In the early 13th century, the geographer Yaqut described in detail how "asphalt" was made in those days from the pit and used to build roads. In Europe, roads paved with anything but flagstones or cobbles were unknown until 1838, when asphalt was first laid on a street in Paris.

1940

The first road use of asphalt occurred in 1824, when asphalt blocks were placed on the Champs-lyses in Paris. Modern road asphalt was the work of Belgian immigrant Edward de Smedt at Columbia University in New York City. By 1872, De Smedt had engineered a modern, "well-graded," maximum-density asphalt. The first uses of this road asphalt were in Battery Park and on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1872 and on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C., in 1877.

Source: http://qna.rediff.com/questions-and-answers/when-the-use-of-asphalt-started/21193816/answers