Later (1877) the rates of toll were left to the discretion of the county commissioners, with this provision:
“That when the consent of the Congress of the United States shall have been obtained thereto, the county commissioners of any county having a population under the last Federal census of more than fifteen thousand six hundred and less than fifteen thousand six hundred and fifty shall have the power when they deem it for the best interest of the road, or when the people whom the road accommodates wish, to submit to the legal voters of the county, at any regular or special election, the question, ‘Shall the National Road be a free turnpike road?’ And when the question is so submitted, and a majority of all those voting on said question shall vote yes, it shall be the duty of said commissioners to sell gates, tollhouses and any other property belonging to the road to the highest bidder, the proceeds of the sale to be applied to the repair of the road, and declare so much of the road as lies within their county a free turnpike road to be kept in repair in the way and manner provided by law for the repair of free turnpikes.”[57]
The receipts from the Franklin County, Ohio, tollgate for the year 1899 were as follows:
| January | $36 00 |
| February | 32 80 |
| March | 39 90 |
| April | 80 75 |
| May | 67 25 |
| June | 54 85 |
| July | 47 15 |
| August | 35 75 |
| September | 29 27 |
| October | 29 26 |
| November | 35 05 |
| December | 34 05 |
| ———— | |
| Total | $522 08 |
It will be noted that April was the heaviest month of the year. The gate-keeper received a salary of thirty dollars per month.
It is hardly necessary to say that this great American highway was never a self-supporting institution. The fact that it was estimated that the yearly expense of repairing the Ohio division of the road was one hundred thousand dollars, while the greatest amount of tolls collected in its most prosperous year (1839) was a little more than half that amount ($62,496.10) proves this conclusively. Investigation into the records of other states shows the same condition. In the most prosperous days of the road, the tolls in Maryland (1837) amounted to $9,953 and the expenditures $9,660.51.[58] In 1839 a “balance” was recorded of $1,509.08, but a like amount was charged up on the debtor side of the account. The receipts reported each year in the auditor’s reports of the state of Ohio show that equal amounts were expended yearly upon the road. As early as 1832 the governor of Ohio was authorized to borrow money to repair the road in that state.[59]