The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-06-11
WOOD BLOCK IN
PHILADELPHIA
North American Urges Its
Use on Greatest Street
in Quaker City.

Now that Pensacola has selected
cNeosOted wood block for a portion of
her street paving, the following edi
tOTial from the Philadelphia North
American in which the paving for the
principal street of that city is dis
cussed, will be read with interest:
Philadeiphia's Greatest Street.
The question of whether Market
street should be paved with wood, as
phaIt. granite, brick, cobbIestones, or
left & quagmire, with timbers thrown
III mere and there, to maintain it as a
sort OF corduroy road, as it has been
ever since the subway construction
began, is, Of course, a concern of the
large property owners and taxpayers
who suffer by every days pTolOngatiou
OF the long-existing conditions.
As substantial citizens, whose direct
interest in the matter has caused
them to acQuaint themselves with the
experience of other cities, their opin-
ions unquestionably deserve consider
atom.
The question of whether modern,
durable, economical, noiseless, odor-
less, cool wood pavement, properly
laid and properly maintained, tried
and approved in every other metFop-
oils, shall be chosen for the great
central mercantile thoroughfare OF
Philadelphia means more than the
profit of a the, pleasure OF
any %s s!iqq 3 3 s9a tAis-t. pn,,,a.,
ph Mh 1o S5s1 ana p petla %5f
tWgnt 5e h ~pFeeregssp 5oe Th htrg
are hopeful Signs of the lifting of the
curse from this community which for
generations, left the people content 20
contrast their increase and advance
only cy the gauge Of how far they had
gone ahead of their fathers.
They have been content to be just
little fatter eocoons than those that
went before. And In pbacid blindness,
they have ignored the fight in
strength and beauty OF the cities that
long since forsook the chrysalis stage
of existence.
The Best Pavement.
The question of the paving Of Mar.
ket street is simply the question
whether Philadelphia is to catch and
keep the pace in the race o. the
worlds great cities, or IS still to con-
Time to be the Iaggard.
There Is not man among US who
would venture to dispute the asSer-
ton that Market street should have
that paving which is the best, regard
less of the initial cost.
That being conceded, we say, with
cut RESERVATION, mat Ule opinion II
every disiRtereSted observer of pave
nIents, expert or casual student, rs
that modern wood paving is the one
right method of construction for tle
boulevards and chief channels of traf-
fic in all the great cities of the world.
Wood paving, very naturally. Is not
a pleasing suggestion to those who
are un6cquainted with what has hap
Ipened since thirty or forty years ago.
Nearly every American city tried tae
old Nicholson pavement. And every
one that tried it was heartily glad to
be rid of it.
1t was made of blocks eight inches
long, sawed from live trees from six
to :pn inches in diameter, set ends
up in mud and the spaces filed
with sand and gravel. Of course,
such pavement decayed rapidly and
produced sickness. 1t was no more
like the modern wood pavement than
the streets Of seventeenth century
Paris, that were also the sewers, are
like the bcUIevaris Of today.
The pavement needed for the great
heart of Philadelphia's traffic is that
clean, smooth, silent, durable material
that has proved its merits in the
FriPdrichstrasse, of Berlin, in the Rue
de RivoIi and the Avenue de FOpera,
of Paris, in Regent and Oxford and
King William streets, in London, in
the most heavily tTaversed thorough
fares of New York, Chicago, San