Booming employment opportunities in Follansbee presented major transportation issues. The narrow dirt wagon roads were both dangerous and often unusable.   Business leaders Fred Hall and Asa G. Neville, (Follansbee street is named after Neville), traveled to Pittsburgh to meet the Follansbee Brothers and discuss a special work train on the railroad between Follansbee and Wellsburg. Neville was the factory manager of the Eagle Company in Wellsburg.

In January 1905, The Wellsburg Daily Herald reported that contractor N.C. Hunter had 50 men working on construction to improve the dirt road between Follansbee and Wellsburg

An early Route 2 streetcar crossing Cross Creek bridge. Notice the dangerous left sharp curve for highway traffic though the hillside. The road was not only dangerous here, but throughout the entire route, crossing over Gilchrest Hill before arriving in Wellsburg. Also notice the railroad tracks on the right. Transportation issues also were a problem between Follansbee and Holliday Cove (later the city of Weirton). See photo of the road to Weirton below.

Road to Weirton circa 1910. Before brick pavement, the conditions of road were very poor. Photo courtesy of Brook Country Genealogy Society.

Road to Weirton circa 1910. Photo courtesy of Brook Country Genealogy Society

• Wellsburg Daily Herald, “The Year 1904,” January 5, 1905, p. 1.
• Photos from . Richard A. Boyd Collection 1905-1910