Road Building in Georgia:
Nineteenth Century

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During the early nineteenth century, there were movements in the United States to develop more integrated and better quality transportation systems to tie together the expanding country. National roads were viewed as military necessities, as well as being important for transportation, communication, and administration. Georgia began its first large-scale road project with Federal grant money in 1829. Of this money, the Georgia Assembly appropriated $70,000 to purchase slaves for road construction and maintenance work, as well as other transportation tasks, such as clearing navigable rivers. Two superintendents were appointed to direct and oversee road projects and make reports to the Governor.

Local roads continued to serve as important links between towns and cities and to stimulate trade. Additionally, their construction assisted in communication, as post roads were expanded.

In 1834, the first turnpike was authorized for Georgia. Turnpikes were private corporations that built and maintained roads for the right to charge tolls for use. Between 1834 and 1850 the General Assembly granted charters to more than 25 turnpike companies, although not all of these were built. Turnpike construction in Georgia took place mostly in the mountainous parts of the state where conditions made road construction more difficult. Turnpikes grew less popular after the Civil War and few new charters were granted for them.

Until the twentieth century, decisions on when and where to build roads were mostly made at the local and county levels. Planning was informal and routes tended to follow the most convenient directions. Because nineteenth-century roads were used mostly for foot and wagon traffic, they did not have the same requirements for access and speed that modern roads do.

After the Civil War and the loss of enslaved labor, Georgia reprised the statutory method, which required local residents to donate labor for road projects. This practice resulted in poor design, construction, and maintenance.

To improve quality, in the 1890s the state stopped calling on private citizens to provide labor and instead began imposing special taxes to cover costs. Day laborers and convicts took over the actual work. This new system improved the quality of maintenance, but did not provide funds for the relocation and construction of roads.

During the nineteenth century, compact earth remained the most common roadway surface in Georgia. Improving the quality of dirt roads meant finding the best combinations of soil for strength and drainage. More solid materials that were used for road surfaces included stone, gravel, and macadam. In coastal areas, crushed shell would sometimes be used for surfacing. Heavy machinery that was in use by the end of the 1800s included graders with movable scraping blades that were pulled by draft animals or tractors. Also in use were rollers for compacting and smoothing road surfaces. These could be powered with the use of animals or steam engines.

In marshy or wet areas, earthen roads were not stable and a common alternative consisted of log (or “corduroy”) roads. These consisted of logs or half logs placed across the direction of the road to create a solid surface.

Plank roads, built the same way as log roads but using sawn planks as a surface, were a more expensive method and the planks did not last long, increasing costs. Some of the turnpikes built in Georgia were surfaced with planks, but most were dirt. Plank roads seem to have been more common in the southern part of the state and developed out of efforts of Gulf Coast towns in Florida to provide outlets for south Georgia cotton growers. Gravel was often used to fill rotten sections of plank roads, leading to a wider use of gravel and stone as a surfacing material.