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Commission established to plan Central National Road
On this day in 1844, the Texas Congress established a five-man
commission to oversee the construction of the Central National Road. The
road was to begin on the bank of the Trinity River in Dallas County and
run to the south bank of the Red River in the northwest corner of Red
River County, opposite the mouth of the Kiamachi River. The proposed
terminus was the head of navigation on the Red River. To the north and
east the Central National Road connected with the military road to Fort
Gibson and old roads joining the Jonesborough area to settlements in
Arkansas. At its southern terminus it connected with the road opened in
1840 between Austin and Preston Bend on the Red River, in effect making
an international highway between St. Louis and San Antonio. The
international role that Congress may have visualized for the road was
never fulfilled, however, because the general westward population shift
voided its centrality and necessitated other roads. The Central National
Road was the second such ambitious roadbuilding effort of the Republic
of Texas, after the National Road authorized in 1839. Previous to the
republic, the Old San Antonio Road and the La Bahía Road were the
principal Texas roads. After the republic, the burgeoning railroad and
cattle-trailing industries joined roadbuilding between population
centers to turn a vast, trackless land into a vast land laced with
tracks.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- CENTRAL NATIONAL ROAD
- NATIONAL ROAD
- OLD SAN ANTONIO ROAD
- LA BAHIA ROAD
- RAILROADS
- HIGHWAY DEVELOPMENT
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- The Republic of Texas passes legislation regarding free African Americans (1840)
- Snakebite pioneer succumbs (1955)
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