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We are surrounded
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by extraordinary feats of engineering.
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Constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible.
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Without engineering, there'd be no modern world.
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Gigantic cities,
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amazing infrastructure, and ingenious inventions.
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Engineering is the key to turn dreams into reality.
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To reach these dizzying Heights,
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today's technology relies on breakthroughs made
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by ancient engineers.
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It's mind boggling how they did this.
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How did early civilizations build
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on such a scale?
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They raised the bar for construction in a way
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that no one thought possible.
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The sheer engineering ability,
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which is in itself impressive.
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By defying the known laws of physics,
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and daring to dream big,
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they constructed wonders of the world
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from gigantic pyramids,
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to awe inspiring temples,
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and mighty fortresses.
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All with the simplest of tools.
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You know, imagine the skills people would have needed
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to build like this.
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Now, it's possible to unearth the secrets
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of the first engineers.
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They managed to construct edifices
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that have survived the ravages of time.
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And reveal how their genius laid
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the foundations for everything we build today.
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(dramatic music)
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The wheel and the road.
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Put together, perhaps the greatest engineering development
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of all time.
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Roads have enabled humans to move at speed,
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enabled connectivity.
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It's hard to imagine civilization without roads.
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Today, the planet is alive
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with the sound of rubber on tarmac.
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1.2 billion cars, motorbikes, vans, trucks,
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and juggernauts move us from place to place
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on the millions of miles of road
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that crisscross the continents.
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The road has been an extremely important part
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of the development of the human race.
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It's one of the triumphs of engineering,
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allowing freedom of movement.
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Roads have enabled humans to move materials across land
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that otherwise would not have been possible.
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Running through icy wastes,
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Amazon jungles, mountain passes, and deep ravines,
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roads shaped the development of human society.
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The design of the cities was centered around the car.
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Roads are vital for the way we live,
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and they've changed how we live.
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But this global system
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didn't emerge fully formed.
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The first secrets of road and transport technology
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were cracked thousands of years ago in the ancient world.
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(footsteps)
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One early civilization's engineers have gone down
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in history as the greatest road builders of all time.
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Constructing a 50,000 mile network threaded across Europe,
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the Middle East, and North Africa.
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{\an8}It was not only very vast, it was also very efficient.
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{\an8}You can get the troops
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{\an8}to their designated places very quickly.
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Their technological know-how
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and engineering prowess was second to none.
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The Romans.
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{\an8}Roman road building produces a network
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{\an8}of communication that is not just important for the Romans,
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but that's going to endure for centuries thereafter.
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Roman expertise and skills
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would inspire generations of architects and civil engineers.
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{\an8}They had an incredible understanding
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{\an8}of structural engineering that we still build on today.
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{\an8}It's embedded in everything that we do
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{\an8}as modern civil engineers.
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They developed groundbreaking techniques
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to construct new types of roads, bridges, and tunnels.
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{\an8}Without the roads there wouldn't have been a Roman empire.
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But Roman engineering skills didn't appear
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out of nowhere.
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The story of roads begins much earlier
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at the very dawn of civilization.
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Long before avenues, streets, boulevards, and autobahns,
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early humans relied on simple paths.
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The easiest way for people and animals to move
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through the landscape.
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But sometimes this proved difficult
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due to natural obstacles lying in the way.
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Marshy land, boggy land, potentially treacherous land.
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It's not new for people to want to cross things
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that they shouldn't cross.
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Could an important discovery reveal
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how ancient engineers found one solution to this problem?
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The Avalon Marshes in the west of England.
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A distinctive landscape formed over the centuries
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by the extraction of peat for fuel.
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And preserved within this marshland,
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a 6,000 year old secret.
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In 1970 while clearing out a ditch,
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one peat cutter stumbled across the remains
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of a mysterious wooden structure.
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Tree ring dating revealed it had been built
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and laid in 3806 BC.
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{\an8}That's the wonderful thing about dendrochronology,
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{\an8}tree ring dating, is that you can get yourself back
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{\an8}to the exact winter in the past when that timber was felled.
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The structure had survived
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because peat forms in waterlogged soils.
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With little or no access to oxygen,
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bacteria are unable to fully decompose organic matter.
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The well-preserved wooden remains are an example
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of early engineering ingenuity.
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An entire stretch of prehistoric trackway.
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Archeologists named it the Sweet track
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after the peat digger who found it.
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The Sweet track is an amazingly neat solution
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to a particular problem,
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which is how do you get from one place to another
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whilst crossing a marsh?
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This remarkable find turned out to be one
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of the earliest road like structures in the world.
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But how had it been built?
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The Sweet track is a very clever design.
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Very simple kind of X shape,
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pegs would have been put down with planks going across,
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leading through this swampy area.
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It was a simple
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but brilliant engineering breakthrough.
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One that would change the world.
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As they've grown, roads have completely reshaped human life.
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In the last hundred years,
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the globe has experienced massive environmental
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and economic change,
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and road construction has had to keep pace
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with ever growing numbers of vehicles.
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With over four million miles,
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the United States has built
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the world's largest road network.
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Super highways stretching from city to city,
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state to state, coast to coast.
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But solid roads have been around a lot longer
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than first thought, and one discovery
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from the ancient world would rewrite
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the story of the rise of the road.
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(thundering)
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It was discovered in the unlikeliest of places.
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Built by a civilization
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that seemingly didn't need roads at all,
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as it had command of a mighty river.
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Around 5,000 years ago,
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the ancient Egyptians established their extraordinary
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and enduring civilization.
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Famous for great advances in every area of human endeavor,
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from the arts to science, technology to religion,
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their accomplishments include great monuments,
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pyramids, temples, and artworks.
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Egyptian civilization developed along the river Nile.
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{\an8}It was the super highway running through Egypt.
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{\an8}It gave Egypt life.
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{\an8}It basically joins up every single
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{\an8}inhabited place in Egypt.
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With all its towns built
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along the Nile's banks,
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the river was Egypt obvious means of transport.
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The Egyptions used ships for pretty much everything,
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{\an8}so food and drink was transported by boat certainly.
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{\an8}Building stone was transported by boat.
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People used ferries on a regular basis.
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For many years,
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experts thought this was a civilization
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that simply had no need of roads,
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but that was about to change.
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In the mid nineties,
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while mapping out a region 43 miles southwest
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of modern Cairo,
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two American geologists made an amazing discovery.
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They stumbled across a series of stone slabs
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that seemed out of place.
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For miles around, there was nothing but empty desert.
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Further studies revealed these were paving stones.
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Although much of its length had disappeared over time,
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the archeologists realized they discovered a massive road,
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seven and a half miles long.
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Pottery fragments found nearby proved it had been built
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between 2600 and 2200 BC,
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making it the oldest known paved road anywhere in the world.
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Incredibly, it had been constructed long before
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the wheel was first used in ancient Egypt.
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Yeah the road's an exciting discovery
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because this paved road is a thousand years
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before we think the wheel is really introduced
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into Egypt on chariots,
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so why would they need a paved road?
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What was being transported along that road?
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Answers seem to lie with a nearby quarry.
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The reason why they went to all the effort
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of building this road was because the stone
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from the quarry was a particularly exotic sort,
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you couldn't find anywhere else in Egypt.
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The basalt stone quarried at Widan-El-Faras
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was pulled along the road to the ancient Lake Moeris,
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seven and a half miles away.
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There it was placed on barges and transported up the Nile
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to the pyramid construction sites.
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Yeah, the road's an exciting discovery,
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because it really helped us to build the picture
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on how things like the great pyramid were built.
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As the sands of time have reclaimed the land,
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the road today appears to lead nowhere,
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ending abruptly in the middle of the desert.
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Building a paved route through such an inhospitable place
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was a daunting task for ancient engineers.
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And even today, road construction
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through desert terrain remains challenging.
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(dramatic music)
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The Empty Quarter in the Middle East,
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largest sand desert in the world.
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Covering an area of around 250,000 square miles.
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In days gone by, only the hardiest of travelers
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would attempt a crossing.
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It has stood for centuries as a natural barrier
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between the kingdom of Saudi Arabia
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and the Sultanate of Oman.
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Despite the extreme terrain,
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the two countries were determined
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to create their first transport link,
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but engineering this desert freeway would prove every bit
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as difficult as crossing it on foot or camel.
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The temperatures vary from over 50 degrees during the day,
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all the way down to one degree at night.
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You're building on sand,
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and that sand moves all of the time.
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{\an8}Some of these sand dunes are 80 meters high,
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{\an8}and so you're building a road through a desert,
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the ground is moving beneath you.
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Overall, 170 million cubic yards of sand
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was cleared for construction.
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Hundreds of workers took three years
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to complete the project.
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Now open, this freeway has transformed
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what was once an arduous journey
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to a relatively brief drive.
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The modern technology used here,
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wasn't available to ancient engineers.
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That didn't stop early civilizations
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building large road systems of their own.
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But for early roads to become truly effective,
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a major engineering breakthrough was needed.
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(upbeat music)
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A deceptively simple invention that would change everything.
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The wheel.
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It enabled the creation of vehicles
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from simple wagons to fine carriages,
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and chariots of war.
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Producing power, and keeping time.
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Giving rise to grueling challenges and safe landings.
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Creating excitement, making us scream to go faster.
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Bringing movement for all.
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And even the chance to explore new planets.
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So when did the wheel roll onto the human stage,
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and who invented it?
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In 2002, archeologists were excavating the ruins
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of ancient pile dwellings.
270
00:15:47,930 --> 00:15:51,440
Houses built on stilts, located in marshland
271
00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:54,243
near the city of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
272
00:15:59,550 --> 00:16:02,620
The team unearthed a wooden cartwheel.
273
00:16:02,620 --> 00:16:06,053
It was made of ash and its axle of oak.
274
00:16:06,980 --> 00:16:10,340
Archeologists knew right away it must be ancient,
275
00:16:10,340 --> 00:16:13,470
but radiocarbon dating revealed that it was in fact
276
00:16:13,470 --> 00:16:15,723
over 5,000 years old,
277
00:16:16,863 --> 00:16:21,223
making this the oldest wheel yet discovered.
278
00:16:23,140 --> 00:16:25,980
Here is a breakthrough moment in the history of the world
279
00:16:25,980 --> 00:16:29,050
that really does hold an important key
280
00:16:29,050 --> 00:16:31,293
in terms of the story of human evolution.
281
00:16:33,630 --> 00:16:35,300
The wheel was the breakthrough
282
00:16:35,300 --> 00:16:37,843
that allowed roads to come into their own.
283
00:16:39,580 --> 00:16:41,330
Beginning with simple carts,
284
00:16:41,330 --> 00:16:43,773
this technology was life-changing.
285
00:16:44,860 --> 00:16:46,730
And rather than what you can carry in a basket
286
00:16:46,730 --> 00:16:48,480
on your back, all of a sudden you've got
287
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:51,983
the opportunity with this technology to move that much more.
288
00:16:53,020 --> 00:16:54,770
The invention of the wheel drove
289
00:16:54,770 --> 00:16:56,923
an explosion in transportation.
290
00:16:57,970 --> 00:17:00,710
Over time, carts got bigger.
291
00:17:00,710 --> 00:17:02,887
Carriages and wagons were developed,
292
00:17:02,887 --> 00:17:05,940
capable of carrying heavier loads,
293
00:17:05,940 --> 00:17:09,343
and moving goods and people further than ever before.
294
00:17:11,150 --> 00:17:13,090
This simplest of all inventions
295
00:17:13,090 --> 00:17:16,303
has led to a world that moves at a relentless speed.
296
00:17:19,880 --> 00:17:23,593
Today, road transport operates on a gigantic scale.
297
00:17:24,590 --> 00:17:28,160
Around 335 million commercial vehicles,
298
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:33,160
vans, lorries, buses, and trucks operate across the globe,
299
00:17:33,665 --> 00:17:38,443
delivering everything and anything, wherever it needs to go.
300
00:17:41,690 --> 00:17:44,810
And possibly the longest delivery route in the world
301
00:17:44,810 --> 00:17:46,503
can be found in Australia.
302
00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:51,308
Highway One stretches 9,000 miles,
303
00:17:51,308 --> 00:17:54,593
and circumnavigates the entire country.
304
00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:00,500
Some of the biggest monster vehicles carry goods
305
00:18:00,500 --> 00:18:02,223
along this massive road.
306
00:18:03,730 --> 00:18:08,663
Trucks reaching over 175 feet long with around 100 wheels.
307
00:18:09,705 --> 00:18:12,930
They're known as road trains.
308
00:18:12,930 --> 00:18:15,670
They can do that because the roads are flat and empty,
309
00:18:15,670 --> 00:18:18,300
and they don't have to stop or start very often
310
00:18:18,300 --> 00:18:20,823
for hundreds of miles, you know, straight roads.
311
00:18:28,250 --> 00:18:30,320
But when it comes to straight roads,
312
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:32,953
one ancient civilization springs to mind.
313
00:18:42,250 --> 00:18:44,170
Their transport network was built
314
00:18:44,170 --> 00:18:47,113
upon breakthroughs made in earlier centuries.
315
00:18:48,270 --> 00:18:52,300
With the wheel in place, and stone roads tried and tested,
316
00:18:52,300 --> 00:18:55,990
Roman engineers had all the building blocks.
317
00:18:55,990 --> 00:18:58,870
They brought them together to conquer and control
318
00:18:58,870 --> 00:19:02,420
the biggest empire the world had yet seen.
319
00:19:02,420 --> 00:19:06,250
Extending across 5 million square kilometers of Europe,
320
00:19:06,250 --> 00:19:08,540
North Africa, and the Middle East.
321
00:19:08,540 --> 00:19:12,420
At its peak, Rome ruled over 50 million people,
322
00:19:12,420 --> 00:19:14,863
nearly a fifth of the world's population,
323
00:19:16,610 --> 00:19:19,733
and they simply couldn't have done it without roads.
324
00:19:21,310 --> 00:19:25,600
Very hard to talk about roads and the origins of roads,
325
00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:27,363
without talking about the Romans.
326
00:19:28,410 --> 00:19:30,820
But what were the engineering secrets
327
00:19:30,820 --> 00:19:33,963
that made Roman road buildings so revolutionary?
328
00:19:34,918 --> 00:19:39,520
Roman engineers began building roads in 312 BC,
329
00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,300
the first running from Rome to Capua,
330
00:19:42,300 --> 00:19:44,560
near present day Naples.
331
00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:47,090
It was named the Appian Way.
332
00:19:47,090 --> 00:19:51,030
The Appian Way was Rome's first major road.
333
00:19:51,030 --> 00:19:54,300
It was their highway down into south Italy.
334
00:19:54,300 --> 00:19:57,110
The Romans developed new engineering techniques
335
00:19:57,110 --> 00:19:59,833
to construct this ancient super highway.
336
00:20:01,730 --> 00:20:05,680
Once an ideal path was cleared, a trench was built,
337
00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:07,430
filled in with sand and boulders
338
00:20:07,430 --> 00:20:09,750
to create a solid foundation,
339
00:20:09,750 --> 00:20:13,763
followed by a layer of gravel compacted with clay or mortar.
340
00:20:14,930 --> 00:20:17,760
On the surface, a layer of paving stones angled
341
00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:20,373
to allow the water to drain off to the side.
342
00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:25,120
This was a road unlike any seen before.
343
00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:27,800
It's as technologically advanced a road
344
00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:29,570
as you're likely to see.
345
00:20:29,570 --> 00:20:31,610
It's got elements of everything we would do
346
00:20:31,610 --> 00:20:33,150
in a road today.
347
00:20:33,150 --> 00:20:35,700
They had drainage systems, they had impermeable layers,
348
00:20:35,700 --> 00:20:37,680
they had crushed stone, dressed stone,
349
00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:39,380
the whole shooting match.
350
00:20:39,380 --> 00:20:41,350
The Appian Way connected Rome
351
00:20:41,350 --> 00:20:46,333
with nearby cities and regions, extending control.
352
00:20:47,870 --> 00:20:50,140
But this was only the beginning.
353
00:20:50,140 --> 00:20:52,190
Rome's generals soon realized
354
00:20:52,190 --> 00:20:54,453
the advantages good roads offered.
355
00:20:57,890 --> 00:21:00,970
{\an8}A paved road with 40,000 Legionnaires coming at you
356
00:21:00,970 --> 00:21:03,220
{\an8}would be incredibly intimidating.
357
00:21:03,220 --> 00:21:04,790
And it was Roman soldiers
358
00:21:04,790 --> 00:21:06,750
who built much of the network.
359
00:21:06,750 --> 00:21:09,030
When you look at the list of different skills
360
00:21:09,030 --> 00:21:12,630
that were available in the Roman army, it's a long list,
361
00:21:12,630 --> 00:21:15,410
and included in that were experts surveyors,
362
00:21:15,410 --> 00:21:17,980
engineers, and construction workers.
363
00:21:17,980 --> 00:21:20,860
Roads were constructed on a vast scale,
364
00:21:20,860 --> 00:21:23,870
enabling Rome's further expansion.
365
00:21:23,870 --> 00:21:25,930
Having dominated the whole of Italy,
366
00:21:25,930 --> 00:21:29,110
the Roman imperial ambition grows greater.
367
00:21:29,110 --> 00:21:31,400
Colonizing neighbor after neighbor,
368
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:33,730
after neighbor, after neighbor.
369
00:21:33,730 --> 00:21:36,500
Between 200 BC and 14 AD,
370
00:21:36,500 --> 00:21:39,366
Roman armies invaded most of Western Europe,
371
00:21:39,366 --> 00:21:42,130
Greece, and the Balkans, the Middle East,
372
00:21:42,130 --> 00:21:46,970
and North Africa, all linked by newly constructed roads.
373
00:21:46,970 --> 00:21:49,620
We say all roads lead to Rome,
374
00:21:49,620 --> 00:21:53,130
and for the Roman road network this was definitely the case.
375
00:21:53,130 --> 00:21:55,650
This extensive network allowed Roman troops
376
00:21:55,650 --> 00:21:58,090
to quickly March to trouble spots,
377
00:21:58,090 --> 00:22:00,763
even at the farthest reaches of the empire.
378
00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:04,290
So you can move say from Rome to Britain
379
00:22:04,290 --> 00:22:07,693
in tens of days, which is very fast by ancient standards.
380
00:22:09,120 --> 00:22:10,726
This sprawling road network
381
00:22:10,726 --> 00:22:13,793
would also help create vast fortunes.
382
00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:17,840
The better the roads, more of them,
383
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:19,310
over longer distances,
384
00:22:19,310 --> 00:22:21,680
the more material can be moved around,
385
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:24,683
the more sales, the more contracts, and the greater wealth.
386
00:22:27,980 --> 00:22:29,620
The Romans even built roads
387
00:22:29,620 --> 00:22:32,793
across some of the most hostile terrain.
388
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:38,330
Terrain that even today presents
389
00:22:38,330 --> 00:22:40,483
a major challenge for engineers.
390
00:22:44,030 --> 00:22:45,873
The mountains of Norway.
391
00:22:48,060 --> 00:22:50,660
Roads here are often narrow and twisting,
392
00:22:50,660 --> 00:22:52,563
thanks to the extreme landscape.
393
00:22:54,030 --> 00:22:57,434
So when planners decided a new, bigger route was needed
394
00:22:57,434 --> 00:23:01,750
to link Bergen in the west with Oslo in the East,
395
00:23:01,750 --> 00:23:03,123
they faced a problem.
396
00:23:04,270 --> 00:23:06,763
They'd have to cut straight through a mountain,
397
00:23:07,690 --> 00:23:11,135
calling for the longest road tunnel in the world.
398
00:23:11,135 --> 00:23:13,885
(dramatic music)
399
00:23:15,970 --> 00:23:18,673
So how did engineers go about building it?
400
00:23:20,310 --> 00:23:23,170
The solution came from outer space.
401
00:23:23,170 --> 00:23:25,883
High tech satellites orbiting the earth.
402
00:23:27,170 --> 00:23:30,490
The tunneling machines operate completely independent
403
00:23:30,490 --> 00:23:33,888
from humans, so they're guided by GPS systems
404
00:23:33,888 --> 00:23:35,960
that position them precisely,
405
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:38,500
even though they're below the ground.
406
00:23:38,500 --> 00:23:41,800
A staggering 3 million cubic yards of rock
407
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:43,523
was excavated from the tunnel,
408
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:46,330
but construction wasn't
409
00:23:46,330 --> 00:23:49,053
the only complication engineers faced.
410
00:23:50,540 --> 00:23:53,710
In a tunnel taking 20 minutes to journey through,
411
00:23:53,710 --> 00:23:56,193
how could they deal with driver fatigue?
412
00:24:00,860 --> 00:24:04,460
One of the design solutions was having the road moving
413
00:24:04,460 --> 00:24:07,620
{\an8}from straight to curved, straight to curved,
414
00:24:07,620 --> 00:24:11,123
{\an8}to keep the driver having to move the wheel and stay alert.
415
00:24:12,750 --> 00:24:15,300
Designers and psychologists experimented
416
00:24:15,300 --> 00:24:16,563
with lighting levels.
417
00:24:17,850 --> 00:24:20,410
They divided the tunnel into four sections,
418
00:24:20,410 --> 00:24:23,810
separated by three large mountain caves.
419
00:24:23,810 --> 00:24:26,460
While the main tunnel has white lights,
420
00:24:26,460 --> 00:24:28,653
the caves have blue and yellow.
421
00:24:30,140 --> 00:24:32,610
This was to counteract things
422
00:24:32,610 --> 00:24:34,860
like claustrophobia or panic,
423
00:24:34,860 --> 00:24:37,720
keeping people calm in such a long tunnel.
424
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:40,940
Using this creative blue and yellow lighting
425
00:24:40,940 --> 00:24:43,670
to simulate almost like a sunrise,
426
00:24:43,670 --> 00:24:47,870
and keep people calm and content in their journey.
427
00:24:47,870 --> 00:24:49,380
This clever tying together
428
00:24:49,380 --> 00:24:51,350
of engineering and psychology,
429
00:24:51,350 --> 00:24:53,713
allowed engineers to build the impossible.
430
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:58,560
The tunnel opened in the year 2000,
431
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:01,003
having taken five years to construct.
432
00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:09,160
Back in the ancient world without modern machinery,
433
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:12,800
tunneling through a mountain was almost unthinkable.
434
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:14,260
Even the Romans were forced
435
00:25:14,260 --> 00:25:17,023
to compromise their famously straight roads,
436
00:25:17,944 --> 00:25:20,500
but there's one other natural obstacle
437
00:25:20,500 --> 00:25:24,263
that Roman engineers had no choice but to tackle head on.
438
00:25:26,550 --> 00:25:30,273
Water, sometimes there's no way around it.
439
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:35,460
The classic Roman road was entirely straight,
440
00:25:35,460 --> 00:25:39,630
entirely level, marching out like a set
441
00:25:39,630 --> 00:25:42,170
of legionaries across the landscape,
442
00:25:42,170 --> 00:25:44,410
and that does produce problems
443
00:25:44,410 --> 00:25:46,403
when you encounter a river.
444
00:25:47,700 --> 00:25:48,700
For centuries,
445
00:25:48,700 --> 00:25:52,120
earlier civilizations had built short foot bridges,
446
00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:54,550
but for Roman generals to march thousands
447
00:25:54,550 --> 00:25:56,830
of Legionnaires across a river,
448
00:25:56,830 --> 00:25:59,593
something much more substantial was required.
449
00:26:01,170 --> 00:26:03,800
If Rome was to continue its expansion,
450
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:06,573
it was vital engineers crack this problem.
451
00:26:11,860 --> 00:26:13,740
To build permanent stone bridges,
452
00:26:13,740 --> 00:26:15,763
the Romans needed new technology.
453
00:26:18,140 --> 00:26:20,540
The technology they use to build these bridges
454
00:26:20,540 --> 00:26:22,650
is really quite something when we think about
455
00:26:22,650 --> 00:26:25,460
how long ago lots of these were built.
456
00:26:25,460 --> 00:26:29,143
We have some brilliant examples all over the Roman empire.
457
00:26:30,180 --> 00:26:33,103
Some Roman bridges even survive to this day.
458
00:26:34,140 --> 00:26:36,803
So what were the secrets of their construction?
459
00:26:39,510 --> 00:26:40,890
In search of answers,
460
00:26:40,890 --> 00:26:44,493
scientists analyze the chemical makeup of Roman mortar.
461
00:26:46,390 --> 00:26:48,710
They discovered it was a strange concoction
462
00:26:48,710 --> 00:26:53,710
of volcanic ash, lime, and water,
463
00:26:54,070 --> 00:26:56,453
mixed together with volcanic rock.
464
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:01,610
Experiments show that as the volcanic ash binds
465
00:27:01,610 --> 00:27:05,550
with limestone, a chemical reaction takes place.
466
00:27:05,550 --> 00:27:08,390
This prevents the spread of cracks within the concrete,
467
00:27:08,390 --> 00:27:09,693
making it stronger.
468
00:27:11,270 --> 00:27:13,421
The resulting concrete that they made
469
00:27:13,421 --> 00:27:16,000
could actually set underwater,
470
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:20,190
and that was a really special feature of Roman concrete.
471
00:27:20,190 --> 00:27:21,370
With this breakthrough,
472
00:27:21,370 --> 00:27:23,863
new kinds of construction became possible.
473
00:27:26,500 --> 00:27:29,680
Rome's greatest engineers set to work.
474
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:32,520
Among them, Marcus Vitruvius.
475
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:35,520
So Vitruvius was one of those classic examples
476
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:37,600
of the master builder,
477
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,700
and he wrote this incredible series of 10 books
478
00:27:40,700 --> 00:27:43,673
about how to build things.
479
00:27:43,673 --> 00:27:46,340
These works have guaranteed his place
480
00:27:46,340 --> 00:27:49,113
as one of the greatest architects in history.
481
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:53,570
Vitruvius says that when we design something,
482
00:27:53,570 --> 00:27:57,700
any building at all, we have to consider three things:
483
00:27:57,700 --> 00:28:00,803
strength, function, and beauty.
484
00:28:02,020 --> 00:28:03,330
Waterproof concrete
485
00:28:03,330 --> 00:28:06,407
gave Roman bridges solid foundations,
486
00:28:06,407 --> 00:28:09,350
but how would Vitruvius and his engineers
487
00:28:09,350 --> 00:28:11,740
build bridges strong enough to support the weight
488
00:28:11,740 --> 00:28:14,853
of an entire Legion marching across?
489
00:28:17,260 --> 00:28:20,202
When you put weight on something, you bend it.
490
00:28:20,202 --> 00:28:21,890
And when you bend it,
491
00:28:21,890 --> 00:28:25,860
the top of that piece of steel, or concrete,
492
00:28:25,860 --> 00:28:28,660
or whatever it might be, is in compression,
493
00:28:28,660 --> 00:28:30,143
and the bottom is in tesion.
494
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:33,013
Tension is what rips it apart.
495
00:28:33,013 --> 00:28:34,440
(scream and crash)
496
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,220
Once again, Roman engineers improved
497
00:28:37,220 --> 00:28:38,723
on an earlier design.
498
00:28:39,780 --> 00:28:42,883
They created this magical structure called the arch.
499
00:28:45,190 --> 00:28:47,620
The entire structure is in compression,
500
00:28:47,620 --> 00:28:50,210
and so that meant they could just use stones,
501
00:28:50,210 --> 00:28:53,060
and if you pile stones up in an arch shape,
502
00:28:53,060 --> 00:28:55,600
you can put a huge amount of force on it.
503
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:57,200
Bigger arches boosted
504
00:28:57,200 --> 00:28:59,393
Roman construction capabilities.
505
00:29:01,570 --> 00:29:04,920
This arch structure, which enables you to build up,
506
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:07,260
as well as out, of course is fundamental
507
00:29:07,260 --> 00:29:11,890
to not just the construction of bridges and aqueducts,
508
00:29:11,890 --> 00:29:14,620
it's also going to be important in the construction
509
00:29:14,620 --> 00:29:18,190
of civic buildings, like the theaters, the amphitheaters,
510
00:29:18,190 --> 00:29:19,853
and even the Colosseum in Rome.
511
00:29:21,799 --> 00:29:24,520
The combination of Roman concrete
512
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:28,313
and the Roman arch made these structures incredibly robust.
513
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,083
An astonishing number are still in use today.
514
00:29:41,716 --> 00:29:45,210
The Alcantara Bridge over the river Tagus in Spain
515
00:29:45,210 --> 00:29:49,163
was built between 104 and 106 AD.
516
00:29:50,780 --> 00:29:53,320
A Latin inscription on one end of the bridge
517
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:55,703
boasts of Rome's engineering prowess.
518
00:29:57,293 --> 00:30:01,317
(speaks foreign language)
519
00:30:01,317 --> 00:30:03,767
Which means I have built a bridge,
520
00:30:03,767 --> 00:30:05,940
and it will last forever.
521
00:30:05,940 --> 00:30:08,943
Very Roman, and so far so good, it's still there.
522
00:30:10,980 --> 00:30:13,226
But the Romans aren't the only civilization
523
00:30:13,226 --> 00:30:15,623
to have built impressive bridges.
524
00:30:16,700 --> 00:30:19,170
Inspired by their Roman predecessors,
525
00:30:19,170 --> 00:30:22,563
modern day engineers continue to push the boundaries.
526
00:30:23,962 --> 00:30:27,230
(upbeat music)
527
00:30:27,230 --> 00:30:30,680
Bridge design today is a really, really exciting thing
528
00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:31,930
to do as a structural engineer.
529
00:30:31,930 --> 00:30:34,140
There are so many different materials being used
530
00:30:34,140 --> 00:30:35,040
at the moment.
531
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:36,430
There are so many different forms
532
00:30:36,430 --> 00:30:38,810
that the bridges can take as well.
533
00:30:38,810 --> 00:30:40,210
And to pick a favorite bridge,
534
00:30:40,210 --> 00:30:42,410
I think I'm gonna go with the Golden Gate Bridge
535
00:30:42,410 --> 00:30:44,350
in San Francisco.
536
00:30:44,350 --> 00:30:46,060
The golden gate bridge was opened
537
00:30:46,060 --> 00:30:48,600
to traffic in 1937.
538
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:52,950
Its main span is 4,200 feet long.
539
00:30:52,950 --> 00:30:55,550
The US Navy had wanted the bridge to be painted
540
00:30:55,550 --> 00:30:58,493
in blue and yellow stripes to increase its visibility,
541
00:30:59,780 --> 00:31:02,300
but when the steel arrived in San Francisco,
542
00:31:02,300 --> 00:31:04,610
painted in a burnt red primer,
543
00:31:04,610 --> 00:31:07,070
the consulting architect decided the color
544
00:31:07,070 --> 00:31:08,713
was more pleasing to the eye.
545
00:31:13,230 --> 00:31:14,810
For nearly three decades,
546
00:31:14,810 --> 00:31:17,410
this was the longest main suspension bridge span
547
00:31:17,410 --> 00:31:18,253
in the world.
548
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:22,530
Some of the big suspension bridges
549
00:31:22,530 --> 00:31:24,630
that have been done are just jaw-dropping.
550
00:31:26,900 --> 00:31:28,240
The record is now held
551
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:31,330
by the Akashi Kaikyo bridge in Japan,
552
00:31:31,330 --> 00:31:34,198
just under 2.48 miles long.
553
00:31:34,198 --> 00:31:36,781
(upbeat music)
554
00:31:38,580 --> 00:31:41,113
It stands in an earthquake prone region.
555
00:31:41,950 --> 00:31:45,862
It also gets hit by some of the Earth's most severe storms.
556
00:31:45,862 --> 00:31:48,779
(thunder and wind)
557
00:31:52,662 --> 00:31:56,912
It's built to stand winds up to 180 miles per hour.
558
00:32:00,270 --> 00:32:02,630
Piercing the sky above southern France
559
00:32:02,630 --> 00:32:04,563
is the tallest bridge in the world.
560
00:32:07,140 --> 00:32:09,460
The Millau Viaduct enables motorists
561
00:32:09,460 --> 00:32:11,293
to take a drive through the sky,
562
00:32:12,310 --> 00:32:15,973
890 feet above the Tarn Valley.
563
00:32:15,973 --> 00:32:18,556
(upbeat music)
564
00:32:22,980 --> 00:32:26,163
But modern engineers haven't always got it right.
565
00:32:28,750 --> 00:32:31,107
Every now and again, a disaster happens
566
00:32:31,107 --> 00:32:33,557
that makes engineers stop and think about
567
00:32:33,557 --> 00:32:34,703
what they're doing.
568
00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:37,873
July, 1940.
569
00:32:38,910 --> 00:32:40,760
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge,
570
00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:44,763
built in the United States of America, was open to traffic.
571
00:32:45,630 --> 00:32:48,620
At that time, it was the third biggest suspension bridge
572
00:32:48,620 --> 00:32:50,300
in the world.
573
00:32:50,300 --> 00:32:52,320
So the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was built
574
00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:55,310
in an era where bridge designers were really starting
575
00:32:55,310 --> 00:32:57,160
to push the limits of what was possible,
576
00:32:57,160 --> 00:32:59,453
and suspension bridges were all the rage.
577
00:33:01,070 --> 00:33:06,070
At that time, the understanding of the aerodynamic effects
578
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:09,130
on these very lightweight, slender,
579
00:33:09,130 --> 00:33:11,753
flexible bridges was not well understood.
580
00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:15,993
The Tacoma Bridge had a fatal engineering flaw.
581
00:33:18,420 --> 00:33:20,290
Shortly after its construction,
582
00:33:20,290 --> 00:33:23,190
it started to buckle and sway along its length
583
00:33:23,190 --> 00:33:24,503
in windy conditions.
584
00:33:27,770 --> 00:33:30,393
The bridge got excited by the wind.
585
00:33:31,730 --> 00:33:33,460
The frequency of the wind,
586
00:33:33,460 --> 00:33:36,113
and the frequency of the bridge was similar.
587
00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:38,690
And just like a tuning fork,
588
00:33:38,690 --> 00:33:41,223
the bridge actually started dancing on the wind.
589
00:33:42,830 --> 00:33:45,883
It soon acquired the nickname Galloping Gertie.
590
00:33:47,970 --> 00:33:50,330
And just four months after opening,
591
00:33:50,330 --> 00:33:54,733
on a stormy winter's day, disaster struck.
592
00:33:54,733 --> 00:33:58,150
(intense dramatic music)
593
00:34:03,190 --> 00:34:05,673
As it was dancing, it tore itself apart.
594
00:34:06,918 --> 00:34:08,918
(crash)
595
00:34:10,530 --> 00:34:12,680
It absolutely blows your mind
596
00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:14,930
that this bridge was made of concrete,
597
00:34:14,930 --> 00:34:17,983
because it just looks like paper flapping away.
598
00:34:21,910 --> 00:34:23,900
And that was an absolute shock
599
00:34:23,900 --> 00:34:24,950
in the world of engineering,
600
00:34:24,950 --> 00:34:29,173
that such a sophisticated, leading structure, could fail.
601
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:33,710
With any new technology,
602
00:34:33,710 --> 00:34:36,083
failure is always a possibility.
603
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:42,620
But engineers learn lessons from each mistake,
604
00:34:42,620 --> 00:34:45,850
and continuously improve their designs.
605
00:34:45,850 --> 00:34:48,010
A process of trial and error,
606
00:34:48,010 --> 00:34:51,129
that also applied in the ancient world.
607
00:34:51,129 --> 00:34:53,296
(rumbles)
608
00:35:00,110 --> 00:35:04,500
The earliest wheels were just crude round lumps of wood.
609
00:35:04,500 --> 00:35:07,313
Result, slow cumbersome vehicles.
610
00:35:08,220 --> 00:35:10,340
The big issue with the big solid wheel
611
00:35:10,340 --> 00:35:12,400
is they're really heavy.
612
00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:14,510
The poor old oxen, or whatever it is pulling the cart,
613
00:35:14,510 --> 00:35:15,800
has got to deal with wheels
614
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:18,530
that may weigh more than the load.
615
00:35:18,530 --> 00:35:20,770
But the wheel got a major facelift
616
00:35:20,770 --> 00:35:23,400
around 2000 BC.
617
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,610
Engineers figured out that replacing the middle portion
618
00:35:26,610 --> 00:35:29,000
with spokes would retain strength
619
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:30,653
while making the wheel lighter.
620
00:35:32,594 --> 00:35:33,690
The primary benefit of the spoke
621
00:35:33,690 --> 00:35:36,033
is that it reduces the weight of the wheel.
622
00:35:37,170 --> 00:35:39,020
The spoke enabled new types
623
00:35:39,020 --> 00:35:41,180
of vehicles to emerge,
624
00:35:41,180 --> 00:35:44,693
faster and leaner like the chariot.
625
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:48,743
An icon that helped define the Roman empire.
626
00:35:49,630 --> 00:35:52,313
Most have been lost to the ravages of time,
627
00:35:55,030 --> 00:35:59,683
but one amazingly intact example turned up in 2019,
628
00:36:02,830 --> 00:36:05,113
on a burial mound in Croatia.
629
00:36:08,070 --> 00:36:10,200
Just under 2000 years ago,
630
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:13,593
this site lay within the Roman province of Pannonia.
631
00:36:14,710 --> 00:36:17,930
The find was a sophisticated two wheeled carriage,
632
00:36:17,930 --> 00:36:21,570
revealing the engineering mastery of the era.
633
00:36:21,570 --> 00:36:25,380
And alongside the vehicle, intact bones.
634
00:36:25,380 --> 00:36:29,430
There was a Roman chariot found buried in Eastern Croatia
635
00:36:29,430 --> 00:36:32,410
that also included human remains in the site,
636
00:36:32,410 --> 00:36:35,020
and the remains of horses.
637
00:36:35,020 --> 00:36:37,000
It was spectacular.
638
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:40,583
Shining a light on Roman advances in vehicle design.
639
00:36:41,620 --> 00:36:44,610
The chariot is hugely important.
640
00:36:44,610 --> 00:36:46,550
It enables you to travel farther,
641
00:36:46,550 --> 00:36:51,550
and faster, and better than any other form of transport.
642
00:36:51,910 --> 00:36:55,010
The chariot's also a significant symbol.
643
00:36:55,010 --> 00:36:57,510
It literally lifts you up above the people
644
00:36:57,510 --> 00:37:00,420
who were walking around you.
645
00:37:00,420 --> 00:37:03,550
And so to be buried with it in death,
646
00:37:03,550 --> 00:37:07,113
is to prove how important you were in life.
647
00:37:08,650 --> 00:37:11,200
But these vehicles weren't just status symbols
648
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:12,483
for the Roman elite.
649
00:37:13,860 --> 00:37:16,783
They were first and foremost for racing.
650
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:23,080
Chariots for the Romans were something
651
00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,380
to be used in a spectacle.
652
00:37:25,380 --> 00:37:27,710
And there was only one place to go,
653
00:37:27,710 --> 00:37:30,683
the Wembley stadium of ancient Rome.
654
00:37:32,650 --> 00:37:34,323
The Circus Maximus.
655
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:38,788
Largest stadium in ancient Rome,
656
00:37:38,788 --> 00:37:42,920
the Circus Maximus was built solely for chariot racing.
657
00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:45,870
It was constructed around the sixth century BC.
658
00:37:45,870 --> 00:37:50,860
At a capacity, the crowd seemingly of 250,000 people
659
00:37:50,860 --> 00:37:55,340
all assembled to watch teams of charioteers racing
660
00:37:55,340 --> 00:37:57,970
at high speed, with high danger.
661
00:37:57,970 --> 00:38:01,703
It's one of the great, great, great sights of Rome.
662
00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:05,180
The racing chariots were lightweight,
663
00:38:05,180 --> 00:38:06,293
but very sturdy.
664
00:38:09,670 --> 00:38:12,370
The wheel base was wider to minimize the risk
665
00:38:12,370 --> 00:38:15,810
of rolling over, and smaller wheels decreased
666
00:38:15,810 --> 00:38:18,870
the force on the spokes when cornering,
667
00:38:18,870 --> 00:38:21,670
though this led to a more bumpy ride for the charioteer.
668
00:38:22,521 --> 00:38:25,630
(upbeat music)
669
00:38:25,630 --> 00:38:28,390
The Circus Maximus is basically Silverstone,
670
00:38:28,390 --> 00:38:30,670
or Monte Carlo for the Romans.
671
00:38:30,670 --> 00:38:33,925
Just as the ancient world sent out charioteers,
672
00:38:33,925 --> 00:38:38,650
their modern day equivalents still take to the track today,
673
00:38:38,650 --> 00:38:41,567
in vehicles that reach extraordinary speeds.
674
00:38:42,890 --> 00:38:45,240
Drivers pit themselves against each other
675
00:38:45,240 --> 00:38:48,643
in the lightest and fastest cars engineers can build,
676
00:38:50,500 --> 00:38:54,113
with speeds approaching nearly 300 miles per hour.
677
00:38:55,576 --> 00:38:58,230
The technology is so advanced,
678
00:38:58,230 --> 00:39:01,613
some change gear quicker than the blink of a human eye.
679
00:39:04,540 --> 00:39:06,650
These are the fastest vehicles on earth,
680
00:39:06,650 --> 00:39:08,770
and they're made of really light material,
681
00:39:08,770 --> 00:39:10,690
they have huge downforce.
682
00:39:10,690 --> 00:39:12,980
They're incredibly aerodynamic.
683
00:39:12,980 --> 00:39:16,180
But they only work because those aerodynamics work
684
00:39:16,180 --> 00:39:17,383
with the surface below.
685
00:39:19,290 --> 00:39:21,160
Just like motorsports today,
686
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:23,660
with their promise of excitement, danger,
687
00:39:23,660 --> 00:39:25,253
and occasional catastrophe,
688
00:39:26,363 --> 00:39:28,560
(crashing)
689
00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:32,163
ancient chariot races were also an adrenaline sport.
690
00:39:34,070 --> 00:39:36,170
Races were grueling.
691
00:39:36,170 --> 00:39:39,730
Seven laps covering a distance of around five miles,
692
00:39:39,730 --> 00:39:42,510
lasting up to 15 minutes.
693
00:39:42,510 --> 00:39:45,433
Life of a Roman charioteer was a very dangerous one,
694
00:39:46,436 --> 00:39:48,963
and your life expectancy was extremely short.
695
00:39:50,258 --> 00:39:52,705
The final races in the Circus Maximus
696
00:39:52,705 --> 00:39:57,705
were held in 549 AD, almost a millennium after they began.
697
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:04,140
By then the Roman Empire in Europe and North Africa
698
00:40:04,140 --> 00:40:06,663
was falling into serious decline.
699
00:40:08,130 --> 00:40:10,320
Rome was losing its grip over many
700
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:12,730
of its conquered territories.
701
00:40:12,730 --> 00:40:15,190
Despite its massive road network,
702
00:40:15,190 --> 00:40:18,320
the Empire had become overextended.
703
00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:21,710
The Romans didn't really have the resources
704
00:40:21,710 --> 00:40:25,423
to keep control of such a huge area of land.
705
00:40:26,548 --> 00:40:28,120
The Roman Empire falls,
706
00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:31,380
the Roman roads fall into disrepair,
707
00:40:31,380 --> 00:40:35,010
and the terribly complicated system of constructing them,
708
00:40:35,010 --> 00:40:38,183
maintaining them, and using them, falls away.
709
00:40:39,690 --> 00:40:42,000
Romans may have stopped building roads,
710
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:43,170
but across the world,
711
00:40:43,170 --> 00:40:46,433
other empires were expanding or creating their own.
712
00:40:48,570 --> 00:40:51,199
China continued its period of road construction
713
00:40:51,199 --> 00:40:52,583
at this time.
714
00:40:54,770 --> 00:40:57,765
And the Incas began building their impressive road network
715
00:40:57,765 --> 00:41:01,113
during the 15th century in South America.
716
00:41:03,470 --> 00:41:06,630
But in Europe, for well over a thousand years,
717
00:41:06,630 --> 00:41:10,550
no one bettered Roman road building or design.
718
00:41:10,550 --> 00:41:13,940
Roman roads are still used in the middle ages.
719
00:41:13,940 --> 00:41:16,450
You get a patching up, you get a repair,
720
00:41:16,450 --> 00:41:19,070
you get a reuse of Roman roads,
721
00:41:19,070 --> 00:41:22,780
and a reuse of the technology.
722
00:41:22,780 --> 00:41:25,220
And have Roman roads left a legacy
723
00:41:25,220 --> 00:41:27,793
that shapes our way of life even today?
724
00:41:29,470 --> 00:41:31,370
Clues to their impact were discovered
725
00:41:31,370 --> 00:41:33,580
by a team exploring satellite imagery
726
00:41:33,580 --> 00:41:36,143
of modern European roads.
727
00:41:37,550 --> 00:41:40,280
Satellites orbiting the earth capture images
728
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:43,083
of every part of the planet day and night,
729
00:41:45,940 --> 00:41:47,420
and a recent study compared
730
00:41:47,420 --> 00:41:49,830
modern Europe's nighttime illumination
731
00:41:49,830 --> 00:41:53,496
with a map of the Roman road network at its peak.
732
00:41:53,496 --> 00:41:55,630
(dramatic music)
733
00:41:55,630 --> 00:41:59,020
So when researchers map on where modern roads are,
734
00:41:59,020 --> 00:42:01,750
compared to their Roman predecessors,
735
00:42:01,750 --> 00:42:04,473
they match up extraordinarily clearly.
736
00:42:05,460 --> 00:42:06,830
Nearly every junction
737
00:42:06,830 --> 00:42:09,300
from the ancient Roman roadmap is matched
738
00:42:09,300 --> 00:42:11,793
by a splash of light in the modern era.
739
00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:17,240
Evidence that modern European cities and motorways
740
00:42:17,240 --> 00:42:20,393
were built upon roots laid down by the Romans.
741
00:42:21,730 --> 00:42:23,720
Roman roads formed the backbone
742
00:42:23,720 --> 00:42:26,100
of the continent's road systems.
743
00:42:26,100 --> 00:42:29,140
The legacy of Roman territorial conquest,
744
00:42:29,140 --> 00:42:32,890
Roman power, is still ingrained in our earth today.
745
00:42:32,890 --> 00:42:36,770
Across Europe, we still use the same sort of roots,
746
00:42:36,770 --> 00:42:39,130
we still live in towns that were founded
747
00:42:39,130 --> 00:42:41,203
or occupied by the Romans.
748
00:42:43,170 --> 00:42:44,860
It took many years for Europe
749
00:42:44,860 --> 00:42:47,663
to surpass the peak of Roman road building.
750
00:42:51,720 --> 00:42:55,230
By the 18th century, with Europe's wealth increasing,
751
00:42:55,230 --> 00:42:58,463
demand for improved transport was growing fast.
752
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:02,650
As more vehicle traffic came on the roads,
753
00:43:02,650 --> 00:43:04,150
they had to be wider.
754
00:43:04,150 --> 00:43:05,950
And when widening the roads,
755
00:43:05,950 --> 00:43:09,580
that meant a new era of road construction had to begin.
756
00:43:09,580 --> 00:43:11,530
Yet it wasn't until the latter part
757
00:43:11,530 --> 00:43:14,090
of the 18th and early 19th century
758
00:43:14,090 --> 00:43:17,423
that engineers created the first truly modern road.
759
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:22,010
And it was a British engineer, John McAdam,
760
00:43:22,010 --> 00:43:23,323
who made the breakthrough.
761
00:43:25,070 --> 00:43:28,520
He was convinced that massive stone slabs were unnecessary
762
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:31,271
to support the weight of passing carriages,
763
00:43:31,271 --> 00:43:35,310
so long as the road itself could be kept dry.
764
00:43:35,310 --> 00:43:38,187
McAdam actually said, "We don't need those big lumps
765
00:43:38,187 --> 00:43:39,907
"of stone at the bottom."
766
00:43:39,907 --> 00:43:41,637
And to compare it with the Roman technology,
767
00:43:41,637 --> 00:43:43,870
I mean the Roman roads were six foot thick,
768
00:43:43,870 --> 00:43:45,670
and these things was two foot thick.
769
00:43:46,730 --> 00:43:49,480
His design resulted in improved roads,
770
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:52,903
built faster and at lower costs than ever before.
771
00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:58,720
The technology quickly spread across Europe
772
00:43:58,720 --> 00:44:00,340
with the majority of main roads
773
00:44:00,340 --> 00:44:04,093
undergoing McAdamization by the end of the 19th century.
774
00:44:08,020 --> 00:44:11,573
And this new road engineering came in the nick of time.
775
00:44:13,170 --> 00:44:14,800
There was a new kid on the block,
776
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:17,540
about to roll off the production lines
777
00:44:17,540 --> 00:44:20,180
that would change society, economics,
778
00:44:20,180 --> 00:44:22,343
and civilization forever.
779
00:44:23,310 --> 00:44:25,303
The ultimate freedom machine.
780
00:44:26,220 --> 00:44:28,510
Horse powered transportation had been king
781
00:44:28,510 --> 00:44:33,510
of the road for 5,000 years, but now it's reign was over.
782
00:44:34,270 --> 00:44:36,590
There is a massive, massive change,
783
00:44:36,590 --> 00:44:38,726
and one we are still living with today
784
00:44:38,726 --> 00:44:42,169
with developments in the internal combustion engine.
785
00:44:42,169 --> 00:44:44,752
(upbeat music)
786
00:44:46,140 --> 00:44:48,858
Since the Romans, speed of travel on roads
787
00:44:48,858 --> 00:44:50,460
has not changed.
788
00:44:50,460 --> 00:44:52,770
It's people walking, is herding sheep,
789
00:44:52,770 --> 00:44:54,503
and it's horse-drawn carts.
790
00:44:55,630 --> 00:44:57,410
Along comes a car and all of the sudden,
791
00:44:57,410 --> 00:44:59,040
in a period of a decade,
792
00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:01,680
you've moved from nought to 10, to naught to 30.
793
00:45:01,680 --> 00:45:04,148
In another couple of years, it's naught to 50.
794
00:45:04,148 --> 00:45:05,940
As car production increased
795
00:45:05,940 --> 00:45:09,283
throughout the 20th century, so did road building.
796
00:45:09,283 --> 00:45:11,237
What the motorcar enables you to do
797
00:45:11,237 --> 00:45:14,740
is to go from exactly your doorstep
798
00:45:14,740 --> 00:45:16,720
to someone else's doorstep,
799
00:45:16,720 --> 00:45:18,570
and that's not just for personal travel,
800
00:45:18,570 --> 00:45:21,033
but that's for the movement of goods as well.
801
00:45:24,230 --> 00:45:26,450
Across the world in every country,
802
00:45:26,450 --> 00:45:29,470
on every continent, networks of roads became
803
00:45:29,470 --> 00:45:32,150
the living veins of modern society,
804
00:45:32,150 --> 00:45:35,330
reshaping cities and landscapes.
805
00:45:35,330 --> 00:45:37,322
The idea of the road and the car
806
00:45:37,322 --> 00:45:39,885
begin to dominate city planning,
807
00:45:39,885 --> 00:45:42,950
and you have cities built around the idea
808
00:45:42,950 --> 00:45:45,113
that everyone goes everywhere in a car.
809
00:45:46,550 --> 00:45:48,980
What that does is to produce a demand
810
00:45:48,980 --> 00:45:53,380
for ever bigger, ever longer, ever wider highways,
811
00:45:53,380 --> 00:45:56,370
when every time you construct a new highway,
812
00:45:56,370 --> 00:45:59,500
more people buy cars, because more people are able
813
00:45:59,500 --> 00:46:01,253
to take advantage of that freedom.
814
00:46:02,490 --> 00:46:04,743
The car may have made life easier,
815
00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:08,970
but reliance on these metal beasts
816
00:46:08,970 --> 00:46:10,832
has come at a terrible price,
817
00:46:10,832 --> 00:46:13,582
(dramatic music)
818
00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:17,550
as the planet chokes on the exhaust fumes cars leave
819
00:46:17,550 --> 00:46:18,433
in their wake.
820
00:46:20,430 --> 00:46:22,840
It has created problems for our planet through pollution,
821
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:24,810
CO2 emissions, methane emissions,
822
00:46:24,810 --> 00:46:26,990
and greenhouse effect of course.
823
00:46:26,990 --> 00:46:28,150
Road traffic accounts
824
00:46:28,150 --> 00:46:31,433
for over 20% of global CO2 emissions,
825
00:46:33,430 --> 00:46:36,000
and road construction adds to that.
826
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:38,840
Roads and cars are considered a major contributor
827
00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:40,053
to global warming.
828
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:42,990
And in many places, road transport
829
00:46:42,990 --> 00:46:44,833
has become an urban nightmare.
830
00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:47,500
Manila in the Philippines,
831
00:46:50,050 --> 00:46:52,490
and Bangalore in India,
832
00:46:52,490 --> 00:46:55,120
are considered to be the worst places on the planet
833
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:56,513
for traffic congestion.
834
00:46:58,130 --> 00:47:01,743
In many cities, it's now quicker to cycle than to drive.
835
00:47:05,230 --> 00:47:08,140
With the world facing massive environmental damage,
836
00:47:08,140 --> 00:47:12,508
engineers are now stepping up to help reinvent the wheel,
837
00:47:12,508 --> 00:47:13,963
and the road.
838
00:47:15,740 --> 00:47:18,680
Fleets of electric cars controlled by computers
839
00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:20,630
may one day automatically select
840
00:47:20,630 --> 00:47:22,920
the most efficient available routes
841
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:25,803
on roads which provide their own power supply.
842
00:47:28,470 --> 00:47:32,010
One idea is that roads will become large solar panels,
843
00:47:32,010 --> 00:47:35,440
so the roads themselves will absorb the sun's energy,
844
00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:36,690
and then they'll put that energy
845
00:47:36,690 --> 00:47:39,580
into the electric vehicles that drive on them.
846
00:47:40,700 --> 00:47:42,930
But new technology may not solve
847
00:47:42,930 --> 00:47:45,673
all the problems of overcrowded roads.
848
00:47:46,930 --> 00:47:51,930
The future must be finding a way of continuing to travel,
849
00:47:52,020 --> 00:47:56,010
continuing to trade, continuing to communicate,
850
00:47:56,010 --> 00:48:01,010
but doing so leaving a less dangerous footprint.
851
00:48:02,420 --> 00:48:04,653
Finding a way that doesn't cost the earth.
852
00:48:09,490 --> 00:48:12,808
From the early trackways of stone-age Britons,
853
00:48:12,808 --> 00:48:15,683
to the paved roads of ancient Egypt,
854
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:19,713
the road network of the Roman empire,
855
00:48:22,010 --> 00:48:24,023
to modern super highways,
856
00:48:28,050 --> 00:48:31,543
the road has long been the driving force of humanity.
857
00:48:32,910 --> 00:48:35,060
Throughout the centuries, road engineers
858
00:48:35,060 --> 00:48:40,060
have built big, dug deep, and scaled heights.
859
00:48:45,820 --> 00:48:48,510
Inseparable, the road and the wheel have endured
860
00:48:48,510 --> 00:48:51,403
a long journey to what they have become today.
861
00:48:54,480 --> 00:48:58,103
The wheel had a rough start as a clumsy heavy contraption.
862
00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:02,600
It's evolved into a fit lean machine,
863
00:49:02,600 --> 00:49:05,270
transporting people further and faster
864
00:49:05,270 --> 00:49:07,403
throughout the globe than ever before.
865
00:49:09,140 --> 00:49:12,950
From the very beginning, human ingenuity and innovation
866
00:49:12,950 --> 00:49:15,283
has overcome the greatest of obstacles.
867
00:49:17,470 --> 00:49:20,763
Ancient engineering was essential in laying the groundwork,
868
00:49:22,610 --> 00:49:24,770
and whatever the future holds,
869
00:49:24,770 --> 00:49:28,423
it'll be engineers who keep the planet on the move.
870
00:49:30,253 --> 00:49:33,670
(intense dramatic music)
68186
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