“Macadamizing” Decatur Roads to Atlanta
Decatur Metro | March 28, 2011A lot has been made of Decatur’s almost-mythical, one-time refusal to become the railroad hub of the South. As told by the Georgia Encyclopedia…
It is said that residents rejected a proposal by the Western and Atlantic Railroad to make Decatur a major stop on its new line because citizens did not want the noise, smoke, dirt, and confusion.
But few legends have ever been told about the city’s later plans to “macadamize” Ponce, College and Clairemont roads connecting to Druid Hills and Atlanta.
Why? I have no idea! But I found this great article from the April 24, 1911 edition of The Atlanta Georgian newspaper reporting on just that event! (Read it for yourself after the jump)
BTW: according to Merriam-Webster “macadamize” means :to construct or finish (a road) by compacting into a solid mass a layer of small broken stone on a convex well-drained roadbed and using a binder (as cement or asphalt) for the mass
Click the article to enlarge to a somewhat readable size.
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This is interesting and reminds me of a few weeks ago when I was driving down Fayetteville Road in Oakhurst. There was broken asphalt at the corner of Fayetteville and Underwood. I noticed some killer cobblestone under all the layers of ashphalt and concrete. Maybe I am romanticizing cobblestone a little, but I think Fayetteville Rd would be amazing as a cobble street! Or maybe some other street or streets in Oakhurst deserve a cobble makeover! I’ll try to get a pic if the pothole still exists.
Restored cobblestones definitely have their challenges but one thing they do better (and certainly more attractively) than just about anything else is traffic calming. Speeding on those streets can be painful. Literally.
Thanks. I read the article in the Georgia Encyclopedia and came across a famous Decaturite, “fugitive slave John Brown”. Does anyone know if John Brown lived in the city or the surrounding area? Besides his autobiography, is there any evidence he lived here?
If only we had a local history or social studies teacher who could get some of his students to do the research!!! (Wink)
Cobblestone streets would be H–L on bicycles, too. I’ve pedaled over them in Europe, and am sure they loosened some of my teeth.
yeah -cobbles do not work for bikes – at all!
wle
They also do not work with heels. Example, River Street in Savannah for prom.
In my part of the Yankee north, we call asphalt surfaces “macadam”. Nice to see it used in the South, even if it was 100 years ago.
Do you think macadam is etymologically related to tarmac? My guess is yes.
How do you pronounce “macadam”? Despite the fact that I have lived in most parts of the country, except the Midwest, I have never heard this word said out loud.
This thread reminds me of a favorite risque joke.
The technique is actually named after the guy that invented it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macadam