The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 365

jrip---i pi pi, Tpiiiipii 1' I wwmmw THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE NOVEMBER 18, 1990 North 9 Long roadway is a trip into history clouaat STOP.BWIDE SALG oute 1 winds through ENTIRE STOCK ENTIMSTOCI hi TT 1J2 OFF SSlSSt Ibackroads and beautiful coastline Maine and New Hampshire to busy com- kmercial strips in Mass i Route 1 to oppose the British invasion of Richmond. During the Civil War, the first Americans opposed slavery on roads now designated Route 1 in Pennsylvania. Route 1 also crosses the Mason-Dixon line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, marking the division between the free and slave states in the Civil War. Scottish prisoners captured by Oliver Cromwell during the Battles of Dunbar in 1650 were shipped from England to the American colonies where they were, indentured seven years to the Saugus Iron Works, just off Route 1. Today, Route 1 is under state jurisdiction, but zoning is controlled by the cities and towns it passes through.

The result has been a mishmash of stores, restaurants and fie signals. In some areas, Route 1 is still a major highway and in others, it is like Main Street or a country road. AMYSESSLER York; Newark and Trenton, N.J.; Philadelphia; Richmond; Raleigh, N.C.; Columbia, S.C.; Augusta, and Jacksonville and Miami, Fla. One of the reasons Route 1 passes through so many major cities is that these cities started as small settlements along the head of navigable rivers. The nation's first roads were built in these settlements and later designated as Route 1.

These were the same roads that carried delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. George Washington also traveled Route 1 as a general leading his troops to war. In 1773,, Paul Revere rode "his horse along roads now known as Route 1 to Philadelphia with news of the Boston Tea Party. In 1776, 3,000 Americans surrendered to General William Howe -on Route 1 in Fort Washington, N.Y. In 1871, the Marquis de Lafayette and his troops hurried along gan around 1910, groups similar to modern-day chambers of commerce sponsored "trails" to get cars to drive past the businesses they represented.

"The trails were named by private organizations and there were rivalries between the groups backing the trails," Weingroff said. The result was disastrous for the driver who wanted to get somewhere. To achieve continuity, the state and federal agencies got together in 1925 to create a uniform system called the US System. Weingroff said, "It was not a construction plan, but a numbering plan so people could travel around the country without getting lost" 1 Since no new roads were built, the major roads that went from North to South were designated Route 1. Today, Route 1 passes through many of the nation's large cities including Portland; Boston; Providence; Bridgeport, New achusetts, rough sections of New industrial parts of New Jersey, the Okefenokee Swamp in and stretches 7 miles across the ocean through the Florida Keys.

Once the major North-South' 'thoroughfare, Route 1 stretches 2,593 miles from Fort Kent, Maine, to Key West, Florida. I Passing through 15 states and rthe nation's capital, it was given the "1" because it was the eas-Lternmost road of a series roads north to south. Richard Weingroff, a writer for Federal Highway Administration, said, "US Route 1 was not the first highway or the first in importance," but it contains much of the nation's history. Just after the automobile era be Give a Gift That Loves You Back! I Hi i''aBABYBLUEOROREEN Parakeets I wllF Finches $099 S4" HAND-FED. TAME BABY Cockatiels Sand piles: remnants of a road not built All Cages 10 off with the purchase of a bird.

FVFRF TIip lnmr nflpo of sand on the marshes extending lowaru oaugus and Lynn that have been visible from Route 1 for and policies for national geotechnical test sites. Bedingfield said the former 1-95 embankment was recently selected by the National Science Foundation as one of eight to 10 national geotechnical test sites and it will reopen soon. The Revere Beach project will not affect the geotechnical site, DPW officials said. AMYSESSLER mw tgs imWh through the Lynn Woods. So the sand sat there until this year when it was decided to use about 36,000 truckloads of it, valued at $13 million, in a joint federal and state project to restore 13,000 feet of Revere Beach from erosion.

Susan Douglas, spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the project is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 1992. Had the road been built, Department of Public Works officials said it would have gone north from the marsh area near the Showcase Cinemas in Revere, behind the North-gate Shopping Center and run parallel to Route 107, through Lynn and the Lynn Woods and ended where routes 128 and 95 meet now in Pea-body. The southbound road then would have gone through Revere, over the Tobin Bridge to the Central Artery, by Boston City Hospital onto what is now Melnea Cass Boulevard, through Roxbury, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain and Milton and come out where routes 128 and 95 intersect in Canton. In essence, 1-95 would have gone straight through Boston, with a small belt called Route 695, to take traffic around the city, according to David Wilson, DPW highway engineer. Route 695 would have freed the Central Artery of all traffic not intended for the city.

In the end, this piece of 1-95 was never built and a portion of Route 128 was designated as 1-95. But the sand in the marsh was not a total loss. During the initial highway planning, the DPW and Massachusetts Institute of Technology started a joint geotechnical project to measure the settlement of the 1-95 embankment, the portion that would have gone under the pavement. Laurinda Bedingfield, director of geotechnical services for the state DPW, said a tunnel was built under the embankment at that time. The site is equipped with instruments to measure settlement and to test the ground water and the amount of water in the soil.

The project was initially started to see what type of settlement occurred under a marshy embankment, but the measurements ended in the late 1970s. Two years ago, the National Science Foundation gave the University of New Hampshire a $60,000 grant to bring together scientists for the purpose of establishing guidelines the last 20-odd years are scheduled to be removed starting this week. The sand piles are the remnants of a highway that was never built. The sand, brought in from New Hampshire by train, was put into the marsh in the late 1960s as part of the preliminary work needed to prepare the marsh for an extension of 1-95, scheduled for construction in the early 1970s. Highway officials said they needed to allow for several years of natural compaction before they built the road or else it might have collapsed because of the marshy underground.

However, when the time came to build the highway, Gov. Francis Sargent declared a moratorium on highway construction within the Route 128 belt. Business owners and environmentalists also opposed the highway construction project. Business owners feared it would take too much traffic off Route 1 in the Saugus area and environmentalists did not want the construction in the marsh or mm quite a scei roK i 1 noy IE jj Route 1: 'No other place like it' Continued from preceding page If you're looking for a great greeting card, bring your family to PhotoGraphics in Beverly. Then take their picture next to our special Christmas and Chanukah displays.

We'll develop your film in an hour. And we'll make your favorite photo into a unique holiday greeting card. We'll even lend you a camera if you need it. If you already have a favorite photo, bring us the 35mm negative and you'll have your cards in a week. Photo greeting cards from PhotoGraphics.

They're part of the background of a great camera store. ThotoGtaohics traffic off Route 1, but his office plans to study Route 1 in Lynnfield, Peabody and Danvers because that strip is faced with tremendous development pressure. Planning officials in those communities say the commuter traffic has been replaced with shopping traffic, but they are poised to take advantage of it. The nearly 30 development proposals in this area for office parks, hotels and shopping plazas are a testament to Route l's continuing business success. Many local officials agree that the road may be old, but it is not yet tired.

Next Sunday: The maze of Route 1 restaurants steel grates "diapers," and bemoans the poor condition of the bridges. In Newburyport, a road is being built to take traffic off an old railroad bridge. The bypass road is a preventative measure before the bridge requires emergency attention, Wilson said. In 1987, the 1-95 and Route 1 split was completed in Peabody, allowing northbound drivers to get on 1-95 by staying in the right lane of Route 1. Several commuters said they drive to work on Route 1, but get onto 1-95 on their way home because the split makes it so easy.

William Steffens, manager of traffic analysis for the Central Transportation Planning Staff, said the Route 95 split has taken some 1 tersection of routes 1, 110 and 1A in Salisbury has graced the list. One of the safety problems on Route 1 is that the road is shared by shoppers and commuters. Twoomey of the DPW said, "Sau-jgus sees it as a neighborhood street, and other people commute to work Son it." The road is also showing signs of lage. Built in 1937, many of Route l's Abridges need repair and there are no funds for the work, according to DPW officials. To mitigate the effects of crumbling bridges, the DPW this year installed steel grates beneath -five bridges between Saugus and Boston to catch falling debris.

Castraberti of Prince Pizza calls the Route 1A, North Beverly, (508) 927-9997 1 yi 1 We at Danvers Rug Co. are NOT MWWX y-N rvnn rf-J 1 D3 and to celebrate we are offering U) TO mh 'mm 0 OFF On all oriental rugs. We will not be undersold. Choose from the finest selection of oriental rugs in New England FEATURING: PERSIAN PAKISTAN INDIAN CHINESE Bring in this ad for an additional 10 OFF m) gbgewm DANVERS RUG AND ORIENTAL 159 Elliot Danvers. MA Rt.

128N Take exit 22E to Elliot St. or 62E mn-mts i' -m a aw a a a a bv a ai i -i as av-u a a Sun. 12-6 Tel: (508) 774-1265 1-800-660-1265.