Old tollgate on the Hamburg turnpike. Discontinued in the late 1880's.
Western New York Toll Roads
Old tollgate on the Hamburg turnpike. Discontinued in the late 1880's.
Beginning in the 1830's, New York State issued charters to private companies in Western New York for the purpose of building
and maintaining lengths of roadways. Roads created from bare dirt were amost impassible except during winter when the ground
was frozen. Mud, clay, and sand made travel difficult for heavy wagons carrying produce, lumber, or passengers. The private
companies built turnpikes (aka toll roads) from a number of materials:
logs laid horizontally ("corduroy" roads), planks laid
longitudinally ("plank" roads), gravel, or macadam (crushed stone over a packed subgrade). They then collected tolls to pay
for their investment, labor costs, and road maintenance.
Tollgate on Main Street, just west of Getzville road. The Buffalo & Williamsville Macadam Company was incorporated in 1836
for the purpose of building this toll road.
Main Street, Route 5, followed a major Indian trail from Buffalo eastward and was one of the earliest toll roads built.
Toll gates on this turnpike were located every 9 miles, occupied by a toll gate keeper and family. Above is Mrs. Fry
and her sons,
Charles and Frank.
This gate was abandoned near the end of the 19th century, as were most toll gates
when
municipalities took over the task of building and maintaining roads (and taxing residents to pay for them).
Toll road on Main Street near modern Humboldt Parkway (1870s) [not pictured on map below]
Toll gate at Orchard Park & Ridge Roads, West Seneca, late 1800's.
Toll gate keepers were on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, to collect tolls from all traffic. Rates were posted at the
toll gates for vehicles, bicycles, and a per-head charge for livestock being driven to market. Those still in existence at the
turn of the century charged five or ten cents per vehicle.
1904 photo of the Broadway toll gate (east of Union Rd). The tollgate was moved to the southwest corner of Broadway and Union in 1908, and
abandoned in 1910.
Another view of the Union Road tollgate (1908). The tollhouse was the home of Joseph Prestine, who later lived in Depew.
1906 AAA Automobile Route Map
Approximate location of the toll gates pictured above. Automobile tourists describe numerous toll gates along
these roads in their 1906 Route book. Necessary or recreational travel had its price on the roads leading into
and out of Buffalo until the 1920's.