Editing Bitumen (section)

=== United States ===
The first use of bitumen in the New World was by aboriginal peoples. On the west coast, as early as the 13th century, the [[Tongva people|Tongva]], [[Luiseño people|Luiseño]] and [[Chumash people|Chumash]] peoples collected the naturally occurring bitumen that seeped to the surface above underlying petroleum deposits. All three groups used the substance as an adhesive. It is found on many different artifacts of tools and ceremonial items. For example, it was used on [[rattle (percussion instrument)|rattle]]s to adhere gourds or turtle shells to rattle handles. It was also used in decorations. Small round shell beads were often set in asphaltum to provide decorations. It was used as a sealant on baskets to make them watertight for carrying water, possibly poisoning those who drank the water.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Stockton|first1=Nick|title=Plastic Water Bottles Might Have Poisoned Ancient Californians|url=https://www.wired.com/story/plastic-water-bottles-might-have-poisoned-ancient-californians/|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|date=23 June 2017}}</ref> Asphalt was used also to seal the planks on ocean-going canoes.

Asphalt was first used to pave streets in the 1870s. At first naturally occurring "bituminous rock" was used, such as at Ritchie Mines in Macfarlan in [[Ritchie County, West Virginia]] from 1852 to 1873. In 1876, asphalt-based paving was used to pave Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, in time for the celebration of the national centennial.<ref>{{cite book|first=Dan|last=McNichol|year=2005|title=Paving the Way: Asphalt in America|publisher=National Asphalt Pavement Association|location=Lanham, MD|url=http://store.hotmix.org/index.php?productID=144|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060829062836/http://store.hotmix.org/index.php?productID=144|archive-date=29 August 2006|isbn=978-0-914313-04-5}}</ref>

In the horse-drawn era, US streets were mostly unpaved and covered with dirt or gravel. Especially where mud or trenching often made streets difficult to pass, pavements were sometimes made of diverse materials including wooden planks, cobble stones or other stone blocks, or bricks. Unpaved roads produced uneven wear and hazards for pedestrians. In the late 19th century with the rise of the popular [[bicycle]], bicycle clubs were important in pushing for more general pavement of streets.<ref>{{cite web|last=Pintak |first=Lawrence |url=https://www.vox.com/2015/3/19/8253035/roads-cyclists-cars-history |title="Roads were not built for cars": how cyclists, not drivers, first fought to pave US roads |publisher=Vox |date=19 March 2015 }}</ref> Advocacy for pavement increased in the early 20th century with the rise of the [[automobile]]. Asphalt gradually became an ever more common method of paving. [[St. Charles Avenue]] in [[New Orleans]] was paved its whole length with asphalt by 1889.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://catharinecole.startlogic.com/catharinecole/page3.html |title=title |publisher=Catharinecole.startlogic.com |date=1 January 1970 |access-date=27 March 2019 |archive-date=2 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191102201150/http://catharinecole.startlogic.com/catharinecole/page3.html }}</ref>

In 1900, Manhattan alone had 130,000 horses, pulling streetcars, wagons, and carriages, and leaving their waste behind. They were not fast, and pedestrians could dodge and scramble their way across the crowded streets. Small towns continued to rely on dirt and gravel, but larger cities wanted much better streets. They looked to wood or granite blocks by the 1850s.<ref>David O. Whitten, "A Century of Parquet Pavements: Wood as a Paving Material in the United States And Abroad, 1840–1940." ''Essays in Economic and Business History'' 15 (1997): 209–26.</ref> In 1890, a third of Chicago's 2000 miles of streets were paved, chiefly with wooden blocks, which gave better traction than mud. Brick surfacing was a good compromise, but even better was asphalt paving, which was easy to install and to cut through to get at sewers. With London and Paris serving as models, Washington laid 400,000 square yards of asphalt paving by 1882; it became the model for Buffalo, Philadelphia and elsewhere. By the end of the century, American cities boasted 30 million square yards of asphalt paving, well ahead of brick.<ref>Arthur Maier Schlesinger, ''The Rise of the City: 1878–1898'' (1933), pp. 88–93.</ref> The streets became faster and more dangerous so electric traffic lights were installed. Electric trolleys (at 12 miles per hour) became the main transportation service for middle class shoppers and office workers until they bought automobiles after 1945 and commuted from more distant suburbs in privacy and comfort on asphalt highways.<ref>John D. Fairfield, "Rapid Transit: Automobility and Settlement in Urban America" ''Reviews in American History'' 23#1 (1995), pp. 80–85 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2703240 online].</ref>