roads of unusual material (brick, stone, even dirt) still in atlanta city limits

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by testa50

It would be an awesome project to figure out which streets have original pavement materials under the asphalt,...

It wouldn't surprise me if that is true of many of our older streets. Asphalt paving didn't really come into widespread use until the mid-teens. Even then it was decades before many roads were paved.

[WestsideATLCindy]

Here in Whittier Mill Village, the streets were dirt originally of course, but there is one street that never got paved and it is "topped" with gravel now but in many places where it has washed away you can see the old brick paver street surface below. Very charming, we love it! There are only 5 homes on it and they all seem to like it to be kept that way, and not be paved.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by arjay57

It wouldn't surprise me if that is true of many of our older streets. Asphalt paving didn't really come into widespread use until the mid-teens. Even then it was decades before many roads were paved.

Makes sense and probably would have been the cheaper option. It actually seems a lot of the old cobblestone and brickwork on streets were paved over as well. I makes you wonder what city planners were thinking or smoking back then?

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Makes sense and probably would have been the cheaper option. It actually seems a lot of the old cobblestone and brickwork on streets were paved over as well. I makes you wonder what city planners were thinking or smoking back then?

The coming of the automobile really changed it, I think. Driving a horse and buggy over a cobblestone street is no picnic but as cars came into mass production during the 1910-15 era there was enormous demand for paved streets.

[koko339]

Originally Posted by testa50

It would be an awesome project to figure out which streets have original pavement materials under the asphalt, and whether it would make sense to remove the top ~1" of asphalt and expose them (a project you could practically undertake with hand tools in some instances).

North Highland Avenue near North Avenue had the original brick peeking through fairly recently.

The Midtown Archive - Original Paving

[cqholt]

Anybody ever noticed all the granite curbs in Atlanta? Never seen that in any city before.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Anybody ever noticed all the granite curbs in Atlanta? Never seen that in any city before.

There are a lot of granite quarries around the metro, many of them hidden from view. I guess that happens when the city is built on a big granite dome.

That's also why well water is so uncommon in the metro. The water is waaaay down under the rock.

[kirkwoodhipster]

Maybe some of the BUCKHEAD people can help me out... but there is a street around W. Wesley in the Peachtree Battle area that was concrete, stone, brick as of 2005 or so. It was absolutely HORRIBLE to drive over. It was a cut-thru street... people would use it to avoid Habersham or Northside or one of those.

meh. sorry i was useless!

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Anybody ever noticed all the granite curbs in Atlanta? Never seen that in any city before.

When the area was very small and in the very early years of growth, one of the biggest earliest industries in the area were the granite and marble quarries themselves. It was an industry that actually predates the city of Atlanta itself.

There was a big demand for those materials up and down the eastern seaboard.

Given that they didn't have to be imported, shipped, and large scale extraction sites were built for export anyways it became a very cheap building material!

If you look at many homes built prior to WWII, especially older ones Granite stones where often used to create patios, retaining walls, steps, and landscaping stones as well.

It is kind of in my family's old culture too. Some of the things we would never ever get rid of are some mantle clocks my great grand father made with from white marble from the North Georgia mountains.

Pickens county had alot of well known marble varieties, part of which helped build many of the older government buildings in our nation's capitol.

In many ways... the rock quarry industry helped found Atlanta sooner, because it was -one of- the economic drivers to build the railroads further south. Moving the heavy stone is expensive with out it. It also helped pay for the expansion of rail in the state of Georgia being one of the larger clients of the earlier tracks.

Of course, the railroad would have eventually been built either way, it was just a predominant industry in the area at the time that would pay to help move material.