who are to follow us. . . .

“What we ourselves have built, we are at liberty to throw down. But what other men gave their strength and wealth and life to accomplish, their right over it does not pass away with their death.”

Isn’t it just as true for roads?

He was talking about buildings not roads, but some of the same thinking applies. And yes, some change is inevitable. Sometimes buildings and the roads that connect and bind them are lost, or at least modified or improved through the relentless march of change.

But across the nation roads important to the history of local areas, states or regions are falling into obsolescence, soon to be gone forever.

Some roads are protected by the National Park Service under the guidelines for National Historic Landmarks (NHL) or the National Register of Historic Places (NR).

Other roads are recognized for their historic significance through designation as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark (NHCEL—American Society of Civil Engineers), a National Scenic Byway (NSB—Federal Highway Administration) or an All-American Road (AAR—Federal Highway Administration).

Often, roads are orphans

Not part of the mainstream preservation effort that tends to focus on buildings, roads are often orphans in the process. It’s beginning to change as more and more communities recognize and try to protect historic roads, but it will be a long road to success, no pun intended.

Assembling a complete list of historic roads in America would be a daunting task. Part of the problem is navigating the slippery slope of deciding exactly what constitutes historic significance, or more to the point—eligibility for such designation.

Although the website Historic Roads makes it clear that its list is not intended to be complete, it does offer a place to begin. The compilation offers a state by state accounting of designated historic roads.

In the next few posts, I’ll explore a bit more about saving historic roads, the resources available, Midwest historic roads and the first transcontinental highway, an all-but-forgotten route that crosses the Midwest.

Photo: A stretch in the Alcan Highway which connects Edmonton, Canada, with Fairbanks (Fort Nelson), Alaska. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, LC-USW33-000933-C.

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