50 



ROADS. 



The Park roads made during the season do not differ materially in 

 construction from those described in my last Report; the principal 

 portion however having the Rubble foundation. The Rubble founda- 

 tion is much cheaper than the Telford; and so far as observations 

 have been made upon the Part roads during the year, there are no in- 

 dications in favor of the Telford. This result might not hold for 

 traffic roads, hut for light driving on a park it is undoubtedly 

 true. 



That portion of Franklin Avenue which hounds the Park on the 

 south, and divides it from the Kings County Parade Ground has been 

 remodeled and improved. Special effort has been made to secure 

 economy of construction, with the expectation of a reasonably good 

 and durable roadway. The width of the Avenue is now one hundred 

 feet, fifty feet of which is devoted to sidewalk — (thirty feet on the Park 

 side and twenty feet on the Parade Ground side) — and fifty feet to 

 roadway. 



The excavation was made to a depth of fifteen inches below the 

 finished grade, over the entire roadway, and this depth was filled with 

 a coarse material, from our Lake excavation, which was composed en- 

 tirely of sand, gravel and stones varying in size from the finest sand to 

 stone of from six to eight inches in diameter. In making the fill, care 

 was taken to rake forward the stones and coarse gravel into the bot- 

 tom, thus leaving a surface of a firmer although porous material. Upon 

 the surface thus prepared a layer of about one-fourth of an inch oi 

 loom was placed, and the whole thoroughly rolled with rollers varying 

 from three to seven tons in weight. The result is a drive not equal to 

 the Park drives in many respects, but still a very great improvement 

 upon the ordinary roads of the country. The curb and gutter is like 

 that generally used in the city, and is carefully laid, and the road for 

 a distance of five feet from either gutter is paved with cobble stones. 



No experiments with new kind of roads have been made during the 

 season. The sample laid by the Scrimshaw Patent Concrete Company 

 in October. 1867, has been in constant use since, and in addition to 

 the ordinary Park driving it has been subjected to the wear incident 

 to the transportation over it of several thousand yards of material, in 

 carts and wagons. It has constantly improved under this treatment, 

 and is at the present time in good condition. The sample laid by the 

 Fiske Pavement and Flagging Company has not answered so good a 



