Historic Hood River
Lump of?
Notes
No, it’s not a lump of coal from Morganne’s stocking. Today’s Morganne’s (Tuesday) post is a recently accessioned chunk of “Warrenite,” the paving material of choice for the Columbia River Highway.
When the construction of the highway began in 1913, paved roads were a rarity, and it was not at all obvious what material could provide a cost effective but long-lived hard surface. The engineers settled on “Warrenite,” a patented bituminous mixture which proved to be good choice. During the restoration of the historic road original Warrenite in good shape is often uncovered. It is preserved when possible, but this sample needed to be removed as part of project constructing a new tunnel at Mitchell Point. As part of the accession process into our collection this lump posed for Morganne’s camera.
You can learn everything you could possibly want to know Warrenite’s position in the history of pavement at this site.
Tags: Columbia River Highway, construction, Mitchell Point, Mitchell Point Tunnel, Morganne's Mondays, Warrenite
L. E.
I was just reading about macadam, an early type of road surface used to help with water run off and increased traffic.
Macadam Road (Avenue) was built in Portland in 1863, using the tar and gravel mixture. Scottish engineer, John Macadam called it Tarmac.
Arlen L sheldrake
A classic example of saving what most folk would consider to be a throw-way…..was this an ODOT save?
Pat A
In the eye of the beholder.
I collected a sample east of Celilo last spring, my wife was puzzled.