Ryan Road - How Named?

[FlyingJ]

Okay, the DetroitYessir is a descendant of the guy who built & named Ryan Road, James Ryan. The potential DetroitWiki entry he came up with "He came from Ireland. He was the head engineer on the road and it was the longest wooden plank road ever built. To this day, they still pull up wood planks under the concrete when repairing it." I think that does lend creedence to being a private road, I meant to ask, but in his family all this talk of private, public & gov't involvement in Detroit are dirty words lately

[Detroitnerd]

Something seems a bit off there. I doubt Ryan was the longest plank road ever. Michigan Avenue was a famous plank road, and it ran all the way to Chicago, didn't it?

Anyway, until the 1910s, few roads were paved, especially county or state roads. Advocates of "good roads" would often build a mile or two of road just to show it could be done, but, as I understand it, few individuals had the resources to actually build roads. They were just trying to goad the government to get involved. So I wouldn't draw too many libertarian lessons from it.

[gazhekwe]

Sa-SHAW-baw is actually closer to the correct pronunciation.

[Retroit]

FlyingJ, you probably figured that you [[or your acquaintance) couldn't claim something as the "longest" without someone contesting & verifying it! According to several sources, the longest plank road ever built was from Fayetteville to Salem, North Carolina [[129 miles) built in 1854.

[FlyingJ]

Yeah yeah I know, I thought perhaps "in Michigan" but that's the way your grandfathers tell stuff so who's to say?