Peacock Road
Canon PowerShot S95
2011
This is a nearly forgotten old alignment of the National Road in Ohio, still open to traffic. But as you can see, it gets very little of that. These bricks were laid in the 1910s or 1920s.
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I don’t think I’ve seen a brick road before. It looks like a wonderful place for bike riding or walking!
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Brick roads were a thing in the US in the 1910s and 1920s. We were in a period of experimentation as we figured out how to hard-surface roads for the automobiles that wanted to go places without getting stuck in the mud!
Just today on Facebook, in a group of historic photos of my hometown, I saw a photo from about 1958 of the main road through town all paved in brick. Sometime in the 1960s they paved a layer of asphalt over the bricks and such it has been ever since. Here’s a link to it I’m not sure will work:
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Thanks for all the info, Jim. Link isn’t working but I will have a google and see what I come up with.
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I hadn’t ever connected paved or bitumen roads evolving due to the advent of the motorcar. I guess I just imagined that the roads that existed prior to that time, were more or less the same as after. The images of brick roads in google are lovely!
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If you go up to the top of my blog and click the magnifying glass and type in brick roads, you’ll find a whole bunch of posts where I’ve been out on those brick road around the Midwestern United States. One of my favorite things is to come upon an old brick road!
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Oh, and: most roads were made of dirt, or perhaps covered in gravel, until the automobile came along. Any time it rained, those old roads would become mud bogs. And so hard-surfaced roads were developed so that cars could go anywhere in any weather!
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That is going to take some exploring! You love your brick roads. Margaret is a real trooper to do cars on a Saturday and brick roads on a Sunday! Your blog theme looks great. The trouble with the reader is not being able to see what the blog actually looks like or be able to search the site. I know (now) how to get to the actual site, but it always wants me to sign in again if I want to like something when in that ‘mode’. Any rate, I will take another look at those posts another day. Oh, and the link to that colour slide is now working. I love the tones in the photo. I wonder if it a Kodak Ektachrome slide?
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I think the fellow who is posting those slides said what film they were on at some point but I can’t remember now! His father shot all of them. They’ve been a remarkable in-color look at my hometown from 10+ years before I was born. That brick-street photo I linked you to is from about a mile from my childhood home!
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I’m losing track a bit, so forgive me if you have already said, but is it still there under the modern surface?
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I don’t know for sure but I would be surprised if it isn’t.
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Must agree with Photobooth Journal. Have not seen anything like that around here. However, there just may be somewhere. Lot’s a History here around my area.
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I’ll bet you drive on roads that have brick pavement under the asphalt, and don’t even know it!
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You are right, Jim.
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I am aware of quite a few current or former brick streets in towns, but don’t think I’ve seen any this rural.
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It’s pretty rare to find something like this in the country. Most brick highways have been paved over. It’s just that this little segment was bypassed rather than paved over, leaving it behind.
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FYI: East Michigan Street in Indianapolis east of Ritter was brick as late as the mid 1950s, when a layer of asphalt was added.
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I’m sure quite a number of Indy streets were brick into the middle of the last century! My hometown of South Bend still has some brick side streets. Here’s one:
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