Bricks that were underneath Broad Street in Tamaqua for years were recently exposed when crews from Kriger Construction got to work on a major paving project.

“On Broad Street, which is Route 209, you’re seeing brick,” Tamaqua historian Dale Freudenberger said.

The bricks were part of the first “paving” in the borough, he said, and were around when Tamaqua had a trolley.

Freudenberger guessed that decades ago, it was too expensive to pull the bricks when the road was blacktopped.

“They’re not thin bricks like a house is made from - these are thick bricks. That is a lot of ‘paving’ to tear up - and you would have to put a new surface down before you would pave anyhow. So was likely a costly venture,” he said.

In the long run, he said, the bricks proved they were a good foundation. Both yellow and red bricks have been uncovered as work continues.

Other streets were milled to their original “paved” base, which was not made of bricks.

“If you look at Pine and Railroad streets, which were also ground down, they are down to the original concrete,” Freudenberger explained, of the streets, which are Route 309.