So it is with our infrastructures that support our modern way of living. Roads in particular don’t seem to last very long. Perhaps it is the amount of traffic, the weight of some vehicles or the lack of preventive maintenance that dooms our modern infrastructure to fail relatively quickly.
Even today, there are portions of the Roman road system that still exist. This video animation that shows how Roman roads were built reminded me of how little attention we pay to having infrastructure last for a long time. There are only a few instances of what was built a hundred years ago still functioning.
An example of that is the Ballard Locks that provide a connection between Lake Washington, which contains fresh water, and Puget Sound, which contains saltwater. The controls and operating mechanisms there date back to when the locks were built at the turn of the last century. How much longer will they last?
