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Even before the invention of the wheel, roads have been critical for moving people and goods around obstacles and through otherwise difficult terrain. Nearly every historical culture has specialized in the construction of one type of road or another. Here's a few examples.

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During the reign of the Incan Empire from around 1000 CE to the arrival of the Spanish, the Incans used an elaborate system of roads spanning from what is now Ecuador to Chile, centered around the Peruvian city of Cusco. The Incan Empire was centered in some of the most mountainous and difficult terrain in the world, so Incan engineers painstakingly planned ramps, stairways, and passages through thousands of miles of mountains to ensure that the whole of the empire could be crossed on foot.

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This is a cross section of a Roman road...

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And this is a cross section of a modern road. What similarities do you see between this road and the roman road? What differences? Post your ideas in the comments.

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Perhaps the finest historical roads ever constructed, the roads of the Roman Empire were built using very precise measurements and using high quality materials. The road pictured above, the Appian Way, is over 2000 years old but looks better than many of our Michigan roads! The best Roman roads had drainage for rain and waste and were made so carriages could smoothly ride on them, and vast armies could quickly march across the entire empire.

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Between the 1840s and 1850s, plank roads were immensely popular in the United States. A technology imported from Canada, plank roads used the abundant timber of the Northeast and Midwestern United States to cross marshy and difficult terrain. They were raised above the terrain, kind of like a boardwalk but on land. They were especially popular in Michigan, where much of the land in the 1800s was very swampy.

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There are many roads still in use today that were once plank roads, all of them now paved. Some even include "plank" in the name. Using Google Maps, can you find any in Michigan? What do you think they used to connect? Post any findings in the comments.