As written about and explained in Hidden History of East Meadow: Hempstead-Bethpage Turnpike started out as two turnpikes. In nineteenth-century America, roads were generally inadequate for long-distance travel. Early in the century, the National Road was built as a taxpayer-funded experiment, but canals and railroads were king when it came to 1800s infrastructure. The main roads constructed at that time were private (toll) turnpikes, built and maintained by corporations. Hempstead Turnpike was an early example and came about through New York State's passage of the Turnpike Acts of 1807. In 1812, the route was incorporated by Samuel Carman, Joseph Pettit, Abraham Bell and Laurence Seaman. The road followed old Native American trails, as did so many other routes in the New York region. The Hempstead Turnpike Company, as established in March 1812, was authorized to "run and operate a turnpike road from the Village of Jamaica to the Village of Hempstead in perpetuity." The collection of public town roads that made up the turnpike at its inception were turned over the company for improvement, widening and maintenance.
It was a long and arduous drive to the New York City area. Traveling to and from East Meadow in the early nineteenth century was dependent on private stagecoach lines going east. Timetables were published in local newspapers. Miller and Carman ran a stage line from their Long Island Hotel at 13 Old Fulton Street in the city of Brooklyn every Tuesday and Saturday in 1841 at 1:00 p.m. In 1842, Bedell's Stage ran every Tuesday and Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
In 1852, the stockholders of Hempstead Turnpike Company sold the road to the Hempstead and Jamaica Plank Road Company. Improvements would come through the setting of wooden planks over the dirt, as supported by New York State's Plank Road Act of 1847. Although rudimentary by today's standards, this "innovation" was popular before the Civil War and greatly improved transportation along the turnpike.
The New York State legislature passed a law in April 1859 that authorized the company to collect higher fees as soon as planking was completed along the route. The law stated that "for each mile traveled by wagons, or otherwise, drawn by one horse, mule or ox, the sum of one and one quarter cent per mile, and for each additional horse, mule or ox, the sum of one and one-quarter cent per mile." It was common for turnpikes to collect tolls on animals and not people, as many people used the roads to drive their livestock.
The number of chickens, sheep, or other animals one had with him determine the amount. The toll booth in East Meadow was run by the Carman family and was located on the north side of the Hempstead-Bethpage Turnpike, just west of Carman Avenue.
Learn more about the Hidden History of East Meadow