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Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

Great Moments In Us Pavement History


mobilene
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From http://curbstone.com/_macadam.htm --

 

Key Dates of Interest in United States Road Building

1625 - Earliest known paved American road - Colonial city street - Pemaquid, Maine

1795 - First engineered American road - Philadelphia to Lancaster toll turnpike

1823 - First macadam road constructed in America - State of Maryland

1877 - First asphalt paving in N. America - Pennsylvania Avenue - Washington, DC

1893 - First rural brick road - Ohio

1906 - First Bituminous macadam road constructed - Rhode Island

 

Well! Guess them Mainers have something to crow about.

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From http://curbstone.com/_macadam.htm --

 

Key Dates of Interest in United States Road Building

1625 - Earliest known paved American road - Colonial city street - Pemaquid, Maine

1795 - First engineered American road - Philadelphia to Lancaster toll turnpike

1823 - First macadam road constructed in America - State of Maryland

1877 - First asphalt paving in N. America - Pennsylvania Avenue - Washington, DC

1893 - First rural brick road - Ohio

1906 - First Bituminous macadam road constructed - Rhode Island

 

Well! Guess them Mainers have something to crow about.

 

 

Maybe, but you should have seen the rest of the state. LOL And actually, Maine cannot claim the distinction. It didn't become a separate state until 1820, when it split from Massachusetts. True Down East Mainers like to say "Maine split from Massachusetts, becoming a state of it's own in 1820 - and Massachusetts has been trying to get it back every since - one house lot at a time!!" hehehehe

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

(Former "Mainiac")

Edited by hester_nec
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Ohio also gets credit for the first concrete street in America ( http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/OHBELconcrete.html ). It's still in use and I've driven on it. We Buckeyes like to get our money's worth.

 

mobiline: The website you referenced actually has Ohio spelled "Ohioe". I see you corrected it in your copy thereby breaking a tradition of Indianans adding, rather than deleting, word ending "E"s.

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My ex-brother-in-law is in the Secret Service and was assigned to Vice President Quayle back in the day. My ex-BIL doesn't talk much; he only rolled his eyes when asked about the days he was always ready to take a bullet for the man.

 

As for removing those wayward Es, I'm a recovering book editor.

 

Alex, I'm sure that the folks in Pemaquid were Mainers in 1820, even if they were voting in Massachusetts elections. KWIM?

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From http://curbstone.com/_macadam.htm --

 

Key Dates of Interest in United States Road Building

1625 - Earliest known paved American road - Colonial city street - Pemaquid, Maine

1795 - First engineered American road - Philadelphia to Lancaster toll turnpike

1823 - First macadam road constructed in America - State of Maryland

1877 - First asphalt paving in N. America - Pennsylvania Avenue - Washington, DC

1893 - First rural brick road - Ohio

1906 - First Bituminous macadam road constructed - Rhode Island

 

Well! Guess them Mainers have something to crow about.

 

Ah, Mobilene and Hester_nec...another distraction! It will be laid at your doorstep if I forget I took a trip to Oregon before I write it up! But I can’t resist joining this discussion.

 

If you have any interest in how roads were built in America I recommend finding and buying an early Good Roads Yearbook. I have two, 1914 and 1915. When I bought the first I was disappointed when I got it because I was looking for maps and pictures, and instead I got pages of ads for road equipment, road, bridge, and culvert building specifications, legislation, state by state reports on road building projects, universities offering road building courses, the names of road associations and just about everyone associated with roads in the US, etc.. 500 pages of everything except what I was looking for.

 

But they turn out to be little treasures because they are like an encyclopedia of roads for the year published. They also have a section on “Great Road Builders” and “Principal Inventions.” Did you know that Mr. Ely Whitney Blake (a nephew of his namesake) of New Haven, Connecticut invented the stone crusher in 1858 and it was used on city of Hartford streets and roads in 1859. It was the first application of mechanical power in the preparation of road metal. I offer this information in the event you are on Jeopardy one day and get stuck on the ever popular “Great inventions in road building” category.

Just so you know, the methods of road construction listed and described in detail include dirt roads, sand-clay, gravel, macadam, bituminous macadam, brick, concrete, and asphalt blocks.

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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