The first bituminous mixtures produced in the United States were used for sidewalks, crosswalks, and even roads starting in the late 1860s.  In 1870, a Belgian chemist named Edmund J. DeSmedt laid the first true asphalt pavement in this country, a sand mix in front of the City Hall in Newark, New Jersey.  DeSmedt’s design was patterned after a natural asphalt pavement placed on a French highway in 1852.

DeSmedt went on to pave Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, a project that included 54,000 sq. yds. paved with sheet asphalt from Trinidad Lake Asphalt.  The durability of this pavement proved that the quality of the asphalt found in the Americas was as good as that imported from Europe.