Next >>

George Street (South)

George Street (South), a.k.a. George Street West, c.1890s. Steam trams shunt their way up towards the city and there is a constant flow of traffic along the main thoroughfare. You can see the pattern of the woodblocked road in the foreground. This street was widened in the early twentieth century and renamed Broadway.

Enormous interest was aroused by the question of how best to construct a woodblock road, both within the engineering fraternity and by those interested in sanitary affairs. The continuing problems with jointing, and ongoing public doubts as to what the gaps might harbour, resulted in experiments with ever decreasing size of openings, so that by 1900 the blocks, steeped in a tar solution, were hammered up as close as possible. This minimised rounding at the edges of the blocks. A top surface of tar was added and in many cases the woodblocked road outlasted the hard bluestone cubes which were often laid at busy intersections.

(image: City of Sydney Archives, SRC photographic files)