The road to perfecting asphalt has been a long and winding one. With perhaps some speedbumps along the way.
An informative article from the National Asphalt Paving Association describes the history of a product that we take for granted in today’s world. Indeed, we walk and ride on paved asphalt every day, and yet most of us probably never even think about how asphalt is made, where it came from, or why it’s the best option for road surfaces. Well, correction, we here at APCON think about it!
In this article, many historical facts are brought to the surface, including:
- “The first recorded use of asphalt as a road building material was in Babylon around 625 B.C.”
- “Today (asphalt) covers more than 94 percent of the paved roads in the United States.”
- In 1595, Sir Walter Raleigh discovered a “lake of asphalt on the Island of Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela. He used this asphalt for re-caulking his ships.”
- “In 1870, a Belgium chemist named Edmund J. DeSmedt laid the first true asphalt pavement in (the U.S.), a sand mix in front of the City Hall in Newark, New Jersey”
Check out the article to learn more… and be sure to thank your asphalt for the great job it does day in and day out!