The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsBrick roads. What is the history and areas they are found.
Here at least- in Western PA you come across a road that is made of bricks or had been brick at one time and they paved over them. My questions:
Did bricks roads exsist where you live?
Anyone know why Brick was used?
Does anyone know if a brick road is still maintained?
Prisoner_Number_Six
(15,676 posts)possibly as far back as pre-WWII. The town's local Historical Society should have all the details.
diabeticman
(3,121 posts)csziggy
(34,139 posts)In the 70s and 80s they paved the most of them - but they pulled up the bricks and sold them. My husband bought one of them and it's around here somewhere. Adams Street just north of the state capitol building is still brick and there may be some other streets that have some brick left.
Thomasville Georgia just north of Tallahassee still has a lot of brick streets since their downtown residential areas remain undisturbed. If you want to see what their brick streets look like, go to 150 Broad Street, Thomasville, Georgia on Google Maps and take a look with street view.
I suspect they used brick around here since the area is known as the Red Hills for the red clay everywhere. So brick was a local product and easier to get than asphalt or cement which had to be brought in. The local brick plant that was in sight of Florida State University didn't close until the 1990s and bricks are still made within 100 miles of here from local clay.
diabeticman
(3,121 posts)frogmarch
(12,160 posts)The main street, Box Butte Ave., was and still is paved with bricks. When I was a teenager, my friends and I drove up and down Box Butte to meet other friends, usually to go drink beer together somewhere. We called driving up and down Box Butte cruising the Butte or breezing the bricks. All I know about the history of Box Butte Ave. is that the bricks were laid in the 1920s.
diabeticman
(3,121 posts)Response to frogmarch (Reply #4)
frogmarch This message was self-deleted by its author.
ballardgirl
(145 posts)has a red brick road. Here's a link to the history and pictures: http://ofparamount.blogspot.com/2011/04/shorelines-town-center-and-red-brick.html
diabeticman
(3,121 posts)Kaleva
(36,372 posts)Kaleva
(36,372 posts)Houghton Michigan
Archae
(46,363 posts)12th street between Superior and Huron, is the only one I can think of.
raccoon
(31,130 posts)Red brick roads. Here and there, very small, low-traffic areas. Think it
was in Dodge City and/or Garden City.
LeftInTX
(25,678 posts)I assumed it was the work of the founding father's and didn't give it a second thought - LOL
(None that I know where I am now)
cyberswede
(26,117 posts)They repair and restore the brick, when needed.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)I follow it from time to time.
Brother Buzz
(36,486 posts)They were just a marginal improvement over gravel until asphalt, the final fix, was laid over the rough stones. We see them occasionally when roadwork is done in the 'older' parts of town, and to my delight, the workers toss them aside rather then reset them. I have a pile of them in my backyard and one face still has asphalt residue glued to it.
olddots
(10,237 posts)In L.A. the streets are paved with broken dreams. ( there is a song here )
hunter
(38,339 posts)...with concrete faux-brick streets.
Installed by hand over crushed stone, the old fashioned way.
We lived for a time in Urbana-Champaign Illinois on a brick street.
yellowdogintexas
(22,282 posts)It is the oldest part of Camp Bowie, and this section is just called "The Bricks" Here is a little info about the brick section from a historical writeup. I looked for a good photo but had no luck at all.
Though the street was very busy, throughout the early 1920s it remained unpaved. That changed in the late 20s and early 30s, when many thousands of red bricks were laid to provide a more durable driving surface. These high-quality bricks were manufactured 70 miles west of Fort Worth in Thurber, Texas. Bricks from these same kilns also came to grace other splendid Texas streets, including Congress Avenue in Austin, Seawall Boulevard in Galveston and Exchange Avenue in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
orleans
(34,088 posts)they fix them up every now and then
i hate driving on them