ELECTRIC RAILWAY--ROCKY MOUNTAINS
ELECTRIC FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE—ERIE RAILROAD
From some of the larger cities the electric roads reach out to distances of one hundred miles or more and have become the carriers of perishable freight, such as fruit and dairy products. These are not only delivered just as promptly as though they were sent over the steam roads, but the delivery is more frequent. Indeed, the marvellous success of the electric interurban railway is due mainly to the frequency of its service.
Public Roads and Highways.—Carriages propelled by steam, electric, and gasoline motors have become an important factor in the delivery of goods in nearly every city of Europe and America. They are not only speedier than the horse and wagon, but their keeping costs less. They are economical only on good roads. The bicycle, no longer a plaything, exerted a very decided effect on transportation when the "pneumatic" or inflated rubber tire came into use. Through the bicycle came the demand for good roads; and several thousand miles of the best surfaced roads are built in the United States each year.
The ordinary highways or roads, the paved streets of the large cities excepted, are popularly known either as "dirt" roads or "macadamized" roads, the latter name being applied to about every sort of graded highway that has been surfaced with broken rock. Most of the roads of western Europe are of this character. They are laid out with easy grades, and a thick foundation of heavy stone is covered with smaller pieces of broken rock, the whole being finished off with a top-dressing of fine material. Once built, the expense of keeping them in good order is less than that of keeping a dirt road in bad order.
Most of the country highways of the United States are dirt roads that are deep with dust in dry weather and almost impassable at the breaking of winter. Roads of this character are such a detriment that grain farming will not pay when the farm is distant twenty miles or more from the nearest railway. Many a farmer pays more to haul his grain to the nearest railway station than from the railway station to London.