(A) A passage through the country for the use of the people. 3 Yeates, 421. 2. Roads are public or private. Public roads are laid out by public authority, or dedicated by individuals to public use. The public have the use of such roads, but the owner of the land over which they are made and the owners of land bounded on the highway, have, prima facie, a fee in such highway, ad medium filum vice, subject to the easement in favor of the public. But where the boundary excludes the highway, it is, of course, excluded. The proprietor of the soil, is therefore entitled to all the fruits which grow by its side; 16 Mass. 366, 7; and to all the mineral wealth it contains. 3. There are public roads, such as turnpikes and railroads, which are constructed by public authority, or by corporations. These are kept in good order by the respective companies to which they belong, and persons travelling on them, with animals and vehicles, are required to pay toll. In general these companies have only a right of passage over the land, which remains the property, subject to the easement, of the owner at the time the road was made or of his heirs or assigns. 4. Private roads are, such as are used for private individuals only, and are not wanted for the public generally. Sometimes roads of this kind are wanted for the accommodation of land otherwise enclosed and without access to public roads. The soil of such roads belongs to the owner of the land over which they are made. 5. Public roads are kept in repair at the public expense, and private roads by those who use them. B) mar. law. A road is defined by Lord Hale to be an open passage of the sea, which, from the situation of the adjacent land, and its own depth and wideness, affords a secure place for the common riding and anchoring of vessels. Hale de Port. Mar. p. 2, c. 2. This word, however, does not appear to have a very definite meaning.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
A highway; an open way or public passage; a line of travel or communication extending from one town or place to and ( other; a strip of land appropriated and used for purposes of travel and communication between different places. See Stokes V. Scott County, 10. Iowa, 176; Com. v. Gammons,. 23 Pick. (Mass.) 202; Hutson v. New York, 5 Sandf. (N. Y.) 312; Stedman v. South-bridge, 17 Pick. (Mass.) 164; Horner v. State, 40 Md. 288; Northwestern Tel. Exch. Co. T; Minneapolis, 81 Minn. 140, 86 N. W. 69, 68 L. It A. 176; Hart v. Town of Red Cedar, 63 Wis. 634, 24 N. W. 410. In maritime law. An open passage Of the sea that receives its denomination commonly from some part adjacent, which, though it He out at sea, yet, in respect of the situation of the land adjacent, and the depth and wideness of the place, is a safe place for the common riding or anchoring of ships; as Dover road, Klrkley road, etc. Hale de Jure Mar. pt 2, c. 2. law of the road. See LAW. Private road. This term has various meanings: (1) A road, the soil of which belongs to the owner of the land which it traverses, but which is burdened with a right of way. Morgan v. Livingston, 6 Mart O. S. (La.) 231. (2) A neighborhood wav, not commonly used by others than the people of the neighborhood, though it may be used by any one having occasion. State v. Mobley, 1 McMul. (S. C.) 44. (3) A road intended for the use of one or more private individuals, and not wanted nor intended for general public use, which may be opened across the lands of other persons by statutory authority in some states. (4) A road which is only open for the benefit of certain individuals to go from and to their homes for the service of their lands and for the use of some estates exclusively. Civ. Code La, 1900, art. 706. Public road. A highway; a road or way established and adopted (or accepted as a dedication) by the proper authorities for the use of the general public, and over which every person has a right to pass and to use it for all purposes of travel or transportation to which it is adapted and devoted. Road districts. Public or quasi municipal corporations organised or authorized by statutory authority in many of the states for the special purpose of establishing, maintaining, and caring for public roads and highways within their limits, sometimes invested with powers of local taxation, and generally having elective officers styled “overseers” or ”commissioners” of roads. Road tax. A tax for the maintenance and repair of the public roads within the particular jurisdiction, levied either in money or in the form of so many days’ labor on the public roads exacted of all the inhabitants of the district. See Lewin v. State, 77 Ala. 46.