Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 12).djvu/121

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CHAPTER V

A TRAVELER ON THE GENESEE ROAD

AMONG the many records of travelers on the famous Genesee Road, that of Timothy Bigelow, as given in his Journal of a Tour to Niagara Falls in the Year 1805,[1] approaches perhaps most nearly to the character of a description of the old highway which should be presented here:

"July 14th. We proceeded [from Albany] to Schenectady to breakfast, fifteen miles, Beale's tavern; a good house. A new turnpike is making from Albany to this place; it is constructed in a very durable manner, with a pavement covered with hard gravel. That part which is completed is now an excellent road; the remainder will soon be equally good. It was not disagreeable to us to be informed that this road, and indeed all the other turnpikes, and most other recent works which we met

  1. Boston, 1876, pp. 11–53.