Milestone 68 Boston Post Rd - West Brookfied MA
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nomadwillie
N 42° 14.161 W 072° 08.216
18T E 736243 N 4679950
Milestone 68 is located in West Brookfield on Main St right after Main St intersection with School St traveling west.
Waymark Code: WM7CRZ
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 10/06/2009
Views: 7
The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into the first major highways in the United States. The Upper Post Road was originally called the Pequot Path and had been in use by native Americans long before Europeans arrived. Some of these important native trails had been pounded by moccasin-shod feet for so many years that they were two feet below the surrounding woodland.
The colonists first used this trail to deliver the mail using post riders. The first ride to lay-out the Upper Post Road started on January 1, 1673 . Later, the newly-blazed trail was widened and smoothed to the point where horse-drawn wagons or stagecoaches could use the road. During the nineteenth century, turnpike companies took over and improved pieces of the road. Large sections of the various routes are still called the King's Highway and Boston Post Road. Much of the Post Road is now U.S. Route 1, U.S. Route 5, and U.S. Route 20.
Mileposts were measured from the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street in New York (one block west of Federal Hall) and from the old Boston city-line on Washington Street, near the present-day Massachusetts Turnpike.
The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road (now U.S. Route 1 along the shore via Providence, Rhode Island), the Upper Post Road (now US 5 and US 20 from New Haven, Connecticut by way of Springfield, Massachusetts), and the Middle Post Road (which diverged from the Upper Road in Hartford, Connecticut, and ran northeastward to Boston via Pomfret, Connecticut).
In some towns, the area near the Boston Post Road has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, since it was often the first road in the area, and some buildings of historical significance were built along it. It was, without exaggeration, the colonies' (and, later, the country's) Main Street. The Boston Post Road Historic District, including part of the road in Rye, New York has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
Milestone 8 on the Upper Post Road in Harvard SquareThe Post Road is also famous for milestones that date from the eighteenth century, many of which survive to this day.
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