Since the 1950’s, The L. Suzio York Hill Companies have been South Central Connecticut’s premier asphalt supply company for construction sites and contractors. To help you understand their product better, The L. Suzio York Hill Companies have provided a brief history on the creation and various uses of asphalt throughout the ages.

Though the asphalt we use on roads today is a man-made mixture with petroleum added in, natural asphalt can actually be found in asphalt lakes and in a blend with sand and limestone, which is called rock asphalt. The first use of asphalt, also called bituminous concrete, was recorded in 625 B.C.E. as a road building material in Babylon, but the Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, and Mesopotamians also used asphalt as a sealant for baths, reservoirs, and ships, while the Egyptians used it as a motor to prevent erosion on the banks of the Nile.

Although Mediterranean civilizations had been using asphalt for thousands of years, the Europeans didn’t know about it until 1595 when explorer Sir Walter Raleigh found an asphalt lake on Trinidad and used the material to re-caulk his ships. Once Europe figured out how to utilize asphalt properly for roads, a British man named Thomas Telford built more than 900 miles of asphalt and crushed stone travel ways throughout Scotland from 1803-1821. Belgian chemist Edmund J. DeSmedt traveled to America not only to lay the first asphalt pavement in the country in front of city hall in Newark, NJ, but also to lay the famous Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. in 1870.

Once asphalt hit the U.S., patents for various mixtures spread like wildfire, and eventually the modern blend of asphalt and petroleum was created in 1907 so car roads could be smoother and much easier to drive on. Production increased even more during World War II thanks to military research, and in 1955 the National Bituminous Concrete Association was founded, eventually becoming the National Asphalt Pavement Association in 1986. Since then, asphalt supply continues to be a lucrative and much-needed market throughout this country as well as the entire world.

For more information on their asphalt and bituminous concrete delivery, call The L. Suzio York Hill Companies at (203) 237-8421 or go online to their website.