Court Avenue, Straße in Ohio, Vereinigte Staaten
Court Avenue is a residential street in Bellefontaine, Ohio, recognized as the first in the United States to be entirely paved with concrete. The road sits near the corner of South Main Street and looks like a short, ordinary city block with a smooth concrete surface.
In 1891, inventor George Bartholomew laid a short concrete test section on Main Street to prove the material could hold up under traffic. The town of Bellefontaine then used that experience to build Court Avenue in 1893 as the country's first full concrete street.
The street looks like any other residential road, but the concrete surface underfoot is the same material laid more than 130 years ago. Locals and visitors walk along it today, stopping at the historical markers that tell the story of how this ordinary block changed road building across the country.
The street is easy to find near the corner of East Court Avenue and South Main Street, where a historical marker explains the paving story. Walking is the best way to see it, and the area is compact enough to explore on foot in a short time.
The concrete used to pave the street came from local marl material extracted at a quarry run by the Buckeye Cement Company, about 8 miles (13 km) away. Relying on nearby resources helped make the project affordable and showed that local materials could support a national first.
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