Wayne County claims the first mile of concrete highway in the world, laid on Woodward Avenue in 1909 between Six Mile Road and Seven Mile Road, in what was then Greenfield Township and is now northwest Detroit. Work began on 20 April and the stretch opened on 4 July. Roads at the time were brick, cobblestone or macadam, which did not last long. The Wayne County Road Commission, organized a few years earlier, ran the experiment. County engineers had heard of concrete sidewalks and alleys in Ohio and in Windsor, Ontario, and Commissioners Edward Hines and John Haggerty decided to try it on a main road. This stretch was probably chosen because it was where the county's jurisdiction began, and because Ford's Model T plant was going up in Highland Park, a short way down Woodward. The commission's report argued for low cost, no dust, quieter travel and good traction for every kind of vehicle, and admitted that "time alone can justify our judgment" in the matter. Delegations came to look. Wayne County went on to claim other firsts: Hines is credited with the painted centre line, and the county later built the below-grade Davison, often called the first urban depressed freeway in the country.
Getting there
42.4234, -83.1091
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