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Transportation in Morgan County
To read more about
historic resources associated with transportation in the city of
Martinsville, click here. The
evolution of transportation is a key component in any region's historical
development. The earliest routes used Indian trails or waterways to gain
access to uninhabited lands. As an area was settled, crude roads, often
following the routes of the old Indian trails, were cut out of the
wilderness. Turnpikes or toll roads constructed by private entities soon
appeared. A government-funded roadway, the National Road—today's US 40
through central Indiana--opened up the frontiers of Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois to settlement.
In addition to overland
travel, canals, such as the Erie Canal, linked eastern markets with the
west. They were quickly superseded by railroads, which dominated the
economic and social life of many communities for decades. An outgrowth of
the railroad was the development in many cities of an electric railway, or
interurban, system. However, it was automobile transportation that would
have the most far-reaching impact on life in the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries. Necessary improvements and expansion of the road system affected
the country's economic and social systems.
Transportation in Indiana was greatly
impacted by the passage of the Land Ordinance Act of 1785, which provided
for the now familiar grid system of land division. (This is more evident in
northern Indiana because of its even terrain. In southern Indiana where the
earliest transportation routes developed, the irregular terrain did not lend
itself as readily to the grid system.) After achieving statehood in 1816,
Indiana's formative years were dedicated to internal improvements. The
Michigan Road, which linked Madison with Michigan City, was completed in
1826. The National Road reached Richmond in 1828 and was completed to Terre
Haute by 1832.
Both roads were a major impetus to the state's settlement.
Indiana's 1836 Internal
Improvement Bill provided for the construction of a network of canals.
Although the legislation eventually bankrupted the state, the Indiana leg of
the Wabash and Erie Canal linking Evansville to Lake Erie was completed. But
even as the canals were being completed, they were passing into
obsolescence. In 1847, the state's first railroad line was completed from
Madison to Indianapolis. It ushered in almost seventy years of the
railroad's dominance.
Just as the railroad
replaced the canals as a major transportation mode during the nineteenth
century, the advent of the automobile during the early-twentieth century
would forever changed the face of Indiana. By 1920, the state began
construction on a 3,200 mile network of roads, linking communities with
populations of over 5,000 and connecting Indiana with adjoining states. The
Lincoln Highway, the nation's first coast to coast route, ran through
northern Indiana, while U.S.40 followed the route of the old National Road.
The Whetzel Trace, one of
central Indiana's earliest settlement routes, and later a portion of the
Central Canal, passed through Morgan County. Both spurred development in the
county; increasing commercial activity and bringing in large numbers of
settlers. The town of Waverly, located along the Central Canal, is the
county's only remaining historic resource associated with Morgan County's
earliest manmade transportation system.
By the 1850s,
transportation changed dramatically with the coming of the first railroad.
The railroad boom period lasted through the 1920s.
A number of historic
resources associated with the railroad remain. The most visible structure
is, of course, the train station. The size and elaborateness of the depot
was a source of pride in a community. With the prosperity brought about by
the Indiana gas boom of the late-nineteenth century, more elaborate depots
were built. In Martinsville, the CCC & St. Louis Depot (1881) and the
Vandalia Depot (1911) are the only two such examples in the county.
CCC
& St. Louis Railroad Depot (1881), South Jefferson Street, Martinsville
Sided with white vinyl, the old depot is used for the storage of burial
vaults.
Vandalia Depot (1911), 210 North
Marion Street
With the advent of the automobile during the
early-twentieth century came improvements in the county's road system. Roads
went from narrow dirt paths to gravel and macadam on more heavily-traveled
routes. With these developments came the replacement of wooden bridges with
the more durable and stronger iron truss and concrete span bridges. An
outstanding example of an historic iron bridge is the Lamb's Creek Bridge
spanning Old State Road 67 over Lamb's Creek, Jefferson Township. Fabricated
in 1893 by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Massillon, Ohio, this Pratt
through truss was restored in 2004. It was listed on the National Register
of Historic Places in 2000
Lamb's
Creek Bridge (1893/2004), Jefferson Township
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