<P> The history of road transport started with the development of tracks by humans and their beasts of burden . </P> <P> The first forms of road transport were horses, oxen carrying goods over tracks that often followed game trails, such as the Natchez Trace . In the Paleolithic Age, humans did not need constructed tracks in open country . The first improved trails would have been at fords, mountain passes and through swamps . The first improvements would have consisted largely of clearing trees and big stones from the path . As commerce increased, the tracks were often flattened or widened to accommodate human and animal traffic . Some of these dirt tracks were developed into fairly extensive networks, allowing communications, trade and governance over wide areas . The Incan Empire in South America and the Iroquois Confederation in North America, neither of which had the wheel, are examples of effective use of such paths . </P> <P> The first goods transport was on human backs and heads, but the use of pack animals, including donkeys and horses, developed during the Neolithic Age . The first vehicle is believed to have been the travois, a frame used to drag loads, which probably developed in Eurasia after the first use of bullocks (castrated cattle) for pulling ploughs . In about 5000 BC, sleds developed, which are more difficult to build than travois, but are easier to propel over smooth surfaces . Pack animals, ridden horses and bullocks dragging travois or sleds require wider paths and higher clearances than people on foot and improved tracks were required . As a result, by about 5000 BC roads, including the Ridgeway, developed along ridges in England to avoid crossing rivers and bogging . In central Germany, such ridgeways remained the predominant form of long - distance road till the mid 18th century . </P>

Who built some of the first roads in america