Grading the roads

Western Pacific Railroad survey crews helped Obed Harvey lay out the town of Galt in 1869. Surveyors used a grid pattern to lay out the streets, with lettered streets going east and west and numbered streets going north and south. There are some quirks. Part of A Street already existed as a county road, so it doesn't run parallel to the other lettered streets. The numbered streets end at Seventh because the existing stage route runs north and south on the east side of town (Lincoln Way). Streets were graded using horse-drawn graders like the one pictured.