Result of federal (and sometimes state) land surveys - whether a regular grid, or irregular patchwork.
Result of federal (and sometimes state) land survey grid - usually one-mile sections, often quartered. Aligned to cardinal directions, specifically magnetic or astronomical north.
Roads based on land survey usually disregard terrain, though the rougher the terrain, the more the roads must confom to terrain regardless of the land survey.
Where section lines don't quite match up, different road intersections are often formed; see Route Elements.
Section-Line Route Subtype
Road aligned to section-line grid.
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Quarter Section-Line Route Subtype
Road aligned to grid of quarter-section, those bisecting each section two ways (resulting in quadrants).
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Tangent Align/Realign Route Subtype / Rectangularized Road
Road realigned not on land survey section or quarter section lines, but still straightened out to form tangents aligned to the cardinal directions, instead of curves. Similar to tangential result of early 19th century pikes and turnpikes - series of straight lines.
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Result of land survey system that relies on relatively random alignments - properties are bounded by series of tangents with little respect to the cardinal directions.
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Roads are fairly straight, running across rolling land, not necessaily following anything but their own course.
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Straight route across level terrain - thus "across" the level land.
Often found on Valley Terraces.
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Straight route across gently rolling terrain - thus "over" the hilly land.
Often found on rolling Uplands.
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Roads are atop subtle but important ridges located on very level land.
Route connecting navigable or nearby navigable ends of two waterways. Embraces any path connecting headwaters and/or subheadwaters. ("Subheadwaters" is location on a waterway where navigation ends - possibly a falls, shoal, or just shallow stretch.)
This may be perpendicular to any dividing ridge, but it depends on the alignment of the waterways. They may be in line, which would have the route leave and enter each watershed in line with the waterways and perpendicular to a dividing ridge. But is the waterways are any other alignment (perpendicular or some other angle) the route enters and leaves the watersheds at various angles.
(Is this an Upland Route Type or Valley Route Type? In some cases the portage route is level or rolling (e.g. Miami-Maumee, Cuyahoga-Tuscarawas) but sometimes it is hilly (e.g. Ottowa River-Lake Huron (Canada), Pennsylvania routes). Is it both and neither, transitional, and thus deserves its own Type-Family?)
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Connects the headwaters of one stream to the headwaters of another.
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Connects the headwaters of one stream to the subheadwaters of another.
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Connects the subheadwaters of one stream to the subheadwaters of another.
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