Sidewalk History 101
Who Came Up With That Brilliant Idea, Anyway?

Did you know sidewalks, of a sort, existed in Roman times if not before? In Pompeii, they built elevated stone walkways alongside the streets, where honorable citizens could stroll at their leisure, safe from hurrying legionnaires and chariots, unsoiled by spattered mud. The Romans even built covered walkways.

It wasn't until the late 18th Century, however, that urbanites came up with the concept of the "curb." The first curbed pedestrian walkway was fashioned in London in 1765. (Overseas colonists must have laughed at the notion of such delicate haughtiness.) Citizens and aldermen in other locales saw the obvious advantage of having a passageway designated for pedestrians extending parallel to a main thoroughfare. Naturally, street performers—jugglers, mimes, minstrels, magicians—soon set up shop on sidewalks, where they had a guaranteed audience of passersby. So did muggers and pickpockets.

By 1893, inventors were experimenting with moving sidewalks. Except in airports, that idea hasn't survived into the 21st Century.

While sidewalks are common and important today, they'd become something of a declining trend in America by the mid to late 1900s. Most American families owned vehicles. To save time (and effort), they began going everywhere—even very short distances—by car. Recognizing that fewer and fewer citizens were walking around town, municipal leaders committed fewer and fewer dollars to developing or even maintaining sidewalk systems.

Still, sidewalks remain somewhat in vogue, in part because of a few folks' applied interest in basic exercise and energy conservation. Many newer walkway projects are virtual tourist attractions, combining beauty and scenery with functionality. For sure, the separation of walkers and joggers from vehicles, as the Romans learned, makes for safer cities.

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