Part One of a Special Three Part Series - - - Now Available Parts Two & Three - - - Why Our Streets Are Located Where They Are Why Did They Call It That?

From Cobblestone to Asphalt -- Hammond's First Paved Streets

As we are about to embark on yet another year of a seemingly endless summer of road construction, let us ask a few questions. Why are city streets paved? For all of the inconveniences we must endure, is this really necessary? To answer these questions let's take a short history lesson.

Modern road building designs and techniques date all the way back to the ancient Roman times. Roman empire city streets were normally paved with "basalt slabs". The elevated sidewalks that were generally built on both sides of the street often took up as much as half of the total street width and were paved with "peperino stone". Streets outside of the city proper were also paved as well, or at the very least had a gravel surface.

Credit for modern road construction goes to the Roman Army, their military road building techniques are the prototype for the roads of today. Roman city streets, with their curbstones and elevated sidewalks are the basis for the modern street designs that we see today.

Early roads in the United States were simply ruts carved into the ground by the many horses and wagons that traversed across this great land. Travel was brutal at best, add to that any inclement weather conditions and you get the picture. It has been estimated that some 27,000 tons of water fall annually on one mile of road.

The deplorable conditions of the nations roads became a great public concern in the late nineteenth century with the invention of the bicycle and later the motor car. In the early 1890's bicycle clubs in the United States pushed hard for road improvements. These efforts brought about the "National League for Good Roads" in 1892. Continued dissatisfaction with the conditions of the nations roads resulted in the creation of the "Office of Road Inquiry" by Congress in 1893.

During the first part of the 1900’s the Calumet Region had its own "Good Roads Committee". This group of civic mined leaders and individuals brought about vast improvements to local roads, not just in Hammond but throughout Lake County.

"Bad roads make for bad business". The livelihood of any city or town is its ability to transport and distribute its goods and services. In our capitalistic society the free flow of commerce means jobs. Delays in shipping could be prevented and the cost savings passed along to the consumer with an improved and well maintained road infrastructure.

Cities and towns with good roads reaped many benefits. Along with the increased property values for those who lived along paved streets and roads, municipalities were rewarded with the beautification also brought about by clean and smooth roadways. Good roads just made good sense.

The first "permanent" or "hard" surface streets were made of crushed stones or rock. This method of construction was fine for many rural or less populated areas. In the more densely populated urban areas this just wasn't the solution. Enter the brick paved or "cobblestone" street surface. The bricks, once set into place required very little if any maintenance.

As the cities and nations continued to grow and expand, a more cost effective way of building streets was needed. In 1816 John Loudon McAdam, the general surveyor for the city of Bristol, England, developed a new system of road construction, borrowed from the Romans that bears his name "macadam".

The macadam method of road building uses a layer of well drained and compacted subsoil to support the load weight of the roadway, while the top layer acts as a wearing surface built only to shed water. Modern day macadam road construction is based on this practice and is used worldwide.

The top layer of a macadam road is mostly made of asphalt and rocks, now some builders use other ingredients to help deter road wear and add traction to the surface. Nowadays asphalt is made synthetically, but true asphalt in its natural state was found in only one place in the world, in a pitch lake on Trinidad Island. "Trinidad Asphalt" as it was known, was much prefered over the manmade variety, because it had a good record for standing up to time and the elements.

Hammond once had dozens of miles of cobblestone streets, few remain today. Most were "modernized" by simply being black topped over. During the past few years many of the older streets in the original town of Hammond were rebuilt from scratch. This process meant the complete removal of the cobblestone street underneath the many layers of asphalt which covered it.

Another type of street surface is poured concrete. This style of road construction is usually used in areas of high traffic volume or where a solid and stable roadbed can't be found. A concrete road surface is extremely durable and when reinforced with steel bars it can withstand the weight of large heavy vehicles over its lifetime. It's considerably higher building costs are offset by its long life span.

- - - 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 North America — Pennsylvania Avenue - Washington, DC
1893 — First rural brick road — Ohio
1906 — First Bituminous macadam road constructed — Rhode Island

Read the remaining segments of this three part series - Hammond Surface Streets
Part two of our Special Series Placements & Patterns — Why Our Streets Are Located Where They Are
Part three of our Special Series The Name Game — Why Did They Call It That?

Photos courtesy of The Calumet Room of the Hammond Historical Society.
Source information from "Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities" by Michael Southworth & Eran Ben-Joseph.
Hammond Surface Streets © 2000 HammondIndiana.com all rights reserved.

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