| THE STATE IN THE MARYLAND ECONOMY, 1776-1807 129
ty by giving it stock in the company to the value of the roads
as evaluated by impartial judges.185
Two more turnpike companies were incorporated by the
General Assembly before 1807. The Falls Road Turnpike,1eB
also incorporated in 1804, with a capital of $40,000, was simi-
lar to the Baltimore turnpikes, except that it was not to be
made over an already existing road bed. The Washington
Turnpike Road, running from Georgetown to Frederick, char-
tered 1805, was to be constructed over an old road. It had a
capital of $120,000. To encourage investment, the General
Assembly made it lawful for any corporation, body politic, or
individual in the United States to subscribe for its stock '$1
In 1807 Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, who had
been ordered by Congress to make a report on American turn-
pikes, sent a list of questions to each active turnpike company.
From the answers of the Maryland companies which had actu-
ally begun construction can be seen the exact status of the
state's turnpikes in 1807.
Twenty miles of the Frederick Turnpike had been com-
pleted at a cost of $9,000 per mile; seventeen miles more had
been contracted for at about $7,000 per mile, of which ten
miles had been completed. The Reisterstown Turnpike Com-
pany had expended $200,000 of its $420,000 capital, had com-
pleted ten miles at a cost of $10,000 per mile, and the work
was progressing on the rest of the route. All the bridges, as
well as the road beds, were being made of stone. The length
of road finished by the Falls Road Turnpike Company was a
little over nine miles at a cost of about $7,500 per mile. The
company thought its chances for more capital to complete the
road would be much better if the legislature would allow the
road to proceed toward Hanover and Carlisle as far as the
Maryland line. The legislature had refused this modification
of the company's charter on the grounds that the interests of
the Reisterstown Turnpike Company might be damaged by a
.e.lbid., 1804 c. 51. See also suppl. 1804 c. 101; 1805 c. 15, 67; 1807 c.
144
allowing extentions of original routes or permitting companies to begin
work on
the roads earlier than provided in the original act.
'80 Running from Baltimore City into Baltimore County nearly paralleling
Jones Falls.
1g' Ibid., 1804 c. 91 and suppl. 1805 c 48, 105; 1805 c. 79.
|
