Jun 12, 2025 | Benefits & Use, History, North American Expansion
A trestle is the simplest type of three-dimensional construction, but build hundreds—or even thousands—of trestles and you have a trestle structure, a series of repeating triangles that can be shaped into most anything. Like a piece in a child’s set of building...
May 1, 2025 | Benefits & Use, History
Preserving wood with coal-tar creosote, an organic bioproduct of coke and steel manufacturing processes, is a sustainable and efficient way to transform wood into high-performing infrastructure. Creosote naturally distills out of coal at high heats and extends the...
Apr 20, 2025 | Benefits & Use
We’ve all heard the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle”: the Three Rs of responsible environmental stewardship. They are listed in this order for a reason: the most efficient way to approach sustainability and limit negative impacts on the environment is—firstly—to reduce...
Jul 18, 2024 | Benefits & Use, History, Industrial Revolution
At the turn of the 20th century, innovations in railroad technology spurred the development of new kinds of railroad networks centered around urban areas. These short-line railroads continued to depend on wooden crossties treated and preserved with creosote. And while...
May 29, 2024 | Benefits & Use, History, Industrial Revolution, North American Expansion
At the start of the 19th century, there was no Texas as we know it today. Rather, west of Louisiana—the French colony-turned-state at the conclusion of the War of 1812—was a dry and rugged patchwork of native American and Mexican-held lands. After two rounds of war...
Feb 19, 2024 | Benefits & Use, History, Industrial Revolution
Crosstie wood preservation methods have been vital to the development of railway transportation, infrastructure, and supply chains around the world. This timeline illustrates the role that coal-tar creosote and other wood preservatives have played in economic...
