Today, the workers are putting down the new surface on the church parking lot, as you can see in these several photos.
Here in Central Florida, it is a gorgeous day. One that would normally casue us to want to stop and breathe in the spring air. Nope. Not today! Not with the noxious fumes of tar or whatever the black, smelly substance is that goes down as the new layer on the parking lot.
Pardon me, but does anyone have an aroma therapy candle I can light?
Once again, we who are holding down the fort at the church office while the teachers, families and administrators of our nursery school are off enjoying Spring Break, are sure as sure can be that the staff of the Christian Child Center must be exceeding glad that they are not there to smell what's in the air!
Asphalt, also known as bitumen, is the sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits; it is a substance classed as a pitch. Until the 20th century, the term "asphaltum" was also used. I could make a terrible pun about that but see what restraint I am using...
Did you know that the primary use of asphalt is not as an air freshener, but rather in road construction? Yes indeed! It is used as the glue or binder mixed with aggregate particles to create asphalt concrete. Its other main uses are for bituminous waterproofing products, including production of roofing felt and for sealing flat roofs.
It is a little known fact that the use of asphalt or bitumen for waterproofing and as an adhesive dates at least to the third millennium B.C. In fact, what we are doing today in the parking lot is quite Biblical and harkens all the way back to Genesis 6:13-15, where God said to Noah:
“I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high."
If the flood waters didn't finish off the others, the smell of the pitch probably did! I wonder how long Noah let the pitch dry before he took the animals and his family on board the Ark? I hope he waited long enough for the odor to dissipate. Then again, there were all those animals on board. Double hoo-wee!
All things considered, what's a little asphalt, among friends?
In keeping with the fact that we are resurfacing a Presbyterian parking lot, I suppose that we should offer a shout-out to two Scots Presbyterians who made our modern asphalt surfaces what they are, Thomas Telford and John Loudon McAdam, the second of whom, of course, has lent his name to the other word we often use for a "blacktop" road: Macadam. (What, you thought I was going to say "Loudon"?)
The first macadam road built in the United States was constructed between Hagerstown and Boonsboro, Maryland and was named Boonsboro Turnpike Road. The Boonsboro Turnpike began in 1822 and established a link between Boonsboro, Funkstown and Hagerstown. It is now US Alternate Route 40. This road was built using McAdam's road techniques, except that the finished road was compacted with a cast-iron roller instead of relying on road traffic for compaction. If you look at it on a map you will see that it is nearly a straight line. Click here for the MAP.
The second American road built using McAdam principles was a portion of the Cumberland Road (or National Road). The macadam section was 73 miles long and required five years of work. It was the first improved road in the U.S.A. to be funded by the Federal Government, authorized on March 29, 1806, by President Thomas Jefferson. Today much of the road is US 40 or Alternate US 40, and it would make a very pleasant motoring experience for those who enjoy a good drive, that is, unless they are putting down a new macadam surface!
Key Dates of Interest in United States Road Building:
1625 - Earliest Known Paved American Road - Colonial city street - Pemaquid, Maine
1795 - First Engineered American Road - Philadelphia to Lancaster toll turnpike
1823 - First Macadam Road Constructed in America - State of Maryland
1877 - First Asphalt Paving in N. America - Pennsylvania Avenue - Washington, DC
1893 - First Rural Brick Road - The Wooster Pike, Cleveland to Wooster, Ohio
1906 - First Bituminous Macadam Road Constructed - Rhode Island
2012 - (March) Resurfacing of Wekiva Presbyterian Church lot - Longwood, Florida
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