Addison Toll House
Kodak EasyShare Z730 Zoom
2009
Shortly after the old National Road enters Pennsylvania from Maryland, you come upon this odd little building. It was a toll house, built in the 1830s when the government turned the road over to the states through which it passed. They had to pay somehow to maintain the road, and so Pennsylvania tolled it.
A tollkeeper lived in the toll house rent free, and was paid a salary for his work.
The toll rate depended on what you were driving. And I use that term broadly: either you were driving a vehicle, usually beast-drawn, or you were driving herds. But if your vehicle had wheels wider than eight inches, it was free, because it helped compact the road.
