User:DiltsGD/Sandbox1

Toll roads. Massachusetts and Rhode Island developed turnpike (toll) systems for wagon roads in the early 1800s including most of the route from Boston to Providence. The Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike in Massachusetts charged tolls from 1806 to 1856. The Providence and Pawtucket Turnpike in Rhode Island was authorized in 1807 and the last toll house was closed in 1869. Most of these early pathways continue as roads today. Modern freeways usually parallel the older road systems.

Decline. However, the use of early roads and turnpikes for moving settlers waned with the introduction of railroads. Settlers could travel faster, less expensively, and safer on railroads than on wagon roads. So, as railroads entered an area, the wagon-road traffic in that area declined. The first railroad from Providence, Rhode Island to Worcester, Massachusetts was opened in 1847. In 1863 a horse-rail line from Providence to Central Falls laid its tracks in part of the turnpike and horse-rail travelers on that line passed toll houses until they were closed six years later.