Travel from Bethlehem, PA to North Carolina was done by the “Great Philadelphia Wagon Road”. That said, in the year 1753, the year the Moravians arrived in the Wachovia of North Carolina it was not yet a road. The “road” at the time was a path. The fifteen Moravian brothers often had to cut down trees and widen the path in order to pass. In places it was only three feet wide.
Eventually, the road was wide enough for the famed German Conestoga or Pennsylvania wagons. Wagons could carry up to ten tons and were pulled by five or six horse teams. The fastest of wagons could average about five miles a day. Designed like boats, with ends that were higher than the middle, once the wheels were removed the heavily-caulked wagon body could be floated across Western streams.
By 1765 the Great Wagon Road was cleared sufficiently for such horse drawn vehicles. By 1775 the trail had grown into a decent road stretching about 700 miles. The distance for the Moravians traveling from North Carolina’s Wachovia to Philadelphia was 455 miles
No comments:
Post a Comment