Plank Roads, Fayetteville, North Carolina
Posted by: 
showbizkid
N 35° 03.182 W 078° 52.673
17S E 693536 N 3880983
Fayetteville, North Carolina was once the home of five different Plank Roads. They are commemorated at Market Square in the center of town.
Waymark Code: WMED3
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 06/07/2006
Views: 53
Fayetteville was home to five plank roads which extended to all parts of the state. These were built to compensate for a lack of early rail connections. One of the roads, the Fayetteville and Western Plank Road, extended 129 miles to the Moravian settlements near present-day Winston-Salem.
In the 1980s, the City of Fayetteville sponsored archaeological investigations during the construction of a downtown street transit mall. Beneath the modern pavement were foundation logs of the Fayetteville Plank Road, constructed in 1849. Plank roads were wagon highways, typically 12 to 15-feet wide, and surfaced with thick pine planks. The section in the photograph shown below, shows foundation logs which supported the planks that surfaced the street, which was the terminus of that road. It was built wider than normal to cover the entire downtown street.
For an interesting North Carolina History Project webpage on one of Fayetteville's Plank Road, click HERE.
To record your own visit to this waymark, take and post your own photo of the marker and post it with your log. Your original photo is proof of your visit.