Roman Concrete

During the late empire, the Romans developed a concrete like material, and they used it to build things. For example, the roof of the Pantheon is made of Roman concrete. It was usually used to make bricks. The concrete we use today is a further developed version of that original Roman concrete. Concrete is everywhere in modern society. It is the foundations of our buildings, our sidewalks, and even the exterior walls of Parish are made of concrete. We use a similar substance, asphalt, to pave our roads. We still use concrete to make bricks like the Romans did. The Romans just used gravel. A way that modern society has improved on Roman concrete is with reinforced concrete. This is concrete with metal bars inside. The metal bars act as a sort of skeleton to make the concrete strong under tension as well as compression. Most concrete structures are made of reinforced concrete.