toll road: see turnpike

road runner: see cuckoo.

road, strip of land used for transportation. The history of roads has been related to the centralizing of populations in powerful cities, which the roads have served for military purposes and for trade, the collection of supplies, and tribute. In the Middle East, in N Mesopotamia, scientists have found evidence of a network of roads dating back to perhaps 3000 B.C. In Persia, between 500 and 400 B.C., all the provinces were connected with the capital, Susa, by roads, one of them 1,500 mi (2,400 km) long. The ancient Greeks, cherishing the independence of their city-states and opposing centralization, did relatively little road making.

The Roman roads, however, are famous. In Italy and in every region that the Romans conquered, they built roads so durable that parts of them yet remain serviceable. The Roman roads were generally straight, even over steep grades. The surface, made of large slabs of hard stone, rested on a bed of smaller stones and cement about 3 ft (91 cm) thick.

From the fall of the Roman Empire until the 19th cent., European roads generally were neglected and hard to travel. People usually walked, rode horses, or were carried in sedan chairs. Goods were transported by pack animals. In France, Louis XIV and Napoleon built good roads for military purposes. Elsewhere on the Continent roads were not much improved before the middle of the 19th cent. In Great Britain two Scottish engineers, Thomas Telford and John L. McAdam, were responsible for the development of the macadam road (see pavement). The expansion of the Industrial Revolution brought this and other road improvements to the Continent, although the emphasis was on railroad construction until after the invention of the automobile.

In the Americas the Inca empire was remarkable for its fine roads. In what is now the United States, however, the waterways were the normal mode of travel for Native Americans, and their trails, though numerous, were often simply footpaths. These were used by white settlers and were eventually widened to make wagon trails. The increasing use of stagecoaches led to some improvement, and the turnpike, or toll road, was introduced at the beginning of the 19th cent. Although the planning and building of road arteries, notably the National Road, marked the early years of the century, canals and then railroads took precedence.

The invention and mass production of the automobile made the road became paramount again. Hard-surfaced highways were stretched across the entire land in a relatively few years. The building of roads became a major branch of engineering, and even the most difficult obstacles were surmounted. Roads have helped greatly to equalize and unify large heterogeneous nations. In the United States the Interstate Highway System consists of 42,793 mi (68,869 km) of roads (all but a few miles of which are completed) connecting every major city. Other well-known road networks which serve to unify large areas include Germany's Autobahn, the Trans-Canada Highway, and the Pan-American Highway. An ambitious, 23-nation agreement to link Asia with a network of highways was signed in 2004.

macadam road: see pavement.

Wilderness Road, principal avenue of westward migration for U.S. pioneers from c.1790 to 1840, blazed in 1775 by the American frontiersman Daniel Boone and an advance party of the Transylvania Company. Feeders from the east (Richmond, Va.) and the north (Harpers Ferry, W.Va.) converged at Fort Chiswell in the Shenandoah valley. Boone's road ran southwest from there through the valley, then W across the Appalachian Mts. and through Cumberland Gap into the Kentucky bluegrass region and to the Ohio River. The road followed old buffalo traces and Native American paths, but much of it had to be cut through the wilderness. In the early years, many travelers fell victim to hostile Native Americans.

After Kentucky became a state in 1792, the road was widened to accommodate wagons. Private contractors, authorized to keep up sections of the road, charged tolls for its use. With the building of the National Road, the Wilderness Road was neglected and finally abandoned in the 1840s. Since 1926 the Wilderness Road has been a section of U.S. Route 25, the Dixie Highway.

Road Town, capital, main port, and largest town (2000 est. pop. 8,000) of the British Virgin Islands. It is situated on the S coast of Tortola Island on the deeply indented Road Bay. Tourism, boat chartering, and offshore banking are important contributors to its economy. Among its notable sites are the old prison and post office buildings, the botanic garden, and Forts Burt, George, and Charlotte.

Ossetian Military Road, highway, c.170 mi (270 km) long, across the Caucasus, S European Russia and Georgia, linking Kutaisi with Alagir. One of the two main routes over the N Caucusus, it crosses the Caucasian crest through the pass at Mamison.

National Road, U.S. highway built in the early 19th cent. At the time of its construction, the National Road was the most ambitious road-building project ever undertaken in the United States. It finally extended from Cumberland, Md., to St. Louis and was the great highway of Western migration. Agitation for a road to the West began c.1800. Congress approved the route and appointed a committee to plan details in 1806. Contracts were given in 1811, but the War of 1812 intervened, and construction did not begin until 1815. The first section (called the Cumberland Road) was built of crushed stone. Opened in 1818, it ran from Cumberland to Wheeling, W.Va., following in part the Native American trail known as Nemacolin's Path. Largely through the efforts of Henry Clay it was continued (1825-33) westward through Ohio, using part of the road built by Ebenezer Zane. By this time the older part of the road was badly in need of repair. Control of the road was therefore turned over to the states through which it passed, where tolls for maintenance were collected. It was carried on to Vandalia, Ill., and finally to St. Louis. The old route became part of U.S. Highway 40. At points on the road copies of a statue called the Madonna of the Trail have been erected to honor the pioneer women who went West over the National Road.

Ledo Road: see Burma Road.

Latin Road: see Roman roads.

Georgian Military Road, highway, SE European Russia and Georgia. It is c.135 mi (220 km) long and crosses the Greater Caucasus Mts. Starting from its northern terminus at Vladikavkaz, the road winds upward through the Daryal gorge. Skirting Mt. Kazbek, it crosses the Caucasus at an altitude of 7,815 ft (2,382 m), descends through the Krestovy Pass, and cuts through forests and villages to its southern terminus at Tbilisi. Following an ancient route used by traders and invaders, it was started by the Russians in 1799 and completed in 1863. The road was protected by military outposts in the 19th cent., during fighting between Russian troops and Caucasian mountaineers.

Cumberland Road: see National Road.

Burma Road, in China and Myanmar, extending from the railhead of Lashio, Myanmar, to Kunming, Yunnan prov., China. About 700 mi (1,130 km) long and constructed through rough mountain country, it was a remarkable engineering achievement. Undertaken by the Chinese after the start of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and completed in 1938, it was used to transport war supplies landed at Rangoon and shipped by railroad to Lashio. This traffic increased in importance to China after the Japanese took effective control of the Chinese coast and of Indochina. The Ledo Road (later called the Stilwell Road) from Ledo, India, into Myanmar was begun in Dec., 1942. In 1944 the Ledo Road reached Myitkyina and was joined to the Burma Road. Both roads have lost their former importance and are in a state of disrepair, but India began rebuilding its section of the Stilwell Road in 2007.

Traveled way on which people, animals, or wheeled vehicles move. The earliest roads developed from paths and trails and appeared with the invention of wheeled vehicles, around 3000 BC. Road systems developed to facilitate trade in early civilizations; the first major road extended 1,775 mi (2,857 km) from the Persian Gulf to the Aegean Sea and was used circa 3500–300 BC. The Romans used roads to maintain control of their empire, with over 53,000 mi (85,000 km) of roadways extending across its lands; Roman construction techniques and design remained the most advanced until the late 1700s. In the early 19th century invention of macadam road construction provided a quick and durable method for building roads, and asphalt and concrete also began to be used. Motorized traffic in the 20th century led to the limited-access highway, the first of which was a parkway in New York City (1925). Superhighways also appeared in Italy and Germany in the 1930s. In the 1950s the U.S. interstate highway system was inaugurated to link the country's major cities.

Learn more about road with a free trial on Britannica.com.

formerly Ledo Road

Former military highway, Asia. It was 478 mi (769 km) long and linked northeastern India with the Burma Road. In World War II, U.S. Army engineers and Chinese troops constructed it to link the railheads of Ledo, India, and Mogaung, Burma. Named for Gen. Joseph Stilwell, it crossed into Burma (Myanmar) through the difficult Pangsau Pass of the Patkai Range.

Learn more about Stilwell Road with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Highway, South Asia. It runs 717 mi (1,154 km) from Lashio (in eastern Burma, now Myanmar) northeast to Kunming (in Yunnan, China). An extension runs east through China from Kunming, then north to Chongqing. Completed in 1939, it functioned as a supply route to the interior of China, carrying war goods. It was seized by the Japanese in 1942 and reopened when it was connected to the Stilwell Road from India. Its importance diminished after World War II, but it has remained a link in a 2,100-mi (3,400-km) road system from Yangôn, Myanmar, to Chongqing.

Learn more about Burma Road with a free trial on Britannica.com.