Road

A road is an identifiable route or path between two or more places. Roads are typically smoothed, paved, or otherwise prepared to allow easy travel; though they need not be, and historically many roads were simply recognisable routes without any formal construction or maintenance. more...

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In urban areas roads may pass along and be named as streets, serving a dual function as urban space and route.

Usage and etymology

See also: Usage of the terms railroad and railway and Ship transport

In original usage, a "road" was simply any pathway fit for riding ("road" is cognate with "ride", e.g.: ships ride at anchor in roads). The word “street,” whose origin is the Latin strata, was kept for paved pathways that had been prepared to ease travel in some way. Thus, many "Roman Roads" have the word "street" as part of their name.

However, modern usage does not usually make this distinction and it is only important since place names often hold the earlier usage in them; these days, roads are also prepared in some way. This includes, at the least, the removal of trees and smoothing of the ground. In some dialects, lower grade roads are called trails and tracks and it is uncertain where "road" begins and trail ends. Roads are a prerequisite for road transport of goods on wheeled vehicles.

The word “road” emphasizes its function of transportation along its length, while a “street” may be considered to have activity and commerce taking place on it (see street life).

History

The first pathways were the trails made by migrating animals. By about 10,000 BC, these rough pathways were used by human hunter nomads following these herds.

Street paving has been found from the first human settlements around 4000 BC see India's Indus Valley city Harrapa.

The oldest engineered road discovered is the Sweet Track causeway in England, dating from around 3800 BC.

The ancient Egyptians constructed a stone paved road to help move materials for the building of the Great Pyramid in about 3000 BC.

The ancient Chinese constructed an extensive system of roads, some paved, from about 1100 BC onwards. By 20 AD, the Chinese road network extended over 40,000 kilometres.

The Incas built fine highways, the Inca road system, for couriers through the Andes, and the Mayans built an extensive network of paved roads in Mexico before the European discovery of the New World.

In ancient times, transport by river was far easier and faster than transport by road, especially considering the cost of road construction and the difference in carrying capacity between carts and river barges. A hybrid of road transport and ship transport is the horse-drawn boat in which the horse follows a cleared path along the river bank.

Read more at Wikipedia.org