But stone pavement when most carefully laid and maintained is noisy and unpleasant to ride over, and in these days we can never reconcile such a pavement with a handsome residence street. The writer experienced a distinct shock when on riding over Euclid Avenue, in Cleveland, last year, he found it still paved with Medina sandstone blocks, and it seemed that this famous street was still living on the reputation which Bayard Taylor gave it years ago as the handsomest street in the world.
In looking about for something more quiet and smooth than stone, the first material tried was wood. In London the first wood pavement was laid in the Old Bailey in 1839, and was soon followed by many others. None of these pavements lasted more than seven years, and, as they cost more than granite and were so short-lived, a prejudice arose against them, and as they wore out they were mostly replaced with granite. Since that time wood pavement has become popular again, and a large area is now covered with it. The material most generally in use is Baltic fir, though there is quite a large amount of Australian hard wood which is more durable. The people of London seem willing to bear the greater expense and submit to the annoyance of more frequent renewals for the sake of the quiet, and wood is certainly the least noisy of all known pavements.
Paris had at the close of 1893 more wood than asphalt, the areas of pavements of different kinds being as follows:
| Stone | 7,541,258 | sq. yds., | 71.5 | per cent. |
| Wood | 886,236 | " | 8.4 | " |
| Asphalt | 402,394 | " | 3.8 | " |
| Gravel or macadam | 1,724,632 | " | 16.3 | " |
Berlin also has some wood pavements, but asphalt seems more popular, though by far the greatest area is still of stone pavements.
Granite Pavement on Roadway of Brooklyn Bridge after Constant Use with Very Heavy Traffic for Sixteen Years.
The most durable wood pavements are those made of the hard woods of Australia, which are especially adapted to this purpose. They are mostly of the eucalyptus family, the red gum, blue gum, black butt, tallow-wood, and mahogany. Mr. George W. Bell, in a pamphlet published in 1895, gives some remarkable statistics as to the durability of these pavements. He cites the case of George Street, in Sydney, which sustains a very heavy traffic, and on which a wooden-block pavement had been in constant use for over ten years, without repair of any kind. The only piece of wood pavement of this class which has been laid in this country, to the writer's knowledge, is on Twentieth Street, between Broadway and Fifth Avenue, in the Borough of Manhattan, where, in 1896, the Australian "kari" wood was laid. The work was done with the greatest care, and the resulting pavement has proved quite satisfactory. When Fifth Avenue was lately repaved the use of this material was considered, but, on account of the popular prejudice against all wood pavements and the delay which would be involved in obtaining the blocks, the idea was abandoned.
Looking North from Beverly Road and East Fifteenth Street, Brooklyn, in March, 1899.