How the road was used
Mile markers
Why were the mile markers installed? There are a couple of reasons why the mile markers were installed. In 1775, the second continental congress established the postal system of the U.S. and appointed Benjamin Franklin to be Postmaster General. Another reason they were installed was due to growth in the colonies which led to growth in travel and use of the road. When Benjamin Franklin was appointed Postmaster General, he created a rate system depending on the amount of papers being mailed and the number of miles traveled.
Because of Benjamins Franklin's newly developed rate system he needed a way to track the amount of miles traveled. Franklin attached a dowel on the inside of the wagon wheel and a clapper that sounded at each mile interval so Franklin could add a mile marker. The mile markers helped the letter carriers calculate how much the recipients would pay to receive the letters. Benjamin Franklin placed about 230 mile markers in 1763 and there are about 40 surviving milestones which are being added to the national register of historic places.
The image is sourced from Flickr posted by the Jay Heritage center
The image is sourced from Britannica
The mail post
The Boston Post Road was originally established as a trading route. After European settlers arrived, it transformed into a mail delivery route from New York City to Boston, Massachusetts. In the early days, post riders faced numerous challenges, including getting lost and navigating through snow and rain which often made the road muddy. In the 1700s, these riders not only delivered regular mail but also brought the Boston Newsletter, widely recognized as America's first regular newspaper. Mail service operated weekly in the summer and two weeks in the winter due to snow, with riders exchanging mail bags along the lower section of the road. Initially, post riders traversed the route, but eventually, colonists smoothed and widened it to accommodate horse-drawn carriages and stagecoaches, leading to the establishment of America’s first long-distance stagecoach in 1783.
The image is sourced from Biography.com
During the war
After the Stamp Act was passed, the road was used to deliver mail in which revolutionaries corresponded about the Britain. During the war, the Boston Post Road helped unify the States during the American Revolution. The road was used for troops to travel, distribute supplies, and pass along major information moving from Boston to New York. And last but definitely not least, the road during the war was used by Paul Revere to warn towns about Lexington and Concord.