Profile America: Roads Paved With Good Inventions

Monday, July 9th. The first concrete road in America was completed on this date 126 years ago in Bellefontaine, Ohio. The concrete road in 1892 followed by 22 years the country’s first asphalt road, laid down in July 1870 on Newark, New Jersey’s William Street.

Still, even by 1904, there were only 154,000 miles of paved roads in the entire country. Such surfacing didn’t reach a million miles until 1935.

Today, there are about 4.1 million miles of public roads nationwide. Over 2.75 million of those road miles are paved — maintained and extended by America’s 9,800 road and bridge construction firms.

You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email