asphalt was laid in London on Threadneedle Street in 1869, and in 1873 there were 60,802 square yards or 4.25 miles of this pavement, and 12,238 square yards of wood, in the city. This would indicate that wood, as first laid, was discontinued, and was not used again till laid in its improved form.

Concrete was first used in London as a base for pavements in 1872, and the custom was general in 1875.

In Liverpool granite blocks were first laid in 1871, and wood in 1873.

Tar and gravel joints for stone pavements were adopted in London in 1869, and in Liverpool in 1872, though they had previously been in use in Manchester.

Glasgow first used granite block and wood for pavements in 1841, and asphalt in 1873.

Recent excavations show that the streets of Pompeii were paved with lava from Vesuvius. The pavement must have been laid some time previous to its destruction, as the blocks in many places show an appreciable wear, although the traffic must have been very slight when compared with modern times.

Sienkiewicz in his historical novel "The Deluge" says that the capital of Lithuania was paved with stone in 1655, and adds that this was something extraordinary for that time.

A history of Spanish times in the West Indies, after describing a visit of the pirates to Porto Bello, Venzuela, in 1668, says: "Having stripped the unfortunate city of almost everything but its tiles and paving-stones, the sea-rovers departed."

Although Paris had some pavements before London, it was many years before its streets were in even a decent condition.

Martin Lister, writing of Paris in 1698, says: "The pavements of the streets are all of square stones of about eight or ten inches thick; that is, as deep in the ground as they are broad on top, the gutters shallow and laid round without edges, which makes the coaches glide easily over them." On another page he says the material was a very hard sandstone, and that all the streets and. avenues were paved.

Aaron Burr in 1811 thus describes their condition in a letter to a friend: "No sidewalks-the carts, cabriolets, and carriages of all sorts run up to the very houses. Most of the streets are paved as

COLLEGE OF CIVIL ENGINEERING. STATE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY. Lexington,

Albany and New York were before the Revolution, some arched in the middle, and a little gutter on each side very near the houses. It is fine sport for the cabriolets or hack-drivers to run a wheel in one of these gutters, always full of filth, and bespatter fifty pedestrians who are braced against the wall."

A sample of asphalt macadam was laid on the road between Bordeaux and Rouen in 1840. This was a mixture of asphalt rock and ordinary stone, and was probably the first bituminous roadway laid on a public highway, although about the same time asphaltic rock was used for sidewalks on some of the streets of Paris.

In 1837 a, Mr. Claridge obtained a patent for using Seyssel asphalt for paving purposes in the Département de l'Ain.

In 1854 the Rue Bergère was paved with compressed asphalt, followed by the Rue St. Honoré in 1858, from which time the success of asphalt pavements has been assured in Paris.

In the ruins of the ancient city of Palenque, Mexico, pavements of cut-stone blocks have been discovered which must have been laid at a very early period.

In the city of Mexico, from a very early date, cobblestones were used for pavements, and their use was continued till 1884, when a portion of the principal avenue of the city was paved with stone blocks. The stone being of a poor quality, the result was not satisfactory and the attempt was not repeated. Some five years later wooden blocks were tried, but the expansion was so great that the surface was deformed, and the experiment failed. Lumber being so expensive in Mexico, no further attempt was made with wood.

In 1889 some coal-tar pavement was laid, resulting in the usual failure, it being entirely torn up a year later and asphalt blocks substituted. Up to 1899 some 148,000 square yards of this material had been used upon a cobblestone and sand base with very satisfactory results. Practically all the pavement in the city except this is cobblestone.

In the United States pavements of cobblestone were laid in New York and Boston at about the same time.

Of the former city Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer in her popular novel "The Goode Vrowe of Manahatta" says that in the early days of New York the Dutch built several breweries on the

road lying between Broad and Whitehall streets, since called Brower Street. The good housewives, annoyed by the dust raised by the heavy brewery wagons, made frequent complaints to the city authorities, who finally paved the roadway with small round stones. This created the greatest interest, and many visitors came to see the "stone road," which finally came to be and is now known as Stone Street. This was about 1656.

In Mrs. Lamb's "History of New York" it is stated that De Hoogh Street, now Stone Street, was paved in 1656; that the second was Bridge Street, in 1658; and that in 1660 all the streets most used were paved with cobblestones, the gutter being in the centre of the street, but no attempt was made to lay sidewalks.

A Swedish traveller, writing of New York in 1751, says: "The streets do not run so straight as those of Philadelphia and have sometimes considerable bendings; however they are very spacious and well built, and most of them are paved except in high places, where it has been found useless."

66

In New York cobblestones were almost the only paving material until 1849, although some experimental wooden blocks were laid on lower Broadway as early as 1835. On this same street Russ blocks were laid up as far as Franklin Street in 1849. These blocks came from Staten Island and were from 2 to 3 feet square. In 1855 the blocks on the grades were grooved to give better foothold to the horses. This pavement was replaced by the so-called Guidet blocks in 1868 or 1869.

A detailed report of the Council of Hygiene and Public Health made January 1, 1865, says that practically all of the New York pavements of that date were cobblestone or Belgian block. There was some Russ and a small piece of cast-iron block on Cortlandt Street.

Belgian blocks were first laid on the Bowery in 1852, and came into very general use after 1859. They made the improved pavement of the times.

The present-shaped granite blocks were first used in 1876 or 1877, though the Guidet patent blocks had been used a few years previously. This latter had also been adopted to some extent in Brooklyn, but never came into very general use. Its principal

difference from the present pavement was in the size of the blocks, they being very large. Some of them measured on Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, in 1899 were 5 and 6 inches wide and 18 and 20 inches long.

The Dock Department used tar and gravel joints for a granite pavement on a sand foundation on Pier A, North River, in 1881, while the first concrete base for stone was regularly used in 1888 in the city streets. A small piece of asphalt was laid near the Battery in 1871.

A general scheme for the improvement of the pavements of New York was adopted in 1889. This was made possible by the legislation obtained the previous winter authorizing the issue of bonds for that work.

The first street paved in Boston was probably Washington Street, about 1650, the material being "pebbles." A portion of State Street was paved previous to 1684, and quite an amount of pavement was laid in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Many of the original paving petitions are now on file in the City Clerk's office, one bearing the date of 1714.

Drake's "History of Boston" says that on March 9, 1657, the General Court ordered "the paved lane by Mrs. Shrimpton's to be laid open and no more to be shut up." This is the year following the laying of the first pavement in New York, and would indicate that Boston began the work of paving as soon as, if not sooner than, New York.

Speaking of Boston in 1673: "Yet for several years after this there were no streets paved excepting a few sections of some of the principal ones, and those of a few rods in extent."

On April 19, 1704, £100 was voted for paving "such places of the streets as the selectmen should judge most needful, and therein. to have particular regard to the Highway near old Mrs. Stoddard's house."

On March 29, 1706, £100 was voted "for paving the Mayn street towards the Landing to the south end of the Town, and £50 for paving at the lower end of the Town house."

In 1719 the General Court authorized the town to raise $2100 by a lottery towards paving and repairing the Neck, and soon afterwards authorized another to raise funds for paving the highway

from Boston line to Meeting House Hill in Roxbury. Winter Street was paved about 1743.

Shutliff's "History of Boston says: "In the year 1758 the townspeople began to pave the streets leading to the Neck partly at the expense of the town and partly by private subscription."

Baltimore paved its first street in 1781, using the ever-present cobblestones, which in 1899 composed about 75 per cent of its entire pavement.

Philadelphia. In 1726 a Friend relates that he saw paved streets near the court-house and Market House Square. Second Street from High to Chestnut Street was the first one regularly paved. In 1719 a gentleman writing to his brother in England says: "As to bricks, we have been upon regulating our pavements of our streets, the footway with bricks and the cartway with stones, which has made our bricks dear."

About the same time the minutes of the City Council state that, as several inhabitants have paved the streets with pebbles, an ordinance is recommended restraining the weights of loaded carriages passing over them. In 1761-2 an act was passed "Regulating, pitching, paving and cleansing the highways, streets, lanes, and alleys &c within the settled parts of Philadelphia." Curbstones were first adopted in 1786.

Philadelphia claims to have had macadam, or broken stone, streets or roads two hundred years ago, and was probably the pioneer in this country in that respect. Several streets were paved with hemlock blocks in 1839 and 1840, but with little success.

In 1884 Philadelphia had 535 miles of pavements, of which 93 per cent was cobble, 63 per cent granite, and 23 per cent asphalt. The granite, however, was not the present-shaped blocks, but practically like Belgian.

In that year a special commission of experts was appointed to report on the best material for street pavements, and the era of improved streets in that city began with the adoption and carrying out of the commissioners' report.

Chicago. In Chicago all street improvements previous to 1844 consisted in keeping the earth roadways in as good a condition as possible. From 1844 to 1855 the roadways of the most important