The author Gore Vidal peppered his historical fiction novel 1876 (a novel about how Republicans bulldozed the election and bought electoral votes after their candidate Governor Hayes lost the popular vote–sound vaguely familiar? Who says history doesn’t repeat itself?) with incidental information about the newest technologies of the day. Typewriters, telephones, and perpendicular railways (elevators) were all coming into their own. By 1876, railroads had started the trend of vegetables shipped North from Florida to be devoured out of season, a luxury we still enjoy to this day.
Based on my research, all of Vidal’s references were historically plausible. But then, I stumbled across a reference to asphalt pavement. Really? Asphalt? I had to look into that one, and, yet again, Vidal is correct — Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC was paved with asphalt in 1875. Of course it was. Why? Asphalt cement is defined in Wikipedia as: “the carefully refined residue from the distillation process of selected crude oils.” By the mid-1870s, we had struck oil big-time.
The Encyclopedia of Cleveland notes that by the 1880’s, the general consensus was that roads made of asphalt were ‘unendurable.’ Ha! No wonder we’re greeted by construction crews and orange cones on our highways every summer. Then again, at the time, asphalt was considered a better solution than “plank roads.” In the mid-nineteenth century, wood was so plentiful it was even used to build roads. Until it rotted and rutted, of course. Oops, never ones to think ahead, are we?