{{Short description|Road or route for transporting mail}} {{other uses|Post Road (disambiguation)}} {{multiple issues| {{More citations needed|date=March 2010}} {{Globalize|date=December 2010}} }} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2012}} [[File:Old Albany Post Road.jpg|thumb|[[Old Albany Post Road]] in [[Philipstown, New York]], a section that remains [[dirt road|unpaved]] and has been listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]]]
A '''post road''' is a road designated for the transportation of [[postal mail]]. In past centuries, only major towns had a [[Post house (historical building)|post house]] and the roads used by [[post riders]] or [[mail coach]]es to carry mail among them were particularly important ones or, due to the special attention given them, became so. In various centuries and countries, ''post road'' became more or less equivalent to main road, royal road, or highway. The 20th century spread of postal service blurred the distinction.
==Asia== [[Great Post Road]] ({{langx|nl|link=no|De Grote Postweg}}), from [[Anyer]] to [[Panarukan]], [[Indonesia]], was a post road in Asia, built during the governancy of [[Herman Willem Daendels]] of [[Dutch East Indies]] from 1808 to 1811.
==Europe== [[File:Postkurse 1563.jpg|thumb|1563 post road map of Europe]] Notable post roads in Europe include: * [[Antwerp]]-[[Venice]] Post Road, similar to the Dutch Post Road. * [[Bremen]]-[[Hamburg]] Post Road, approved by the king of Sweden on July 5, 1665 to establish regular mail service. A second route was established from [[Cuxhaven]] through the [[Land Wursten|Land of Wursten]] to Lehe. * Dutch Post Road, ({{langx|de|link=no|Niederländischer Postkurs}}) established in 1490, connected the [[Netherlands]] with [[coaching inn]]s in Germany and [[Italy]].
==North America== The following are notable post roads in Canada and the U.S.
=== Canada ===
[[Chemin du Roy]] was built between [[Montreal]] ([[Repentigny, Quebec|Repentigny]]) and [[Quebec City]] from 1731 to 1737, for mail and as a means of travel for the key settlements in [[New France]]<ref>{{cite web |author=de Boisclerc, Lanouiller |url=http://www.lecheminduroy.com/en/history |title=History: Last August I travelled by carriage from Montreal to Québec in four and a half days |website=Le Chemin du Roy |date=September 16, 2013 |access-date=August 23, 2015 |archive-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408072957/https://www.lecheminduroy.com/en/history |url-status=live }}</ref>/[[Lower Canada]]. It was later incorporated as [[Quebec Route 2]] and is now part of [[Quebec Route 138]].
Two notable post roads built in the late 1700s and early 1800s were [[Dundas Street|Dundas Road]] (The Governor's Road) and [[Kingston Road (Toronto)|Kingston Road]] (Lakeshore Road or York Road) to provide a route for mail and [[stagecoaches]] between key settlements in [[Upper Canada]].<ref>{{cite news |author=Fitzgerald, G.J. |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CXwxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=66EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1733,2679825 |title=Heritage Highway Link |newspaper=[[Montreal Gazette]] |date=July 26, 1975 |access-date=August 23, 2015 |archive-date=December 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211228023025/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CXwxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=66EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1733,2679825 |url-status=live }}</ref>
The latter route, which became The Provincial Highway in 1917 ([[Ontario Highway 2]] c. 1923), and the former which became a Dundas Highway in 1920 ([[Ontario Highway 5]] in 1925), were the beginning of the provincial highway system in [[Ontario]].{{citation needed|date=July 2016}}
===United States=== In what was to later become the United States, post roads developed as the primary method of communicating information across and between the colonies.{{Citation needed|date=April 2017}}
The [[Articles of Confederation]] authorized the national government to create post offices, but not post roads.<ref name=StoryClause7>{{cite news|url=http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_7s7.html|last=Story|first=Justice Joseph|title=Article 1, Section 8, Clause 7|work=Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States|volume=3:§§ 1119–42, 1144–45|publisher=University of Chicago Press|date=1833|location=Boston|access-date=October 28, 2008|archive-date=June 28, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230628075715/https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_7s7.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Adoption of the [[U.S. Constitution]] changed this, as [[Article One of the United States Constitution|Article I]], Section Eight, known as the [[Postal Clause]], specifically authorizes Congress the [[enumerated power]] "to establish post offices and post roads". This was often interpreted to include all public highways. [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] justice [[Joseph Story]] defended the broad interpretation that had become dominant in his influential ''[[Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States]]'' (1833).<ref name=StoryClause7 />
[[File:Upper Post Road MP 8.jpg|thumb|18th century [[milestone]] on the [[Boston Post Road]]]]
Notable American post roads built for the purpose include: * [[Albany Post Road]], which connects New York City to [[Albany, New York|Albany]], the capital of New York State * [[Boston Post Road]], which traverses New England from New York City to Boston, Massachusetts * [[New York State Route 22|White Plains Post Road]], the southernmost section of [[New York State Route 22]], known as the White Plains Post Road in the 18th and 19th centuries, was a major highway connecting New York City to [[White Plains, New York|White Plains]], [[Westchester County|Westchester]]'s [[county seat]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2017}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_7s7.html Justice Joseph Story, ''Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States,'' 3 vols, (Boston: 1833)]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Post Road}} [[Category:Legal history of the United States]] [[Category:Postal infrastructure]] [[Category:Types of roads]]