A stock company built America's first major toll road in 1794

For decades the dirt road between Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania's richest farm country, was nearly impassable in wet seasons, cutting the city off from grain, beef and lumber. The state received petitions for a better road for sixty years but built nothing, so in 1792 the legislature tried a different route: it incorporated a private company to do the job.

The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company sold stock to investors and, for more than $450,000, built a 62-mile road paved with stone and gravel — the nation's first major toll road. Tolls collected at gates every ten miles repaid the builders, and at its peak more than 1,000 Conestoga wagons a day hauled farm produce to Philadelphia.

The road turned a profit, and its success became a template: within three decades Pennsylvania chartered more than 200 turnpike companies that built over 3,000 miles of roads. The turnpike later became part of the transcontinental Lincoln Highway, and only the coming of railroads in the 1830s ended its dominance.