...These big wagons, with their tall, arched cloth roofs, became icons of America’s westward expansion as they carried the belongings of pioneers from the east out to the frontier. Back in the early 1700s, though, western Pennsylvania was the distant frontier.
Conestoga wagons were developed by local carpenters and
blacksmiths to carry goods, including farm produce and items bartered from
Native Americans, to markets in Philadelphia. Philadelphia was, at the time,
one of the biggest cities in the colonies. The wagon driver could ride one of
the horses or sit on a “lazy board” that slid out of the side of the wagon. But
when more active control was needed, he walked alongside the horses, pulling
levers and ropes. “He would give the verbal command, ‘Gee’, ‘Haul,’ or
whatever, and they would hear that,” Stehman said. “He would also maybe tug on
this (leather ‘jerk line’) once or twice.”
I imagined myself walking down a long dusty trail leading
a team of horses pulling this blue-painted wagon. I’m right-handed, like most
people. For just that reason, Conestoga wagons had the controls on the left
side, close to the wagon driver’s right hand. That meant the driver was toward
the middle of the road and the wagon to the right.
Eventually, there was so much trade and traffic between
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia that America’s first major
highway was created. The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road opened in
1795. Among the rules written into its charter, according the book “Ways of the
World ” by M.G. Lay, was that all traffic had to stay to the right — just like
the Conestoga wagons did.
In 1804, New York became the first state to dictate
traffic stay to the right on all roads and highways...more
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