Italian cobblestone-covered street in Isola Bella

Cobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. In Geology, rock is a naturally occurring aggregate of Minerals and/or Mineraloids The Earth's outer solid layer the ‘ Lithosphere In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. A street is a Public thoroughfare in the built environment It is a Public parcel of land adjoining Buildings in an urban context "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size. "Cobble", which appeared in the 15th century, simply added the diminutive suffix "le" to "cob", and meant a small stone rounded by the flow of water, essentially a large pebble. It was these smooth "cobbles", gathered from stream beds, that paved the first "cobblestone" streets. They are typically either set in sand or similar material, or are bound together with mortar. Mortar is a workable paste formed by mixture of Cement, Water and fine aggregate Masonry to bind construction blocks together and fill the gaps between Paving with cobblestones allows a road to be heavily used all year long. It prevents the buildup of ruts often found in dirt roads. Dirt road is a common term for Unpaved roads made from the native material of the land surface through which they pass known to highway engineers as Subgrade It has the additional beneficial advantage of not getting muddy in wet weather or dusty in dry weather. A disadvantage is that when compared with modern surfaces, cobble­stone paving is quite loud with carriage wheels, horse hooves and modern automobiles. A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people usually horse-drawn A wheel is a circular device that is capable of rotating on its axis facilitating movement or transportation whilst supporting a load ( Mass) or performing labour in machines The horse ( Equus caballus) is a hoofed ( Ungulate) Mammal, one of eight living species of the family Equidae. HoofRearHoovesjpg|thumb|200px|right|Rear hooves of a horse]] A hoof is the tip of a Toe of an Ungulate Mammal, strengthened by a thick horny ( In England for example, it was the custom to strew the cobbles outside the house of a sick or dying person with straw, so as to dampen the sound. Cobbled streets are highlights in several cycling competitions such as the final Champs-Élysées stage of the Tour de France and the Paris-Roubaix road race as they are technically more challenging to ride on than asphalt. The Tour de France has finished on the Champs-Élysées every year since 1975 History See also:CategoryTour de France by year The dominant sports newspaper in France Paris-Roubaix is a single-day professional bicycle road race held in northern France starting in Compiègne and finishing in Roubaix, near the

Cobblestones set in sand have the environmental advantage of being permeable paving, and of flexing (rather than cracking) with movements in the ground. Permeable paving, is different than pervious paving or porous pavement, by virtue of the fact that rainwater passes around the paver as opposed to passing through

Cobblestones were largely replaced by quarried granite setts in the nineteenth century. Cobblestone is often wrongly used to describe such treatment. Setts were relatively even roughly rectangular stones that were laid in regular patterns. They gave a smoother ride for carts than cobbles, although in heavily used sections in yards and the like, it was usual to replace the setts by parallel granite slabs set at the standard axle length apart.

Cobblestoned and setted streets gradually gave way to macadam roads, and later to tarmac, and finally to asphalt at the beginning of the 20th century. Macadam is a type of Road construction pioneered by the Scotsman John Loudon McAdam in around 1820 Tarmac (short for tarmacadam, a Portmanteau for Tar -penetration Macadam) is a type of highway surface, pioneered by John Asphalt ( is a sticky black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude Petroleums and in some natural deposits sometimes termed asphaltum However, cobble­stones are often retained in historic areas, even for streets with vehicular traffic. Many older villages and cities in Europe still are paved with cobble­stones. In recent decades cobblestones have become a popular material for paving newly pedestrianised streets in Europe. A pedestrian is a person travelling on foot whether Walking or Running. In this case the noisy nature of the surface is an advantage, as pedestrians can hear approaching vehicles.

In older U. S. cities such as Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York City , San Francisco , Baltimore and Philadelphia many of the older streets are paved in cobblestones, however, many streets have been paved over with asphalt, which cracks and erodes away from heavy traffic, thus revealing the original stone pavement. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. The City of New York The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə Also, utilities, such as ConEdison often dig up a street and don't bother replacing the stones. Consolidated Edison Inc is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States with approximately $13 billion in annual revenues and $30 billion in assets Residents of New York City suburbs have been known to steal the stones off from streets and parks for use in their gardens and driveways. In Chicago, the cobblestones are often exposed during street or sewer repair on major arterial streets, along with old street car rails (all of which still lie under the street surface in many parts of the city), having simply been paved over.

In some places such as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, as late as the 1990s some busy intersections still showed cobblestones through worn down sections of pavement. Saskatoon is a city located in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River, with a Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The cities of Buenos Aires, Argentina and Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, richly influenced by many European architectural features, are well known for their many cobblestone streets, still operational and in good condition. Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is geographically located on the southern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. See also San Juan Puerto Rico Old San Juan (Spanish Viejo San Juan is the oldest settlement within the territory of the United Puerto Rico (ˌpwertoˈriko officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ("Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico" {{lang-en|"Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"}} They are still maintained and repaired the old fashion way, by placing and arranging granite stones by hand.

Note that Cobble is a generic geology term for any stone having dimensions between 64–256 mm (2. Geology (from Greek γη gê, "earth" and λόγος Logos, "speech" lit 5–10 inch). Cobbles are also known as "causeys" or "setts" in the Scots language. Scots ( The Scots leid) refers to Anglic varieties derived from early northern Middle English spoken in parts of Scotland and Northern

A stone-covered street

Cobblestone architecture

In the Finger Lakes Region of New York State, the retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age left numerous small, rounded cobblestones available for building materials as settlers moved in. The Finger Lakes are a chain of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York that are a popular tourist destination Pre-Civil War architecture in the region made heavy use of cobblestones for walls. Today, fewer than 600 remaining cobblestone buildings are highly prized as historic locations, although most of them remain private homes. They are clustered south of Lake Ontario, between Buffalo and Syracuse. There is also a cluster of cobblestone buildings in the Town of Paris, Ontario. Paris (2006 Urban Area population 11177 is a community on the Grand River in Ontario, Canada. Ontario (ɒnˈtɛrioʊ is a province located in the central part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest after Quebec In addition to homes, cobblestones were used to build barns, stagecoach taverns, smokehouses, stores, churches, schools, factories and cemetery markers. The history of building with cobblestones and 17 driving tours to see the remaining structures are found in "Cobblestone Quest - Road Tours of New York's Historic Buildings". [1]

See also

• Pavement