Appian Way

Laid out in 1906 on the Naples Extension tract, Appian Way follows the route of the late great Pacific Electric Railway. The street’s name is a nod to the Via Appia, the ancient highway that once connected Rome to Brindisi – a distance of some 350 miles, give or take. It was begun in 312 B.C. by its namesake, Appius Claudius Caecus, a Roman censor (a magistrate who oversaw both the census and public morality – hence today’s definition of “censorship”). Given the Naples neighborhood’s Italian theme, you can see the connection, although Italy’s Via Appia never went to Napoli.