Eactually it is an absurdity. A straight road, almost ten kilometers long, across the countryside. From Höchst, starting just before the Main, up into the Taunus to Königstein to the large roundabout, the nightmare of all learner drivers between Frankfurt and Feldberg. It runs straight ahead, ignoring the hills and valleys of this landscape, which is not exactly poor in hills and valleys, past the Main-Taunus center and at the end through the forest. It makes sense that roads usually follow topography. If you build them straight, there are unpleasant gradients if a low mountain range is in the way. And such is the Taunus, then still profanely referred to as “the height”, after all.
On the other hand, things could not remain so in the eighteenth century. The old trade route from Rödelheim via Königstein, Glashütten, Esch to Cologne was in a terrible state, partly overgrown, partly swampy. “Several chaises” from the entourage of Princess Charlotte of Lorraine “had to be dragged out with oxen at 12 o’clock at night near Schwalbach”, reported the Königsteiner Rentmeister to the Mainz court chamber in 1770. And further: “The heavy postal passages to the Koblenz, Brussels and other courts are a very considerable subject and have already largely persuaded the present gentlemen to build the road.”
Macadamized in three layers
A properly paved road was needed. A highway commission was set up, proposed routes were examined, terrain was measured, but bureaucracy, war and resistance from the population – many farmers did not want to give up their fields and orchards – postponed the matter until the area was no longer part of the Electorate of Mainz, but was under Nassau government. However, the idea of connecting Höchst to the “Kölnische Strasse” instead of Frankfurt dates back to the time of the Electorate of Mainz, because there were big plans for this trading town near Frankfurt. So they got down to work and built the new road according to all the rules of the art of the Scottish road building revolutionary John McAdam, namely “macadamized” in three layers, which was completely new and modern at the time. On top was a curved layer of gravel that was pressed down with rollers. Unfortunately, not much more is known about their origin.
The new street was immediately used as a promenade, and inns and bars emerged. For the village of Soden, which had fewer than 500 inhabitants, the new road was of particular importance. The health resort, which was just getting started – there were two hotels in the village at the time – received a tremendous boost thanks to better connections. Soden can be reached on foot from Höchst within an hour, with the red Thurn und Taxis stagecoaches even faster. A horse-drawn omnibus drove to Königstein twice a day. Above all, however, building materials could be procured and more guesthouses and spa villas built.
#years #Königsteiner #Strasse