<https://www.americanroadmagazine.com/forum/topic/1933-building-the-illinois-national-road/#comment-17975>
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"I posted about this on my blog today: http://blog.jimgrey.net/2013/07/26/building-the-illinois-national-road \n  \nA fellow who grew up in Casey, IL, near the road and is now of retirement age commented on this today.  He reminded me of an alignment of the NR near Martinsville that was abandoned and is now on private property, after the road was rerouted to cross some railroad tracks at a square angle.  He said that the road in there is 9-foot-wide concrete.  He further said that west from there strips of the 9-foot concrete are visible, with narrower strips of concrete on either side of it to widen the road to 16 feet.  I have a photo of that from 2007: \n  \n\n\n\n\nAbandoned National Road by mobilene, on Flickr\n \nThe camera was zoomed out to wide angle (33mm) so it distorts the view a little bit -- it's hard to tell for sure how wide the strips of concrete are here.  Now I really want to go out and see it again, measuring tape in hand.  I am taking Monday off after a tough project wrapped up at work this week and maybe, just maybe, a trip to Illinois is in order to see this old pavement again.  (Though a drive through some of the twisty roads in southern Indiana in my new car feels like a lot more fun.)\n \nHere is his comment:\n \n\n  \n\n  \n\nNotice that he says that the bridges had 1920 date plates on them, back when.  Those bridges are long gone for the most part now.  \n \nBut follow me here: If the 1920 ABB says the road would be under construction, perhaps it was to build these bridges and the 9-foot-wide concrete section.  And maaaaaaybe that construction's eastern end was just east of Martinsville, where the concrete ends and the bricks begin.  And maaaaaybe everything east of that spot remained dirt or gravel until about 1925 when the bricks were built.\n \nDoes this sound plausible?\n \n-Jim\n \n"
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