Private stairs from each home will lead down to the monorail platform
and up to the roof. In the center of the roof will be a promenade which
will be covered, and in the winter enclosed with glass panels and steam
heated. On the outer edges of the roof will be a path for bicyclists
and skaters, who will use rubber tired roller skates. The monorail,
which is the business transportation system of Roadtown, will be placed
out of sight and run at high speed, but the roof promenade will be the
“street” for recreation and pleasure. In winter the promenade will be a
continuous sun parlor; in summer a shaded walk. There will be benches
in alcoves along the way and occasional towers over the promenade and
tower effects along the edges of the roof beyond the cycle paths or
some other architectural effects to break the monotony. These towers
will be used as coöperative centers, such as stores, cooking and power,
recreation, schools, nurseries, etc. The tower effects are matters of
architectural ingenuity, and many architects are already interested in
finding ways to lend variety and beauty to the Roadtown as they have to
our existing public ways.
Certainly no street or boulevard in the history of the world was
ever more uniquely located. The splendid view to be obtained from
such a promenade in a dust-free and smoke-free country can hardly be
pictured to a city bred man or a countryman jogging along the hedge
and weed throttled country road. The view across the near gardens and
more distant grain fields, and back over woods and hills to the dim
line where land meets sky, will cure forever a score of Latin-named
diseases which the eye specialist tells us come from gazing through
the dust-laden street or across the dingy court into our neighbor’s
kitchen window.
It is upon the roof that the Roadtown will be upon dress parade. Here
maids with their lovers will stroll of evenings and matrons with their
baby carriages on Sunday afternoons. It is here that children will
have never ending sport. Skating and cycling can have an unprecedented
opportunity to develop for health and pleasure. It is here that Easter
hats will be shown and neighbors’ crops discussed and new acquaintances
made and local pride developed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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