0:00

When you think about the future, what

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kind of technology do you envision? Whatever

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the future holds, artificial intelligence will undoubtedly

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be at the heart of it all.

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Join Graham Class as he hosts Season

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2 of Technically Speaking, an Intel Podcast,

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and hear from the minds transforming healthcare,

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retail, entertainment, personal computing, and more with

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the help of AI. Tune

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in every other Tuesday and explore the

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latest technology that's changing our world today

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and creating a more accessible tomorrow. Welcome

0:27

to Technically Speaking, an Intel Podcast on

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the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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you get your podcasts. Welcome

0:35

to Stuff You Missed in History Class,

0:38

a production of iHeartRadio. Hello

0:46

and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry.

0:49

And I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Summertime,

0:51

which for a lot of people means travel time.

0:55

I historically, summer is when

0:57

I travel the least, except this year

0:59

apparently, because I figure

1:01

I travel since, you know, we

1:03

are not burdened by having to

1:06

pay attention to like school year calendars

1:08

and whatnot. We try

1:10

to travel when the big travel

1:12

season isn't happening so we can have it

1:14

a little more relaxed. But this year, I don't know why

1:16

I just ended up with lots of travel. But

1:19

a lot of people plan road trips for summer

1:21

getaways. I love a good road trip. I like

1:23

to drive. So this of course

1:25

has me thinking about roads and highways. Today

1:28

I thought it would be fun for a

1:30

lighter note to talk about a few

1:32

such roadways from around the Western world

1:35

that are historically significant in one way

1:37

or another. All of

1:39

these also still exist in one way or another. One

1:42

is quite ancient and it is still accessible,

1:44

although not by car. One

1:47

is an important part of the development of the

1:49

U.S. It is not Route 66, I'll tell you

1:51

now. And the third is a little

1:53

more modern. It still exists pretty much

1:55

in its entirety. It's actually a road that Tracy

1:57

and I have traveled on during one

1:59

of our... and we're going to start

2:01

by talking about what is one of

2:04

the oldest roads in the world and

2:06

then we'll progress through those three chronologically.

2:09

The first road we will talk about

2:11

is the Ridgeway. That's in England and

2:13

it's a thoroughfare that's been in use

2:15

for an estimated 5,000 years, making

2:18

it the oldest road in Britain.

2:21

That means really no documentation

2:23

on its creation. We

2:25

do know that over time though this

2:27

path became established as a route for

2:29

farmers, travelers, and military troops. It

2:32

runs on a chalk ridge

2:34

through Oxfordshire and southern central

2:36

England from Overton Hill in

2:39

Wiltshire to Ivanhoe Beacon in

2:41

Buckinghamshire. If

2:44

you're like me and you're like how long is that? 87

2:47

miles long. Calling it a single

2:49

road or a path is actually a little bit

2:52

misleading. It wasn't a single road

2:54

for most of its history. It was a lot

2:56

of slightly different roads

2:58

that converged and diverged with

3:00

one another. One of

3:02

those is a lower path that would have

3:05

offered people easier access to water in the

3:07

springtime. People walking

3:09

the Ridgeway today might marvel

3:11

at the incredible views that

3:13

it offers, but it's probable

3:15

that this wasn't just about

3:17

taking in lovely vistas. Also,

3:20

it was about spotting dangers.

3:23

And it also offers a relatively

3:25

dry walking surface, even in inclement

3:27

weather. So precipitation really drains

3:30

away from it really well. Because

3:33

it is so old, the Ridgeway has been

3:35

used by a lot of different groups of

3:37

people at various points in history. And

3:40

as a consequence, traveling on it

3:42

today offers access to a look

3:44

at various moments in history. There

3:47

is a prehistoric burial mound there called

3:49

Wayland Smithy, and it's near the town

3:51

of Ashbury. Wayland Smithy, which

3:53

is on the list of national

3:55

heritage sites of England, was named,

3:58

it's believed, by Saxons for the

4:00

Norse mythology family. known as Weyland

4:02

the Smith. That's a blacksmith who,

4:04

in his mythological story, escapes enslavement

4:07

in this whole scheme involving ingenuity

4:09

and a lot of violent revenge.

4:12

But the burial mound is older than

4:14

the Saxon culture. It was built in

4:16

the early Neolithic era in two phases.

4:19

The first is a burial structure that's believed

4:21

to have been created between 3590 and 3550

4:23

BCE. The

4:28

second phase, which is built on top of the first,

4:31

came an estimated 100 years later, sometime between

4:33

3460 and 3400 BCE. The

4:38

exploration and examination of this site

4:41

are fairly recent, happening since 1919.

4:44

That's when the first reportedly

4:46

pretty clumsy excavation was mounted.

4:49

A second and more careful excavation took

4:52

place in the early 1960s. After

4:56

that, the site was reconstructed to its original

4:58

form, and you can visit it today. A

5:01

35-minute walk from Weyland-Smithy along the Ridgeway

5:03

takes you to the Uffington White Horse,

5:05

which is a massive pictogram. It's the

5:07

size of a football field, so when

5:09

we say massive, we mean it. That

5:12

is believed to have been created between 1400 and 600

5:16

BCE, right on the cusp between

5:18

the late Bronze Age and early

5:20

Iron Age. What

5:22

this horse represents is unknown.

5:25

There are loads of theories connecting

5:27

it to various mythical horse figures

5:29

or gods, but those are only

5:31

theories, and it too is an

5:33

English heritage site. About 18

5:35

miles southwest on the Ridgeway from

5:38

the area where Weyland-Smithy and the

5:40

White Horse are located is the

5:42

Avery Hinge and Stone Circles. On

5:45

the timeline, the hinge and its circles

5:47

are right between the two sites that

5:49

we have talked about already. This

5:52

hinge was erected an estimated 4,600 years ago,

5:56

and the entirety of the site's structures are believed

5:58

to have been created between the two sites. 2850

6:01

and 2200 BCE. The

6:04

hinge as it exists today is a

6:06

bank and ditch that forms a circle.

6:08

The ditch sits inside the circle that

6:11

the the raised bank creates and within

6:13

the hinge there is also a very

6:15

large circle of stones. At

6:17

one mile in circumference it is

6:19

the largest stone circle in Britain

6:22

and there are two more smaller

6:24

stone circles within that largest one.

6:27

Avebury is a really interesting situation

6:29

where there is a village that

6:31

sits partially within this arrangement of

6:33

henge and stone circles with people

6:36

living modern lives in that village

6:38

immediately adjacent to the elements that

6:40

make it a World Heritage Site.

6:44

There are more interesting stops along the

6:46

Ridgeway where you can see other historical

6:48

sites but we're going back

6:50

to the Ridgeway itself. We mentioned earlier

6:52

that it was originally a lot of

6:54

paths that largely ran parallel and often

6:57

converged with each other but

6:59

that loose group of paths eventually

7:01

became one clear path and that

7:04

was due to England's enclosure acts.

7:06

Sometimes that spelled enclosure with an

7:09

I rather than an E at the beginning. Going

7:12

back to the times when the

7:14

historical structures we've been talking about

7:16

were created the countryside of England

7:18

was largely open. People worked on

7:20

farms but the property lines just

7:22

weren't as rigid as we might

7:24

think of them today in most

7:26

cases. Over time of

7:28

course there were plenty of people who

7:30

wanted to mark where their property began

7:33

and the solution was to enclose that

7:35

property with hedges or fences. Initially

7:38

this started as a practice to keep

7:40

peasants away from the land that was

7:42

intended for the nobility. That's something that

7:44

started with the Tudors. But

7:46

over time the idea of

7:49

private property was adopted through

7:51

the various socioeconomic levels of

7:53

the population. Additionally

7:55

as agriculture became a more

7:57

refined science and focused meeks

8:00

for developing crops became more

8:02

widespread, people started to recognize

8:04

that in some cases it would be

8:06

really beneficial to cordon off different crops

8:09

from one another. Farmers

8:11

wanted to carefully plan and rotate their

8:13

crops, and having open fields made it

8:15

kind of hard to fulfill those plans.

8:17

If you've ever had your own garden,

8:20

sometimes you know plants will just kind of get

8:22

in each other's business and they didn't want to

8:24

do that anymore. And so

8:26

starting in 1750, the Enclosure Acts started

8:29

to carve out the lines of ownership

8:31

of what had been open fields in

8:33

the countryside, also helped carve out different

8:35

crops. Common property like

8:38

roads started to be delineated because that

8:40

common property often abutted areas that

8:42

were getting enclosed as privately owned.

8:45

And so starting with the Enclosure Acts in 1750 and through

8:47

1830 when the last of those Enclosure

8:51

Acts were passed, all

8:53

of those varying little tributaries of

8:56

the Ridgeway were slowly and artificially

8:58

eliminated through this legal establishment of

9:01

property boundaries. Also

9:03

just as an aside, the Enclosure Acts also

9:05

caused a lot of problems. They were very

9:07

controversial in many ways. They could be their

9:09

own episode one day. Today is

9:11

not that day. Yeah, I feel like that's also

9:14

something that we at least got a basic overview

9:18

of in British history

9:21

class in school. I

9:23

remember that coming up. I don't remember it,

9:25

but that doesn't mean anything. I might have

9:27

been busy doodling dresses. As

9:32

this path became more delineated

9:34

by these hedges, it became

9:36

more worn in as a

9:38

roadway. It had been

9:40

traversed for centuries, but this consolidation made

9:42

it really a clear path. In

9:46

1973, the Ridgeway became a national trail

9:48

and you could walk or bike on

9:50

it today, or you could even follow

9:52

it on horseback. You cannot

9:54

buy car, though. Carriages

9:56

are allowed on some sections and

9:58

mobility devices. are allowed for disabled

10:00

people who wish to visit. It's

10:03

a little bit early, but we're going to

10:05

pause here for a sponsor break so that

10:07

we can keep each section together in its

10:09

entirety. And the next one is kind of

10:12

chunky. So coming up, we will talk about

10:14

the first federally funded road in the United

10:16

States. The

10:23

Medal of Honor is the highest military

10:25

decoration in the United States. Awarded

10:27

for gallantry and bravery in combat at

10:29

the risk of life above and beyond

10:32

the call of duty. Since

10:34

it was established in 1861, there

10:37

had been 3,517 people awarded with the Medal.

10:43

I'm Malcolm Gladwell, and our new

10:45

podcast from Pushkin Industries and iHeartMedia

10:47

is about those heroes, what

10:49

they did, what it meant, and

10:51

what their stories tell us about the

10:54

nature of courage and sacrifice. Without

10:58

him and the leadership that he exhibited

11:00

in bringing those boats in and assembling

11:02

them to begin when they're bringing them

11:04

in, it saved a hell

11:06

of a lot of lives, including my own.

11:09

Listen to Medal of Honor,

11:11

Stories of Courage, on the

11:14

iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

11:16

wherever you listen to podcasts.

11:26

Next up, we have the National Road.

11:29

This U.S. road is also called the Cumberland Road.

11:31

You'll see why in a second. Sometimes

11:34

the National Turnpike, it also has

11:36

an assortment of other names. But

11:38

it runs from Cumberland, Maryland to

11:40

Vandalia, Illinois, with many tributaries branching

11:42

off of it. But

11:45

that route and many other things about

11:47

it were matters of great debate. And

11:49

that's because this was the first road

11:51

in the U.S. that was funded by

11:53

the federal government. Right

11:55

from the beginning of the United

11:58

States as a nation.

12:00

people recognized that this was a big

12:03

place, even in

12:05

the early stages of the US when

12:07

it was much smaller than it is

12:09

today. So people understood they were going

12:11

to need some travel infrastructure. President

12:14

George Washington talked about this issue as early

12:16

as 1790. Anybody

12:19

along the East Coast of North

12:21

America was automatically connected by seaports,

12:23

but as people started to move

12:25

farther inland from the coast, particularly

12:28

into the area known as

12:30

the Northwest Territory, it

12:32

became apparent that there needed to be a

12:34

way to connect these places, both for travel

12:36

and for transport. And

12:39

when we say transport there, we mean transporting

12:41

of goods. Initially, people counted

12:43

on river transport to get around,

12:45

but that didn't obviously connect everyone.

12:48

There were also mountains that made

12:50

traveling over land difficult at best and

12:52

treacherous at worst. There

12:55

were trails that had been blazed by indigenous

12:57

peoples, and in some areas, there were

12:59

military roads that were a little more

13:01

than trails that had been established during

13:03

the French and Indian War, which

13:05

of course is part of the Seven Years War. But

13:08

many of the military trails in particular were

13:10

not made for long-term use, and once they

13:12

were no longer needed as part of troop

13:14

movement during a conflict, they were kind of

13:17

just left to grow over. There

13:19

absolutely were roads that had

13:22

been built or blazed already

13:24

or expanded from existing

13:26

pathways built by indigenous

13:28

people or migration routes

13:30

of animals. The

13:33

most famous of those is probably the

13:35

Wilderness Road, which was initially cut to

13:37

open up a trail into Kentucky. The

13:40

Wilderness Road is credited to Daniel

13:42

Boone and his company of men.

13:45

They were commissioned to do this

13:47

and expanded some already discovered and

13:49

cut routes. Boone's

13:51

group was tasked by entrepreneur Richard

13:54

Henderson with cutting away through the

13:56

passage through the Allegheny Mountains, known

13:58

as the Cumberland Gap. gap for

14:00

the benefit of his land speculation

14:02

company. And that last

14:05

part is the important bit there. This was a

14:07

road that was privately funded. It

14:09

opened up a passage for expansion into

14:11

the West and was important in growing

14:13

the footprint of the United States, but

14:16

this had not been a government effort.

14:19

So when Ohio became the 17th state admitted

14:21

to the Union in 1803, and even when

14:23

it just looked

14:25

like it might be, it precipitated a

14:28

look at the future of the land

14:30

of the Northwest Territory. And

14:32

it sharply focused the already known problem that

14:34

the United States was a country in which

14:36

some parts of it were really difficult to

14:39

get to. This isn't

14:41

something that was an issue of unity.

14:43

Of course, that was, you know, part of

14:45

the ideological stuff that was talked about. But

14:48

really the big driver was commerce. The

14:50

US wanted the economic benefit of being

14:52

able to take advantage of the resources

14:54

that would be accessible through Ohio and

14:56

the states that would come after it,

14:58

like fur trading. And it

15:01

was not as though there were a bunch

15:03

of Richard Henderson's just throwing money at massive

15:05

public works projects to get roads built. In

15:08

an effort to solve the issue and

15:10

make it easier to travel within the

15:13

United States, Congress took steps starting in

15:15

1802 to try to make it happen.

15:19

Money made from the sale of federal

15:21

land was earmarked for the development of

15:23

a road from Cumberland, Maryland to

15:26

reach the new state of Ohio and

15:28

then eventually connect to new states farther

15:30

west as those were established. Cumberland

15:33

was chosen as the starting point

15:35

because that was where the Potomac

15:37

River, which starts on the Atlantic

15:39

coast, south of Washington, D.C., ends.

15:42

But getting to both the financial and geographic

15:44

decisions naturally came with some give and take

15:47

and a lot of debate. So

15:49

just for clarity and not anything Tracy did, but

15:52

I did, we know Ohio

15:54

not a state in 1802 because it was

15:56

even before that statehood. And

16:00

knowing that it was likely in

16:02

February of 1802, Secretary of the

16:04

Treasury Albert Gallatin wrote a letter

16:06

to William B. Giles, who was

16:08

a representative from Virginia, who was

16:10

chairman of the Select Committee on

16:12

the Northwest Territory. And

16:14

in that letter, Gallatin suggested a

16:17

way that a portage road, a

16:19

road to connect the Northwest Territory

16:21

to the Eastern Seaboard, could be

16:23

funded, writing, quote, that one-tenth part

16:25

of the net proceeds of the

16:27

lands hereafter sold by Congress shall,

16:29

after deducting all expenses incident to

16:32

the same, be applied towards laying

16:34

out and making turnpike or other

16:36

roads, first from the navigable

16:39

waters emptying into the Atlantic to the

16:41

Ohio, and afterwards continued

16:43

through the new state. Such

16:46

roads to be laid out under the authority

16:48

of Congress, with the consent of the several

16:50

states through which the same shall pass. The

16:53

roads will be as beneficial to the parts

16:55

of the Atlantic states through which they are

16:57

to pass, and nearly as much so to

17:00

a considerable portion of the Union as to

17:02

the Northwest Territory itself. But

17:04

a due attention to that particular

17:07

geographical situation of that territory and

17:09

of the adjacent Western districts of the

17:12

Atlantic states will not fail to impress

17:14

you strongly with the importance of that

17:16

provision in a political point of view.

17:19

So far as it will contribute towards

17:22

cementing the bonds of the Union between

17:24

those parts of the United States, whose

17:26

local interests have been considered as most

17:28

dissimilar. The following month,

17:31

which was March of 1802, Giles

17:33

gave a report to the House

17:35

of Representatives. It incorporated Gallatin's ideas

17:38

and cemented the idea that the

17:40

nation had to be proactive in

17:42

thinking not just about one thoroughfare,

17:45

but the future needs for roadways

17:47

that would be encountered as the

17:49

nation expanded. In April

17:51

30th of 1802, the Enabling

17:53

Act was signed by President Thomas

17:56

Jefferson with some changes, including a

17:58

reduction in the state's economic and

18:00

economic conditions. from one-tenth of the

18:02

land sales proceeds to one-twentieth, that's

18:04

five percent as road funding. Things

18:07

were further reduced in an amendment the

18:10

following year, which set aside three percent

18:12

of that five percent for creating roads

18:14

within the state, and then

18:17

just two percent for the Portage Road that

18:19

would connect the Atlantic States to Ohio. When

18:23

it came time to decide on specifically

18:25

where the road would begin, one

18:28

of the first factors introduced was trade. In

18:31

particular, what city had the highest

18:33

volume of commerce moving goods

18:35

to and from Ohio? Philadelphia

18:38

and Richmond were both considered, and also those

18:40

were kind of laid out as the boundaries

18:42

of how far north and south the starting

18:44

point should be considered. So,

18:47

Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, Richmond and Virginia. A

18:50

congressional committee noted that Philadelphia and

18:52

Baltimore were the chief trade cities

18:54

and that sites along the Potomac,

18:57

specifically Georgetown and Alexandria, were just

18:59

below that. But even

19:01

further down the list in terms of volume

19:03

was Richmond, Virginia. But the

19:06

committee's report also noted that they were

19:08

dealing with, quote, scanty sources of facts

19:10

and that it was entirely likely that

19:13

those kinds of statistics would change anyway as

19:15

the country grew and evolved. It

19:17

kind of sums up to, well, we think these are the busiest

19:20

centers of trade right now, but

19:22

that could all change soon, so I don't know, who knows? So,

19:25

in the end, they kind of turned their focus

19:27

off of just that and per the report, the

19:29

committee, quote, endeavored to fix

19:31

on that which, for the present, will

19:34

be most accommodating to the citizens of the

19:36

state of Ohio, leaving to

19:38

the future benevolence and policy of Congress

19:40

an extension of their operations on this

19:43

or other routes and

19:45

an increase of the requisite fund

19:47

as the discoveries of experience may

19:49

point out their expediency and necessity.

19:53

They looked at expanding an existing road

19:55

that ran from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to

19:57

a river point and then continued to

19:59

go to the state of Ohio. that

20:01

road into Ohio from there. Then they

20:03

looked at a similar plan to expand

20:06

a road from Baltimore to the Monongahela

20:08

River, which I have also heard people

20:10

say Monongahela, so don't yell at us,

20:13

and then from Richmond to the

20:15

Ohio River. In each case,

20:17

distance was considered to calculate

20:19

how much each of these

20:22

options would cost. But

20:24

the final recommendation for the starting

20:26

point was Cumberland, Maryland, with the

20:28

logic that, quote, this route will

20:30

meet and accommodate roads leading from

20:33

Baltimore and the District of Columbia.

20:35

It will cross the Monongahela River at or

20:38

near Brownsville, sometimes called Redstone, where

20:41

the advantage of boating could be

20:43

taken. And from the

20:45

point where it will probably intersect

20:47

the River Ohio, there are now

20:49

roads, or they can easily be

20:51

made over feasible and proper grounds

20:54

to and through the principal population

20:56

of the state of Ohio. When

20:59

the bill that outlined all of this

21:01

was read on the Senate floor, a

21:03

second and third reading were requested, and

21:05

then the committee's bill passed, apparently without

21:07

much fuss, on December 27th, 1805. It

21:09

had a harder time

21:14

in the House of Representatives because

21:16

representatives from southern states felt like

21:18

their states had been completely ignored

21:20

in what was important legislation aimed

21:22

at growing the country's infrastructure. There

21:24

was concern that the Senate had

21:26

passed the bill without consent at

21:28

the state level. After

21:30

efforts to postpone the bill indefinitely failed and

21:33

a lot of back and forth, the final

21:35

bill, which was titled an Act to Regulate

21:37

the Laying Out and Making a Road from

21:39

Cumberland and the State of Maryland to the

21:41

State of Ohio, was

21:44

finally passed. This

21:46

Act set up some of the

21:48

earliest standards for U.S. roadways, including

21:50

a standardized width of four rods,

21:54

which is 66 feet. This

21:56

required road markers every quarter mile,

21:58

plus quote at every point where

22:01

an angle occurs in its course.

22:04

Today, road standards in the U.S. are

22:06

by lane width, with freeways requiring 12

22:08

feet or 3.6 meters per lane. This

22:13

also established that the center of the

22:15

road had to be slightly raised for

22:18

proper runoff of precipitation. In

22:20

September of 1805, $12,652 had been earmarked for

22:25

the national road, with the expectation

22:27

that these funds would continue to

22:29

grow with additional land sales. When

22:32

the bill was moved forward in 1806, the

22:34

budget was laid out at $30,000. The

22:38

bill became law on March 29, 1806, although

22:41

it had not actually been a sure thing

22:44

that President Thomas Jefferson would sign it. He

22:46

had previously stated that he was not

22:49

confident that road building was within the

22:51

authority of the federal government as laid

22:53

out in the Constitution. But

22:55

he did see that the various centers of

22:57

trade needed to be connected. Further,

23:00

he noted that the plan would eventually

23:02

have to be expanded beyond its initial

23:04

scope. From 1806 to 1811, surveying and planning was

23:09

done for this road, noting where

23:12

it could take advantage of older existing

23:14

trails and roads and how they would

23:16

need to be altered to meet the

23:18

requirements of the law. Also,

23:20

where entirely new cuts of road would

23:22

have to be made. Some

23:25

of the military trails from the French and

23:27

Indian War were determined to be usable for

23:29

this. Yeah, by usable,

23:31

we mean like usable to reset.

23:34

To do it over. They couldn't just like connect

23:36

to them. There was a

23:38

lot of overgrowth according to most of the stuff

23:40

I read. Once the surveying

23:42

and the route planning was completed,

23:44

construction began. And this involved

23:47

a new approach to laying roads because

23:49

this project was important. The

23:51

national road needed to be more resilient

23:53

than the standard dirt road finish that

23:55

was normally used, right? Like one

23:57

of the things I read in several different accounts

23:59

was that... wagon wheels would kind of dig

24:02

these grooves into roads and then you didn't have

24:04

a lot of options. You

24:07

had to go where previous wagons went. During

24:10

an improvement project to the road, which actually

24:12

took place before it was

24:15

completed, this included the use

24:17

of what's called a macadam road. That's

24:19

a form of pavement that uses broken

24:21

granite or greenstone with another

24:23

layer of lightstone on top. They're

24:26

named after the man who invented them, whose name

24:28

was Macadam. Macadam roads are

24:31

still paved today, but now hot

24:33

tar or another binder is poured

24:35

over the compressed broken stone. And

24:37

today, a Macadam road is laid, of course,

24:39

using heavy machinery, but in the early 1800s,

24:43

that version required crews of men to

24:45

break the stone apart with sledgehammers to

24:48

prepare it for placement. The

24:50

Cumberland Road also required a number of

24:52

bridges and like the roadway, they needed

24:55

to be built in the sturdiest possible

24:57

way for longevity and reliability, and that

24:59

actually resulted in a lot of stone

25:01

bridges being laid along the route. In

25:04

areas where the Cumberland or National Road

25:06

passed through small towns, in a lot

25:08

of places, it became the main street that

25:10

served as the community center, with businesses clustering

25:13

along it, kind of forming what people would

25:15

call the main drag or main strip. But

25:18

all of that work took years

25:20

and years. And

25:22

the first year of construction, a

25:25

mere 10 miles of road was

25:27

laid. It took

25:29

more than six years for the road to

25:31

reach the Ohio River at Wheeling, Virginia, which

25:34

of course is now part of

25:37

West Virginia. Congress funded extensions of the road in

25:40

subsequent years, eventually lengthening it to

25:42

600 miles, reaching it then to Vandalia,

25:44

Illinois. Although

25:47

an additional expansion to St. Louis,

25:49

Missouri was considered, this was not

25:51

funded because it was believed that

25:53

railroad access to Missouri would make it obsolete.

25:57

The road's funding remained controversial. the

26:00

years, the entire time it was being built. In

26:03

1833, the burden of cost for the road

26:05

shifted from the federal government to the states

26:07

that it passed through. And then there was

26:09

like a clause that the federal government would

26:12

handle upkeep of the parts that had been

26:15

constructed while it was under their auspices.

26:17

While it was initially intended as a free

26:19

road to anyone in the

26:22

U.S., once it shifted to being state

26:24

funded, tolls were levied in various places

26:26

to meet the expense. But

26:28

the National Road was an important and

26:30

reliable way for people to travel, and

26:33

it did help foster westward expansion. There

26:36

was a period where railroads caused the

26:38

use and popularity of this road to

26:40

drop, but once automobile travel existed, the

26:42

road's use was once again on the

26:45

rise, and it experienced a revival, both

26:47

in usage and just in general interest.

26:50

Because of growing interest in touring via

26:52

car, the Federal Highway Act of 1921

26:55

included provisions for

26:57

states to have federal aid to build

26:59

and maintain highways once again. Eventually,

27:02

parts of the National Road became

27:04

incorporated into U.S. Route 40. You

27:07

can even plot a history road trip

27:09

through the National Road Heritage Corridor, which

27:12

covers about 90 miles of the road's

27:14

original path through Pennsylvania. Yeah, sort

27:17

of like the enclosure acts, the

27:20

building of all these highways and

27:22

the effects they had on communities,

27:24

a totally different story beyond this

27:26

one. So our

27:28

last road today is a more modern

27:30

highway. It's the Sun Motorway of Italy.

27:33

This is not Italy's first highway, although

27:35

Italy does get credit for having the

27:37

first true purpose-built highway in the world,

27:40

which is commonly called the Lake Highway,

27:42

that was constructed in the 1920s to

27:44

make a connection from Milan to the

27:46

Lake District. That highway was

27:48

designed by Piero Poricelli, and he pulled off

27:51

the construction and design of it in just

27:53

15 months. You

27:55

can still drive it, although

27:57

now it is part of the larger Autostrade But

28:01

Poricelli's work on the Lake Highway set

28:03

the stage for another Italian highway project

28:05

that wouldn't start for another three decades.

28:09

In 1954, a huge infrastructure

28:12

package called the Romita Law

28:14

was drafted in Italy. In

28:17

the years after World War II, the

28:19

country had seen a lot of degradation

28:21

of its roads and a huge problem

28:23

with a lack of availability for affordable

28:25

housing, particularly in densely

28:28

populated areas. So this

28:30

law established financial provisions to try

28:32

to address some of these issues

28:34

with a 10-year plan for implementation.

28:37

One of the projects on it was

28:39

a highway to run from the north

28:41

of the country down about two-thirds of

28:44

its length. So in

28:46

1956, the first stone for

28:48

the highway that was planned to run from

28:50

Milan to Naples was laid. Its

28:53

name in Italian is Arstrada de Sole,

28:55

the sun motorway or highway of the

28:57

sun. And it's also just known as

28:59

the A1, Arstrada A1. Because

29:02

of its significant length and how much

29:04

of the country it connects, it's also

29:06

sometimes referred to as the backbone of

29:08

the Italian highway system. And

29:10

it was a huge investment. It was budgeted

29:12

at 100 billion lire. Over

29:16

its length of more than 760 kilometers,

29:18

it's about 470 miles, it connects not

29:20

only its two end point cities, but

29:22

also Bologna, Florence and Rome. And the

29:24

whole thing includes 113 bridges, 38 tunnels

29:27

and 572 flyovers. The

29:34

plans for the highway of the sun

29:36

owed a lot to the perichelli design

29:38

of the lake highway, along with a

29:40

good deal of additional engineering. Ferelekova

29:43

was head of the Scietta

29:45

Autostrada Peratletalia, which was founded

29:47

as a joint stock company

29:49

that was publicly owned as

29:51

part of the Institute for

29:53

Industrial Reconstruction. The

29:55

joint stock company still exists today as a publicly

29:58

owned company, but it was also a major investment

30:00

in the company. through a lot of changes over

30:02

the years, including privatization. This is

30:04

all context so you know why Fidelity

30:06

Kova was in charge of coordinating this

30:08

project. He's credited with

30:10

coming up with a plan to

30:12

make the highway construction simplified, efficient,

30:14

and beneficial to as many workers

30:17

as possible. And that plan

30:19

that he had that was, you

30:21

know, pretty new was to break the

30:23

highway up into sections, like kind of

30:26

partitioning them off so each of those

30:28

sections had its own crew. And this

30:30

meant that work could be done along

30:32

large stretches of the road simultaneously instead

30:34

of going like a little at a

30:37

time. And also

30:39

that a lot of construction companies

30:41

had government contracts to bolster employment

30:43

numbers. And it succeeded in

30:45

all of that. But unfortunately, as

30:47

is the case with many large scale

30:50

construction projects, there were also we should

30:52

note many fatalities in the process. And

30:54

we'll talk about how those who died

30:56

during this construction have been honored in

30:58

just a moment. It

31:00

took eight years for the auto strata

31:02

to be completed. When it was officially

31:04

opened on October 4, 1964,

31:07

it was a marvel. It

31:09

shortened the travel time by car from

31:11

Milan to Naples from a two day

31:13

journey to one you could make in

31:15

just seven or eight hours. It

31:18

also stoked the fires of industry. Companies

31:20

like Fiat saw this as a harbinger of

31:22

new markets, and they ramped up

31:25

the production of cars. Yeah,

31:27

there were a lot of companies

31:29

that backed this whole idea of engineers

31:31

who had designed sections throughout the entire

31:33

stretch of the highway were included in

31:36

the exhibit. Also, before

31:38

the highway was complete, an

31:40

architect named Giovanni Michelucci designed

31:42

a church to memorialize the

31:44

workers who had died during

31:46

its construction. The quiesa

31:48

del auto strata de sole, which is

31:51

also called the Church of San Giovanni

31:53

Batista, is a unique

31:55

and striking structure. It

31:57

combines traditional and modern design.

32:00

and uses concrete, stone, and

32:02

copper as its prominent materials.

32:05

This church is clearly visible from the

32:07

highway as it passes through Florence, and

32:10

in some ways it looks like a tent

32:12

from the exterior, and that's by design. It's

32:15

intended to beckon travelers who need

32:17

a place to stop and reflect

32:19

or replenish spiritually. The

32:21

interior of the church is just as

32:24

innovative as the exterior, and it also

32:26

blends the traditional and the modern, including

32:29

concrete pillars that are cast to

32:31

look like trees. Even

32:34

after the highway opened, it was home

32:36

to innovation that continues to echo today.

32:40

In 1959, the first auto-grill opened along the

32:42

A1. So an auto-grill is kind

32:44

of like a rest stop, but if you're from the

32:46

U.S., they're not like our rest areas. They're closer to

32:48

some other things that Tracy and I will talk about

32:50

in behind the scenes. Auto-grills

32:53

have food service where you can typically get

32:55

things like panini or hot plates, and sometimes

32:57

they even have a buffet. This

32:59

is also in addition to the candy and

33:02

to-go snacks and bathrooms and all

33:04

the things you might see in a convenience store.

33:07

The first one was a joint

33:09

venture by industrialist Mario Paveci and

33:11

designer Angelo Bianchetti. Today,

33:13

there is also a company called Auto-Grill

33:15

that runs a number of these little

33:17

rest spaces, but the word is also

33:20

used as a non-proper noun. Holly

33:22

also read a quote on an

33:24

Italian site called Domus in an

33:26

article written by Alessandro Benetti that

33:28

was a translation into English, so

33:31

it's sort of impressive for its

33:33

poetic quality. Holly

33:35

is not sure if this was

33:37

auto-translated shockingly well or if a

33:39

human being did this translation and

33:41

then served it to site visitors

33:43

based on their locale, but it kind of sums up the

33:45

way a lot of people feel about the A1. The

33:49

Autostrada del Solle is sometimes a

33:51

sensible and other times a violent

33:54

insertion whose transformation potential reverberates

33:56

well beyond its physical boundaries.

34:00

It implies a global reorganization

34:02

of the road network with

34:04

several national and provincial routes

34:06

turned from major thoroughfares to

34:08

panoramic paths. In

34:10

parallel, settlements with similar urban

34:12

histories see their destinies and

34:14

their appeal being redefined on

34:16

the basis of their distance from

34:18

the closer toll. I

34:20

feel like that not only is a good

34:22

way to look at the autostrata, but kind

34:24

of all of these important roads, right? Like

34:27

where a road goes, so

34:29

goes growth. And

34:31

there are a lot of towns who

34:34

throughout history have been booming

34:36

places and then a road,

34:38

a significant thoroughfare gets installed

34:41

away from them and they lose their

34:43

prominence in terms of their importance in

34:45

trade and whatnot. And others are suddenly

34:47

like brought into a more industrialized way

34:50

of life than they may have had before. Yeah.

34:53

And I can't speak to this outside of

34:55

the United States, but in the United States,

34:57

we also have a long standing pattern of

34:59

roads and highways just plowing

35:02

through neighborhoods, particularly poor people,

35:04

people of color in a

35:09

way that's terrible. It has

35:11

really just devastated a lot of places. It's

35:14

such a problematic

35:17

and difficult to reconcile

35:19

duality, right? The

35:21

idea of connecting to one another,

35:23

making connecting to places easier is

35:27

very romanticized, certainly in the US,

35:29

right? But then that often

35:31

means that we're ignoring the fact that somebody's got

35:33

to lose to make those

35:35

happen in most cases. I

35:39

am always fascinated by roads and roadways. I

35:41

definitely grew up in a family where

35:44

we drove everywhere. So

35:46

I have spent a lot of time riding the roads of the

35:49

US. And

35:51

it is interesting to me the way

35:53

you will see just highway

35:56

that is passing through areas that

35:59

don't... seem to benefit from it, maybe

36:02

seem to be hurt by it, and in other

36:04

cases clearly have been

36:07

helped by it. And

36:09

all of that also has a subjective angle of

36:11

what you consider to be a good

36:14

way of life and a good

36:17

worthwhile benefit versus the loss. So

36:21

always food for thought as you travel

36:24

on your summer trips. I

36:27

have a fun piece of listener mail because it

36:29

involves a place I like to travel on my summer

36:32

trips. Which

36:34

also in the nerdiest way, which I will

36:37

explain at the end, is kind

36:40

of an echo of the things we have just

36:42

been talking about. This is from our listener Miranda,

36:46

who writes, Hi Holly and Tracy, I'm a

36:48

longtime listener to the podcast and first-time writer.

36:50

I used to drive 45 miles each way

36:52

to get to my university in undergrad and

36:54

I got my stuff you missed in history

36:56

class doctorate while getting my bachelor's degree. I

36:59

just listened to your episode about popcorn

37:01

and the behind-the-scenes episode and I laughed

37:04

out loud at the description of Holly's R2D2 air

37:06

popper. I'm now a

37:08

music professor at a local college in

37:10

Central Florida and during the summers I'm

37:12

a seasonal cast member at Walt Disney

37:15

World, specifically Galaxy's Edge. I am a

37:17

resident of Batu serving up quick service

37:19

food. I'm sure Holly is very familiar

37:21

with kat sakas in the marketplace but

37:23

we have two types of popped grains, one

37:26

with salt and butter, a classic with a

37:28

twist as our salt is blue, and one

37:30

sweet and savory with blueberry lemon pound cake

37:33

and sweet chili lime flavors. I

37:35

had to laugh listening to the episode because

37:37

I think Galaxy's Edge might truly be out

37:39

of Holly's Star Wars dreams including popcorn. I'm

37:41

attaching my cat tacks and my two little

37:43

old cat ladies. Camilia is our tiny old

37:45

orange cat, she is a holy terror and

37:47

I love her. Serenity is our

37:50

big old lady brown cat and she's incredibly

37:52

snugly. They are clearly plotting something in this

37:54

picture. Thanks for all you do Miranda. Listen

37:58

I love I love little old I

38:03

have them. I love them. And they are very

38:05

cute. And I think all cats are always plotting

38:07

something. Even the ones that maybe

38:09

aren't the brightest ones seem to always have some kind

38:11

of plan going on. Yeah. So

38:13

thank you for those. This is

38:15

also interesting because, you know, Batuu

38:17

and Black Spire Outpost specifically, per

38:19

the lore, used to be

38:21

a very bustling

38:25

stop in space until

38:27

the space lanes changed. And

38:29

now it is more of an out of the

38:32

way outpost. It kind of

38:34

echoed today's discussion a little bit,

38:36

which made me delighted. And I

38:39

sure do like going to Batuu a lot.

38:42

I will confess that I

38:44

don't go to Katsaka's Kettle as much as

38:46

I might because it has the unfortunate placement

38:48

of being next to Ronto

38:50

Roasters, where I go constantly because

38:52

I have an addiction to Ronto

38:54

Raps. Thus

38:58

my Ronto Roasters tattoo. But

39:00

I do go to Katsaka's for the

39:02

very, very yummy, very

39:05

indulgent coffee drink that they make, which

39:07

they will also make an alcoholic version.

39:09

It also has cereal on top of

39:11

it. It's so good. Yum. And

39:13

I want to keep an eye out for you, Miranda,

39:15

because I have a couple more trips down there planned

39:17

for this summer. So I'll have my

39:19

eyes peeled and hopefully we'll

39:21

run into you. If you would like to

39:24

write us, you can do so at historypodcast.iHeartRadio.com.

39:26

You can also find us on social media

39:28

as Missed in History. And if you're not

39:30

subscribed yet and you would like to, you

39:33

can do that on the iHeartRadio app or

39:35

anywhere you listen to your favorite shows. Stuff

39:43

You Missed in History class is a

39:45

production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from

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iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

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or wherever you listen to your favorite

39:52

shows. in

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