The Bladensburg Turnpike
Just
prior to the War of 1812 a new Washington Turnpike Company was incorporated in
December of 1812. This incorporated the Bladensburg Turnpike section which
names four shareholders from Bladensburg:
LAWS OF MARYLAND, Nov. SESS. 1812,
CHAPTER 78.
An act to incorporate a company to
make a Turnpike Road from the District of Columbia to the city of Baltimore,
SEC 1. BE IT ENACTED by the General
Assembly of Maryland, That a company shall be incorporated for making a
turnpike road from the district of Columbia to the city of Baltimore; and for
making the said road a subscription shall be opened for a capital of one
hundred thousand dollars, in shares of fifty dollars each, under the direction
of George Calvert, Richard Ross, Thomas Bowie and William Fitzgerald, at
Bladensburgh; Archibald Dorsey, Richard G.Stockett, John S. Belt and Thomas
Lee, Junr. At M'Coy's tavern; and William Lorman, Henry Payson, George
Lindenberger and Jacob Giles Smith, in the city of Baltimore.
AND BE IT ENACTED, That the
commissioners shall lay out a road from the city of Baltimore to the district
of Columbia, byway of Norwood's ferry, on the Patapsco river, M'Coy's tavern,
Vansville, White House, Ross' tavern and Bladensburgh, on as straight a line
between each of said places as the nature of the country will admit.[1]
The charter first directed that
public subscriptions should be opened for the sum of $500,000, divided into
shares, and appointed managers to receive them. As soon as a specified number
of shares should be sold the subscribers were to meet and elect twelve
directors, who were in turn to meet and elect a president from among the
stockholders. The latter were incorporated as the Turnpike Company. The
president and directors were then authorized to appoint five commissioners to
lay out and mark the road. Damages and compensation for land, stone, gravel,
etc., were to be assessed by agreement with the owners, if possible, by
condemnation proceedings if necessary.
The prescribed method of road construction was quite
elaborate and scientific. In this particular the charters of 1796, 1797, and
1804-5 were practically identical. The roads were to be:
"Sixty-six feet wide,
twenty-one feet whereof in breadth, at least, shall be made an artificial road,
which shall be bedded with wood, stone, gravel, or any other hard substance,
well compacted together, a sufficient depth to secure a solid foundation to the
same; and the said road shall be faced with gravel, or stone pounded, or other
small hard substance, so as to secure a firm, and, as near as materials will
admit, an even surface, rising towards the middle by a gradual arch; and the
said road shall be made so nearly level in its progress as that it shall in no
place rise or fall more than will form an angle of 4 degrees with an horizontal
line, and shall ever thereafter maintain and keep the same in good and perfect
order and repair."
As different sections of the roads should be finished, toll
gates might be established by the directors, and tolls not to exceed certain
prescribed maximums might be exacted. A curious item was that fixing the toll
for "every single horse, camel, ass or mule". These tolls might be
farmed out. Driving around the gates to avoid payment of tolls was punished by
fines, as had been done by the Act of 1787.
Provided by: Aeon Preservation Services LLC Final 6-02-2013
[1] Maryland
State Archives. Volume 618, Page 72. http://aomol.net/000001/000618/html/am618--72.html
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