Boston Post Road

choi

(1) Boston Post Road
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Post_Road
(a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into the first major highways in the United States; Lower, Middle and Upper; The Post Road is also famous for milestones that date from the 18th century, many of which survive to this day)

(2) The Paintings of Carl Rakeman. Federal Highwat Administration, US Department of Transportation, undated.
(a) 1763-Boston Post Road.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/rakeman/1763.htm

Note:
(a) chaise (n; French for chair, alteration of Old French chaiere chair):
"any of various light horse-drawn vehicles: as a 2-wheeled carriage for one or two persons with a folding top"
www.m-w.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaise  
(b) The English surname Pease is derived from Middle English pese (Latin pisa) ‘pea.’  (Modern English noun "pea" came from dropping the "s" when Englishmen mistook the singular ("pese") as plural.)

Click "Next" and reach:
(b) 1795 - The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/rakeman/1795.htm

Note:
(a) Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_and_Lancaster_Turnpike
( first used in 1795, is the first long-distance paved road built in the United States, according to engineered plans and specifications; because the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania could not afford to pay for its construction, it was privately built by the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company)
(b) Conestoga wagon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conestoga_wagon
(section 1 History)
(ii) Conestoga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conestoga
(Conestoga originally referred to the Conestoga (people), an English name for the Susquehannock people of Pennsylvania0


(3) Bill Kauffman, You Can Get There From Here; A journey along the Post Road, in stagecoach and Iron Horse and car, seeing 'cultural erasures' along the way. Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... ?mod=googlenews_wsj
(book review on Eric Jaffe, The King's Best Highway; The lost history of Boston Post Road, the route that made America. Scribner, 2010)

Quote:

"In 1784, blacksmith Levi Pease organized the first stagecoach service connecting Boston to Manhattan.

"The paved roads of stone and asphalt, arriving in the mid-19th century, did not follow exactly the imprint of the primitive roads they supplanted, nor did the railroads that replaced the stagecoaches, but the paths were often closely parallel.

Note:
(a) Young Goodman Brown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Goodman_Brown
(a short story of 1835)
(b) The "darkle" in "a darkling forest" is an intransitive verb that means:
"1a : to become clouded or gloomy
b : to grow dark"
(c) punctilious (adj): "marked by or concerned about precise accordance with the details of codes or conventions"
(d) iron horse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_horse
(e) PT Barnum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PT_Barnum
(1810-1891; remembered for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
(f) shoehorn (vt):
"1: to force to be included or admitted <shoehorned irrelevant arguments into his essay>
2: to force or compress into an insufficient space or period of time : squeeze <shoehorn the past, present, and future into about 500 pages — Otis Port>"
(g)
(i) Albert Augustus Pope
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Augustus_Pope
(1843-1909; section 3 Bicycles)
(ii) Penny-farthing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny-farthing
(They were the first machines to be called "bicycles"; It comes from the British penny and farthing coins, one much larger than the other, so that the side view resembles a penny leading a farthing; invented by Enlishman James Starley about 1870)
(h) wheelman (n; First Known Use 1865):
"1b : the driver of an automobile
2: CYCLIST"


(4) Eric Jaffe's "The King's Best Highway" reviewed by Jonathan Yardley. Washington Post, July 25, 2010.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp ... s=rss_print/outlook

Quote:

"The Post Road can be seen as a rough American equivalent of the Great Wall of China, i.e., not a carefully planned and constructed creation but one put together higgledy-piggledy, with pieces here and there that sometimes connected and sometimes did not.

"The road(s) gained a name and a larger purpose in 1673, when 'America's first regular mail carrier began his journey up the Highway from the southern tip of Manhattan toward Boston' * * * The mail was the glue that held together the small cities and tiny settlements of Colonial America

My comment:
(a) higgledy-piggledy (adv; origin unknown):
"in a confused, disordered, or random manner <tiny hovels piled higgledy–piggledy against each other — Edward Behr>"
(b) There is no need to read the rest.