The Baltimore & Frederick-Town Turnpike

The Baltimore and Frederick-Town Turnpike. A Transportation Revolution started here. , Maryland toll roads helped revolutionize American travel. The Baltimore and Frederick-Town Turnpike began with a tollgate, placed near this corner in 1807. For a few cents, you could head west on a "smooth" road that was the ancestor of today's turnpikes. Private investors spent ten thousand dollars a mile to build crushed stone all-weather thoroughfares all the way to Cumberland. This road system became Baltimore's link to the federal National Road and the American interior., Early American roads were often described as "savage desolation." They were old Indian paths filled with mud, tree stumps and bone-jarring gullies. It could take five days to travel a hundred miles. Four-horse teams, pulling heavy stagecoaches called "shakeguts" and turtlebacks," had to rest every few miles. The Baltimore and Frederick-Town Turnpike connected Baltimore's deep-water port to the farm lands of the Ohio Valley, a combination that made Baltimore in 1830 the second largest city in America., [Captions:] , Thanks to its port and its access to the National Road, Baltimore became the fastest growing city in America in the early 19th century., Stagecoach passengers were tossed around inside coaches, soaked with rain, coated with mud and dust and exposed to cold winter weather on long tedious journeys. One beleaguered traveler complained that "one runs the risk of being thrown in a mud hole." The National Road set the stage for more comfortable travel.