Thomas Telford built more than 900 miles of roads in Scotland, perfecting the method of building roads with broken stones. Sir Walter Raleigh described a “plain” (or lake) of asphalt on the island of Trinidad, near Venezuela. The word asphalt comes from the Greek “asphaltos,” meaning “secure.” The Romans used it to seal their baths, reservoirs and aqueducts.Įuropeans exploring the New World discovered natural deposits of asphalt. The ancient Greeks were also familiar with asphalt. The first recorded use of asphalt as a road-building material in Babylon. In the days of the Pharaohs, Egyptians used the material as mortar for rocks laid along the banks of the Nile to prevent erosion, and the infant Moses’ basket was waterproofed with asphalt. The Phoenicians caulked the seams of their merchant ships with asphalt. The ancient Mesopotamians used it to waterproof temple baths and water tanks. Asphalt occurs naturally in both asphalt lakes and in rock asphalt (a mixture of sand, limestone and asphalt). The story of asphalt begins thousands of years before the founding of the United States.
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