PROFILE AMERICA

July 9, 2008

First Concrete Road

The residents of Bellfontaine, Ohio, had a lot to talk about this week in 1891— an eight-foot wide section of Main Street, where horses were hitched, had just been paved with concrete by engineer George Bartholomew, who supplied his own materials.

This was the first use of concrete as a road surface in North America. This experimental section not only proved to be sturdy, it still exists.

When the road in Bellfontaine was paved, America moved by horse and buggy and just about every road in the nation was unpaved. Now, there are just over 4 million miles of roads crisscrossing the country, including nearly 47,000 miles of interstate highway.


You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.