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BRIDGE STREET, NEWLY PAVED, 1908. The interesting photograph above was taken from the Antrim Street intersection. The automobile was still a rarity. Horses were everywhere, and parking on either side of the street was permissible. There were no traffic rules at that time. No snow was removed from the streets until much later. The big removal problem then, in summer, was due to the horse.
CONCERNING THE PAVING ... in 1908 Bridge Street was paved from the river to the foot of South Hill with BITHULITHIC. Cement was just beginning to be in use as a paving material, and as the Council had in mind the use of cement for the paving of Dixon Avenue to the depot a group of aldermen and myself (Mayor) visited Ann Arbor, which at the time was the only city that had any considerable experience using the concrete for street. The Ann Arbor officials were enthusiastic, but there was a lot of local opposition to concrete. A local contractor experienced in cement work agreed to put down a sample strip of concrete up the South Hill from the end of the bithulithic, and this, with a block design in which half inch deep crevices were stamped, was soon done. (The people who were fearful that it would prove to be slippery for horses were placated to some extent by the block design in the concrete.) The crevices would give the horses, as on brick paving, some footing. Dixon Avenue was paved, and it is presumably the only piece of concrete paving ever laid with that kind of Decorations.
MANISTIQUE CAR FERRY The Manistique Car Ferry, the largest ship to negotiate the lower channel up to that time, about to dock at the foot of Mason Street, July 26, 1908.
MANISTIQUE CAR FERRY The Manistique Car Ferry anchored in Round Lake, August 2, 1908. The point of origin of these excursions is not known.
THE GHOSTLY BARK MOVES SWIFTLY, DOWN THE SUNSET PATH IT MOVES, - Barnacle Ballads - |
