Consult the GLOSSARY for vocabulary of this lesson.
Toll roads are not modern inventions. If a merchant was part of a camel caravan in the Middle Eastern city of Petra more than 2000 years ago, most probably he had to pay a toll before leaving the city.
Toll roads are not modern inventions. If a merchant was part of a camel caravan in the Middle Eastern city of Petra more than 2000 years ago, most probably he had to pay a toll before leaving the city.
About this time also, the Romans built a network of highways extending from the Wall of Hadrian in the north of England to the Persian Gulf, and financed the repair of these highways by the collection of tolls at the city gates. Many of these Roman roads were still in use in the Middle Ages.
In medieval times, town authorities and landlords everywhere in Europe collected tolls by barring the roads with a pike or a pole, and then turning the pike to permit the traveler to pass.
During the first decades of British rule in America, private companies built “turnpikes” and charged the travelers tolls to use them. At present, the different world states build roads, either with money from their governments or with tolls collected from users of these roads.
Rivers and channels have also provided natural opportunities for toll stations. By the year 1300, there were a lot of places along the Rhine River, in Germany, where travelers, merchants and other passengers had to pay tolls to arrive to or leave the cities and towns located at the border of the river, in England, both over and under London Bridge. Today ships pay tolls to go through Canada’s Welland Canal and through the Suez and Panama Canals.
Modern toll gates and turnpikes:
Modern toll gates and turnpikes:
