The Long History of Roads
“All roads lead to Rome,” insisted one medieval European proverb. (In other parts of the world, roads led elsewhere.) While Roman roads may be the most famous for their longevity and scale, they were far from the first road network. Explore the history of roads and the related terms below. Then, consider some of the most famous roads in the world both today and in ancient times.
- macadam | pavement | asphalt | corduroy road | gallery road
- holloway | ridgeway | milestones | trackway
A Roman legionary could march from Britain to the Middle East on paved roads so well built that some still carry traffic two thousand years later — and in the Egyptian desert, that same 'Roman road' was just a wide camel path marked with milestones. Roads are older, stranger, and more powerful than the asphalt outside your door suggests.
Key concepts
- Macadam
- A road surface of compacted crushed-stone layers developed by John McAdam around 1820 — the direct ancestor of the modern paved road ('tarmac' is macadam with tar added).
- Corduroy Road
- A road made by laying logs crosswise over swampy ground, ribbed like corduroy fabric — bumpy and short-lived, but it let wagons cross terrain that would otherwise swallow them.
- Holloway
- A 'hollow way' — a sunken lane worn below the surrounding land by centuries of feet, hooves, and rainwater, some so deep they feel like tunnels carved by time itself.
- Milestones
- Stone markers counting the distance to a destination — a Roman habit so standardized even a desert camel-path got them, turning a route into a measurable journey.
What to know
-
01
A road is a function, not a surface: the Romans counted a paved highway and a marked camel path as the same kind of thing, so 'road' has always meant 'a maintained connection,' and the asphalt is just one way to make one.
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