The History and Evolution

 of Road Maps

 

December 2005

Geography 20H Final Report

Pennsylvania State University

Note to the Reader: A web page format has been chosen for this report to ensure that the graphics of maps are represented in the clearest detail possible without compromising space for the size of a sheet of paper.  Thank you for your understanding.

 

Abstract:  Over time, the focus and presentation of road maps have changed dramatically.  From the 1680s through today, some items remain important to display on the map (such as town names), but many other features have been added or removed.  This can be proved by studying road maps from the past through the present and analyzing the differences.  The study of road maps is important not just to people lost on highways but also to geography at large and how Americans choose to represent our landscape on two-dimensional surfaces.

 

            Key Words: highways, roads, map, history, paper, Internet, driving, design

 

 

            Ever since roads began to appear, mankind has looked for the ultimate way to represent how its transportation system is laid out so that travelers and observers can see large sections at once in an organized fashion.  For much of human history, roads and paths were laid out based on the shape of the land it traveled over, and often attempted to create the shortest distance between two points of interest (cities, etc.).  If a mountain happened to impede the quickest flow of travel, then the road was built around it in the most convenient place.  Roads have also mirrored the growth of civilization; for each new technological era, new ways were developed to build, maintain, and map roads.

            For this study on the history of highway maps, I will be analyzing the growth and expansion of American roads, which is directly proportional to the growth, expansion, and sharpening of the American road map.  Over time, roads have become wider, smoother, and safer, while maps have become more detailed, more precise, and more interactive.  Road maps still maintain many of the same features today as when they were first produced, but the additional information now available with an overview of the highway system from point A to B can prove invaluable in fully understanding the American landscape.

 

            Beginning with Jamestown in 1607, European settlers (for better or worse) deviated from the traditional methods of transportation for Native Americans and began clearing large areas not just for their living areas and towns, but for paths through the forest.  Americans have not deviated far since then from this method of slash-and-burn.  Paths or trails began winding their way across the landscape, but most of the time the terrain was poor enough to cause humans to look for better ways to carry their cargo, such as horses[1].  Once cities were founded up and down the east coast of America, the roads became even more vital to transport cargo and information among the different colonies.

            Finding accurate maps of roads during this time was rather difficult.  First of all, the roads were never permanent and could often change depending on floods or other events.  What most people were looking for in maps were landmarks and land ownership, as that would give the observer as much information as they needed while traveling in the largely rural colonies.  The following picture shows an excerpt of a 1687 map of the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding countryside.  The maps in this project will all be from the Philadelphia area in order to accurately compare changes over time. [2]

In this map, the city of Philadelphia is clearly defined in the lower right corner, while the rest of the map is dominated by names of landowners in the different areas around the city.  There are almost no roads anywhere on this map, as paths were less important to show as rivers, another dominant method of transportation during this time.  However, inside the city of Philadelphia, the roads are clearly defined along with the buildings, as shown in the next picture, which is an inset of the above map. [3]

This map is a good representation of modern-day Center City Philadelphia from over 300 years ago.  Broad Street remains as today, with its intersection at High Street (now Market Street) the location of present day City Hall.  The city stretches from river to river and slightly extends across the Schuylkill River, with city blocks clearly defined.  A rough count shows about 21 blocks inside the city proper, with 3 more extending to the west.  This implies that there has been some reshaping of the city since 1687, which is hardly surprising.  Today’s 30^th Street is in the approximate location of “24^th Street” on this map.  Also visible on this map besides houses are the four “squares” in the four corners of the city.  Other parts of this map to notice is the fact that it is clearly hand-drawn and hand-lettered, which is incredible based on the large amount of detail present in the map.  The 1600s and 1700s were largely a time of expansion across the available land by gathering up tracts instead of tracing the paths found between them.

 

Beginning in the late 1700s and continuing through the 1800s, the paths between places became much more important as the vast tracts of land from the 1600s were split into towns and homesteads.  This map is from 1792, and shows a much larger area than the 1687 map, but is approximately the area that will be displayed in the rest of the maps. [4]

            This map is beginning to show the makings of modern southeastern Pennsylvania.  My home (for reference) is between the Schuylkill River and the M in “U. Merion” northwest of the proper city of Philadelphia.  Many of the town names listed around my home are familiar even today, including Tredyffrin (spelled slightly different now), Radnor, Haverford, and Plymouth.  In addition, other famous places are listed, including the encampment in 1778 of the American troops at Valley Forge.  Paths and trails are now clearly marked, many of which will slowly be upgraded to official roads over time.  For example, the trail running out of the western part of Philadelphia across Delaware County to West Chester and beyond is a precursor to current PA State Route 3.  This serves to illustrate how important these traditional trails were in defining the current road landscape.

            In terms of hand-drawn detail (since the map is still hand-drawn), the city of Philadelphia appears to have expanded considerably to the northeast and south, Several different types of building can also be found on the map, including churches (two can be found between West and East Marlborough in the lower-left corner) and other landmark buildings, simply marked with black rectangles.  There is not, as of yet, a standard way of writing place names; the name for Delaware County awkwardly intersects three town names placed at askew angles.  However, the map is a great improvement over the maps from 1687, as it is now possible to trace a route between two places.  Now that the basic transportation network has been laid, the next few centuries will be spent determining what goes on maps and how to represent different degrees of importance for roads.

           

            Although the 1792 map showed trails and paths, there were still few ways to travel quickly between destinations, as the best ways to travel were still either on horses or boats.  This continued throughout the 1800s, as paths were improved but the total travel time was still rather excessive.  Once the automobile was invented and made affordable for the average American, the need for an improvement in the transportation system became apparent.  However, it would still take several decades for the car to become America’s favorite form of transportation.  This 1911 map from Rand McNally, the most famous road mapping company, shows not roads across southeastern Pennsylvania, but railroad lines.

[5]

The map traces railroad lines because of the “R. R.” designations along most of the lines, but also because the lines connect cities directly in a way the roads today do not do exactly.  Yet how the railroad lines were laid meant a lot to the future roads that would complement and then overtake railroad lines as forms of transportation.  For example, US Route 202 today largely follows the line connecting Doylestown in Bucks County southwest through Lansdale and Norristown and then west towards Malvern.  This will be evident on later road maps.  This map is no longer hand-written, but is instead typeset.  Still, it is difficult to tell where exactly some of the smaller towns lie since the map attempts to list nearly every town possible.  This would be possible to do for only a few more decades.

This map essentially illustrates how the country was about to change with the arrival of the automobile into average American life.  The next few decades would completely reshape the American transportation network, but thanks to the lines laid out by the railroad companies, roads would have a basic framework to follow as they slowly spread out across the country.  The next few maps will demonstrate this postulate.

 

During the 1930s and 1940s, road maps became indispensable for traveling longer distances.  Maps were often put out by oil companies, marking their own stations on the map.  This map is from AAA (the American Automobile Association) from 1947.

[6]

This is the first of what can be called “modern highway maps.”  It is clear that over the past thirty years, massive amounts of construction and upgrading of old paths was done on these new roads.  The US highway system was first introduced in 1926 as a way to label important major travel routes across the country.  A notation system for roads has also been developed, with differentiation between US highways and state highways.  (Interestingly, some US highways noted on the above map, including US 309 and US 611, were later decommissioned nationally and reassigned PA state highway status.)  On this particular map, counties have become much less important to differentiate.  Instead, major cities, highways, and landmarks are colored in red, with urban areas in a yellow shade and everything else in a bluish-black.  Other improvements include all of the town names being printed in a horizontal fashion so that they can be all read facing one way.  This was done with improving printing technologies.  This map looks similar to today’s highway maps, but some of the road locations and designations have changed.

Another example of a map from this time is this map from the United States Geological Survey in 1955.  Roads have become important enough by this time that even maps that used to be mainly topological must now include roads to provide context for the geological features.

[7]

Interestingly, due to the colors chosen on this map, the roads’ pinkish color appears to overshadow the intended topological lines in brown.  This is another testament to how important roads had become to the American society and how all sorts of maps now reflected the changing landscape.  Another interesting addition to this map is the presence of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Northeast Extension, running north from outside of Norristown.  This indicates that the era of superhighways has begun.  The evolving road geography meant that road maps would also evolve.

 

The end of the 20^th century brought about the introduction of the interstate highway system along with refinements of how maps were drawn, labeled, and presented.  The Eisenhower Interstate Highway System was initially proposed and developed for national defense purposes, but quickly became popular for all types of travelers.  The impact of the interstate highway system is evident from this 1975 USGS map.

[8]

This map, while not specifically for roads, illustrates perfectly the goal of roads: to connect major urban areas.  Several interstate highway designations have been added to this map, including I-76 and I-95, but the actual physical roads are not very clear because they mostly run through urban areas.  These next maps from the late 1980s and 1990s show the current state of paper road maps in Pennsylvania.

[9]

This Champion Maps map from 1989 is interesting in a number of ways.  Note the very large circles used to label state routes, which can create some confusion (in particular, the confluence of PA 252, 352, 452, and 320 outside of Chester).  Many colors are being used in maps now to illustrate different types of features and points of interest.  Sometimes, however, these words can get confusing when crossing over each other; the highway number below the label for Penn State – Delaware Co. Campus is essentially unreadable.  Different types of roads are differentiated using different widths of red lines.  In addition, note the dashed red line marking the future I-476 from Norristown south through Delaware County.  This type of marking under-construction roads is illustrated much clearer in this following map from the State of Pennsylvania in 1991.

[10]

The state highway maps have finally brought clarity and order to a rather mishmashed Philadelphia road system.  Toll highways are now represented in a different color entirely (yellow), while other major interstates are colored in green.  I-476 is still being built, but now its future path is much more visible.  Interchange numbers are labeled in red along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  Other highways are present in a number of different colors, from red to orange to gold.  Here is a close-up of the Philadelphia area from the same paper map.

[11]

            This is the beginning of a reflection of the need for different levels of detail in a certain area.  The first map is useful for larger and longer trips, while this would be more useful for travel within the Philadelphia metropolitan area.  An inset in the lower left shows an even more detailed image of downtown Philadelphia.  There were also street atlases at this time used for even more detail down to the level of individual towns and streets.  For the average traveler, the question now becomes: which atlas should be used?  Often, multiple atlases or maps were needed for a trip to an unfamiliar destination, as one was needed for the “macro” view with the major highways outlined, while another was needed for the “micro” view to find the exact location of a destination.  The solution would come at the end of the decade.

            These next few pictures reveal ways that even within one decade (the 1990s), the art of road map making could be improved.  First is a picture for comparison’s sake from 1991 of the USGS topographic state map.

[12]

            Besides the different towns, cities, roads, and bodies of water, the only other marked landmarks are the three airports in a line from Southwest Philadelphia to Northeast Philadelphia to Trenton.  While this map would not be good for exact directions between two points, it would be useful to rhetorically ask, “Is there a road from here to there?”  This next map is from 1998 and the Patton Company.

[13]

            Maps around this time appeared to begin to be obviously computer generated.  The PA keystone shields on top of Pennsylvania state routes indicate that this map was most certainly not hand-drawn, and probably not typeset.  To complete the history of paper maps, here is the 2003 official state transportation map and inset.  There are obvious places for comparison even between twelve years of state maps.

[14]

 

[15]

            While the maps still look official, there is something about the different fonts of words and colored interstate signs that gives a more “user-friendly” look to these two maps as opposed to previous ones.  After all, the point of maps, ever since they were introduced, is to depict as accurately as possible how roads interacted with the landscape, the cities they connected, and each other.  Clearly, the 2003 maps do a good job of showing all three; interchanges such as I-476 (now complete!) and US 1 outside of Marple west of Philadelphia are now redrawn in detail.  In addition, certain landmarks are now clearly labeled, such as the Philadelphia Naval Business Center (just look for the red ships in the Delaware).

            Over 300 years, the mapping of America transformed from hand written diagrams of land ownership and 10 by 20 cities to an elaborate process involving space management, color, and the real landscape as much as possible.  Since transportation has changed, maps have changed along with it.  Maps are no longer simply for people attempting to diagram the landscape, but are useful tools in mapping the shortest distances between two points.

 

            In some ways, the story is done.  Paper maps are still being refined as both new graphic design techniques and new roads appear.  However, a much larger force may soon render paper maps completely obsolete.  The idea of mapping through the Internet was born out of the wish for interactivity in mapping and directions.  What if a program could compute the fastest way between two points on the landscape using roads?  Several services appeared soon after the Internet became public knowledge offering maps and driving directions online, such as Mapquest.

[16]

            Note the zoom function available on the left side of the map.  This solves one of the oldest problems of maps: how to get the exact amount of detail necessary for the map in question. This eliminates the need for maps for several specific areas as well as overview maps. Notice also how these online maps have taken many cues from paper maps in terms of the colors of different types of roads and road labels.  This is to ensure that someone will not feel lost using the new technology, as these online maps are designed to look mostly like the paper ones but have many more features.

            There are also stand-alone computer programs that do not require an active Internet connection.  One of the most famous is Microsoft Streets and Trips, which has many of the same features as online computers.  The following is a screenshot from Streets and Trips showing a simulated trip from King of Prussia, PA (my hometown) to Penn State.

[17]

            Unlike paper maps, you can “ask” a computerized map program to calculate all sorts of details about your journey for you, including mileage, estimated time, and even turn-by-turn directions.  Note the yellow patch around Lewistown where the computer is detecting construction along US 322.  This would be simply impossible with any sort of paper-based map.

            The final frontier in map making is based on satellite imagery.  If the roads’ exact locations do not need to be estimated, then they exactly represent real life, one of the goals of true map making.  Several programs have been developed to overlay map data with satellite imagery, including Google Earth from Google, Inc.

[18]

            Google Earth can not only give exact maps of certain areas, but also driving directions to marked places.  The technology is at times frightening, but also fascinating that this may completely replace paper maps within a few years.  For example, this is a view of my house at a supposed “altitude” of 1000 feet.

[19]         The satellite image is so clear that you can see the car in my driveway.  This final graphic is a view of State College and the Penn State campus.  While the satellite image is nowhere near as clear, notice the overlaid white lines on top of the roads.  It is obvious that the roads in these images have been fully mapped and digitized, ready to provide any necessary information. [20]

This technology of satellite mapping is exploding and providing the perfect base for GIS (geographic information systems).  All sorts of overlays onto this map have already been created for public usage, such as population and crime data.  As more and more information becomes digitized, more and more ways of handling and analyzing the information will be needed.  This is where computer-based mapping will play a very important role.

 

The history of road maps mirrors the history of vehicles.  Both started out as very crude ways to get somewhere and understand where you will be going.  Over time, however, both improved tremendously.  Today, we have vehicles that can do nearly everything except drive themselves and maps that can show nearly everything except live images of traffic.  I am sure that someone is working on both of these current limitations right now, but even with limitations, it is remarkable to trace the rapid refinement of map making.  The amount of detail now present on computerized maps makes it possibly to find nearly anything, not just the quickest way between two points.  I know that mapping technology will continue to grow in new and unforeseen ways as roads continue to evolve during the 21^st century.

 

 

Figures:

Title of Map	Call Number (if from Map Library)	Company/Organization
Pennsylvania & New Jersey	G3820 1991.A4	USGS
Champion Map of Pennsylvania	G3820 1989.C4	Champion Maps
State of Pennsylvania	G3820 1975.U5	USGS
State of Pennsylvania	G3820 1955.U5	USGS
Pennsylvania	G3820 1911.R3	Rand McNally
“Map of the State of Pennsylvania”	G3820 1792.H6 (reprinted 1894)	Reading Howell
“A Map of the Improved Part of the Province of Pennsilvania in America”	G3820 1687.H6 (reprinted 1894)	Thomas Holmes
Official Transportation and Tourism Map	G3821.P2 2003.P4	State of PA
Pennsylvania	G3821.P2 1998.A4	Alfred B. Patton, Inc.
Official Transportation and Tourism Map	G3821.P2 1991.A4	State of PA
Pennsylvania & New Jersey	G3821.P2 1947.A6	AAA
Philadelphia, PA		Mapquest
Eastern PA		Microsoft
Earth		Google
King of Prussia, PA		Google
State College, PA		Google

 

 

References: