For other uses, see Post Road (disambiguation). A post road is a road designated for the transportation of postal mail. In past centuries only major towns had a post house, and the roads used by post riders or mail coaches 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.
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In the United States, colonial post roads developed as the primary method of transporting information across the original thirteen colonies. Post riders rode horses between towns on the road and milestones marked the distance between cities. Many of these milestones still exist on older highways such as the Boston Post Road. Before the advent of electronic communication, post roads were crucial in spreading news and knowledge across the colonies.
Article I, Section Eight of the U.S. Constitution specifically authorizes Congress the enumerated power "to establish post offices and post roads." The U.S. Supreme Court later interpreted this clause to allow the creation of postal roads that were used for other concurrent purposes. The previous Articles of Confederation authorized only the creation of post offices but not post roads by the national government.[1] A law of 1838 designated all existing and future railroads as post roads.
A few post roads were not old roads newly designated, but built for the purpose.