WEBVTT - Invention Playlist II: Roads 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:11.880 Hey, welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamb and 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.600 I'm Joe McCormick and Robert. I don't know if you've 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.079 ever had this experience, You've ever been out walking in 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:21.040 nature and you decided to veer off the path for 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:24.239 some reason, Maybe you saw something interesting way off there 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:25.960 in the distance you wanted to go check it out, 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:31.960 only to immediately discover, to your own humiliation, how difficult 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.760 it is to walk through uncleared terrain. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:38.199 I've definitely had this experience before. And that's not even 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.720 getting into you know, issues of ticks and other parasites. 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:45.519 Oh yeah, there's there's the tick problem, definitely. But like, 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.960 unless you're somebody with a particular class of outdoor hobbies 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:52.640 or lines of work, you would probably be so embarrassed 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:54.800 to realize how much of your life you spend on 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:58.840 pre selected traversible pathways like the floor of your house 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:02.960 or workplace, the sidewalk to the door, the sidewalk down 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:05.880 the road, the road itself. Even when you go out 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:08.800 in nature, it's really likely that you probably spend most 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:12.399 of your time out there following some kind of forged 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.720 or trodden pathway. And if you get off the path. 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:20.920 Planet Earth almost immediately transforms into this unruly and difficult 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:25.039 place with uneven footing and branches and rocks and vegetation 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:29.960 blocking your path, sudden drop off, steep inclines. This is Earth, 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.280 and this is what a large part of the surface 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:34.640 of Planet Earth is like. And much of it is 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.679 just not made to be quickly and easily traveled over. 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:40.000 It's funny, how even if you go out and spend 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.319 a decent amount of time in nature, you can mostly 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:45.360 overlook this fact just by staying on the path. So 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:47.680 that's what we wanted to look at today. Something we 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:50.560 don't often even think of as a human invention, but 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:55.160 in a way certainly is the roads we travel. That's right, 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:57.680 it's a it's it's really an essential part of the 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:01.800 world that we have created. Um. But however, if we 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.920 if we want to understand the human history of roads, 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.480 and even get into the pre human history of roads, 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:11.840 we have to acknowledge the work of our of our 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:15.800 non human relatives, of the work of animals, because because 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:18.519 we do have animal paths. To consider the trails left 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.640 by say, deer in the forest, the buffalo roads across 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:24.359 the western plains of North America, animals on the move 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:28.040 from one area to another had to push aside vegetation, 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.640 and in the act of moving they end up trampling 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:32.919 down the earth beneath their weight. And we're talking about 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:36.160 a lot of weight when we're considering wide ranging megafauna, 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:38.280 you know, some of which we still have today, but 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.160 we had even more of in prehistoric times. I guess 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.000 before there were the cattle roads where the orax roads 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:46.400 or something. Yeah, and of course when other animals came 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.120 along in their wake. Uh, these paths were there, and 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.800 they often represented the swiftest, least least obstructive way to 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.079 get from one place to another. Yeah, it's certainly interesting 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.400 to think about animal trails as being a tight of 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:06.120 geomodification or adaptation of the landscape itself to the organism. Now, 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:08.839 a lot of the ways that organisms survive are by 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.200 adapting to the landscape around them. But sometimes they survive 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.919 by changing the landscape to better suit them, and they 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:18.040 don't necessarily do this consciously. Is just their activities bring 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.160 this about the big examples or things like beaver dams. 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:25.000 Beaver dams is just altering the immediate environment or or 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:27.920 even looking to mega fauna that such as an elephant 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.080 that may push push down trees and other vegetation. Yeah, 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.160 but of course we can see paths emerging that in 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.440 some ways play some of the same roles. Yeah, now 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.960 I do I do want to drive home here though 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.040 that even though animal trails are are often brought up 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.600 as being sort of the pre human origin of roads 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.000 and human pathways and certainly seem to play a role 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.960 in them. Uh, there are some who take issue with 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:56.960 with giving animal trails too much importance, are arguing that, well, 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.920 animals don't actually follow consistent paths all the time, so 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:05.000 it's not a you know, a definite connection here, but 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:06.560 it is one that is pointed out in a lot 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:08.880 of the literature. And speaking of the literature, one of 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.280 the books that we look to for this episode is 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:13.360 a book by the title of Ways of the World, 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.320 A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:21.400 that used Them, by Maxwell Gordon lay On, Australian civil engineer, 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.000 published in nineteen two. In the book, lay says that 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:27.359 you know, on this whole issue of animal paths, it 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.760 really depends on the environment. He says, quote difficult to 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.440 rain or dense of vegetation in fertile areas would certainly 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.760 have required narrow and specific animal ways. So even if yeah, 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.200 you can say that, uh, you know, animals aren't gonna 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.800 always follow consistent paths, there are going to be environments 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.640 where there is like one best way to get from 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:47.680 point A to point b. If point a to point 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.240 B is indeed a path that needs to be navigated 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:52.680 by animals. One way to see an analogy here is 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:56.120 if you ever look at the the desire paths that 0:04:56.240 --> 0:05:01.039 form along a college campus or or yard of a 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.000 well populated building or something. Do you ever see these 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:06.560 at College Robert where there would be like paved pathways, 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:10.039 but then branching off in a shortcut between two places, 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:12.120 there would be a place where the grass was just 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.760 beaten down and there was a dusty dirt. Oh yeah, 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.599 it's generally it's kind of a breakdown in planning because like, 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:22.920 clearly you did not plan out the best paved route 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.080 for for foot traffic. Clearly foot traffic wants to go 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:28.680 this way. But it's kind of beautiful watching those things 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:31.480 emerge because nobody planned it that way. Just as you're saying, 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.880 even the students didn't plan it that way. Just over time, 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:37.880 enough people make the same decision about where to go 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:42.120 and how to get there, that these natural pathways emerge 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.680 until someone throws up a hedge or something. So eventually 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.360 you have a few species of hominids that come along, 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.960 and they distinguished themselves in intelligence, and they start forging 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:57.600 their own trails, often incorporating animal trails whenever it makes 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:00.200 sense as well. So, yeah, if the trail all of 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:02.919 the megafauna uh is there, they may use it, but 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.680 they may also uh beat down their own paths as well. 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:09.760 So you know, they would have navigated by doing this, 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.760 they would have navigated difficult drain bodies of water. And 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.760 prior to the coming of Europeans to to the America's 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:19.600 the native people's here had they had their own complex 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.360 system of foot trails by which they could travel the land. 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.239 In his book, uh Lay points out the Nachez Trace 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.919 four dred forty mile or seven hundred kilometer trail that 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.560 goes from Nachez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, and it was 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.719 used by native peoples for centuries and it was said 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:41.560 to have, you know, been originally created by buffalo heading 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.600 north to Salt Licks in the area of what is 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.560 now Nashville, Tennessee. Yeah, and this highlights something you might 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.600 not immediately think about with roads, because roads not only 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.640 allow you to move more easily by providing a clear 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.160 path on the surface c C to walk on, they 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:59.960 also help you know where you're going. And this could 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.240 even be the case for animals. Right many animals have 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:06.000 been built navigation capabilities that others don't. As a large 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.080 bipedal primate, just try to find your way around in 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.760 the world without a compass or a map or a road, 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.000 you're probably gonna have kind of a hard time of it. 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:16.200 And you can also consider the fact that even if 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.160 you're not following a familiar road to get somewhere specific, 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.280 you can follow any road to eventually get somewhere significant. 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.240 Like people don't usually build roads to nowhere, and that 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.560 applies to animals as well. Now in considering lands that 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:31.960 have known the influence of humans for far longer than 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.320 the America's, it has also been theorized that some of 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:38.200 the the older winding roads in places like England have 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.600 their roots in wild animal pathways leading to fords and 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:45.440 watering holes. And of course, in the case of many 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.000 of these ancient trails. Uh, they might remain somewhat fluid 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.640 for a number of reasons, because you have shifting waterways. 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.120 Trees are gonna fall, beavers are going to do their things, 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.880 storms are gonna uh add chaos as the scenario, So 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.800 any number of things might occur that that that alter 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.040 the shape of the path. And of course additional changes 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:10.440 would come as humans uh continue to develop their their 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:14.280 their their primitive technologies. Right, they require more paths for 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:18.120 their own meager footfalls. The cultivation of crops and animal 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.960 husband husbandry would have increasingly created a world where certain 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.920 areas had to remain off limits to animals, particularly to 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:30.920 domesticated animals and other zones or you know, roads would 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.720 need to easily and safely convey these creatures from one 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:37.079 place to another. All right, we're gonna take a quick break. 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.640 When we come back, we're going to continue along the road. 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:48.000 All right, we're back now. Obviously, there is no single 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:52.040 inventor of roads, so we can't point to uh dr 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.200 Rogilus who came up with roads ten thousand years ago. 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:59.240 Didn't happen, Sir Walter Rhodes, Uh, No, you know, we've 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.960 already discussed the foot paths of early humans likely made 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:05.560 use of animal paths to some degree. But then what 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.480 happens again when humans transition out of their mere hunter 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.760 gatherer lifestyle. What happens in the wake of the agricultural revolution, 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:16.000 resulting in such innovations as domesticated animals and then eventually 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:21.360 wheel and sledge constructions for dragging surplus crops, firewood, and 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:24.600 other necessities around. Now, once you introduced the idea of 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.520 wheeled vehicles, things changed significantly, And it's worth noting as 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.680 an aside that the strange and fascinating fact that it 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:36.240 appears the wheel was not invented for transportation until some 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:41.280 time around the fourth millennium b C, like or something, 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:46.160 which at first first exposure to this fact seems shockingly late. Right, 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.040 Grain agriculture has probably existed since around nine to ten 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:54.040 thousand BC, which means that roughly half the time humans 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.480 have been farming, nobody had wheeled vehicles to move sacks 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:00.400 of grain or whatever around. So, of course, maybe we 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:04.839 shouldn't be surprised, given that wheels are a deeply unnatural invention, right, 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.640 So many human inventions have some kind of analogy and nature. 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.000 While there are animals that roll their bodies or parts 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.360 of their bodies in various ways. Maybe the closest is 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:18.959 the bacterial flagella, which nobody could have seen the microscope 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:22.000 to see. See some of the more wheel like creatures 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.720 in the Animal Kingdom. But even that's not really a wheel. 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.560 There's just nothing in nature that operates on a wheel 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.080 and axle, and we should definitely revisit the invention of 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:33.520 the wheel future. That's a no brainer. We have to 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:35.640 come back to that. But so, yeah, think about this, 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:40.040 just thousands of years of agriculture and road in some 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.200 way road based transport, at least some primitive forms of 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.720 roads without wheeled vehicles on them. Yeah. Now, on the 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.319 subject of domesticated herd, you might well require a dependable 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.640 road to connect winter and summer grazing lands, and indeed 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.480 we see examples of this in the Cannadas realists in Spain. 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:02.320 These are drovers roads covering hundred and twenty five thousand kilometers. 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.800 Another example of the the Welsh Roads of England that 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.760 linked scott At Scotland and Wales to London markets. Again 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.800 just moving domesticated animals from one place to another. Yeah, 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.800 roads are necessary for the development of trade and in 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.439 many ways you could say for the development of culture. 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:23.400 I mean, almost everything that we think of in culture 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:27.000 comes ultimately from the connections of people's to each other, 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:30.319 you know, the meeting of different minds across distance, and 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.520 that's all enabled by roads in trade. Yeah. And even 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.720 though a lot of these roads change over time, obviously, 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:38.800 and and you don't find a lot of paths that 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:42.480 remain in use for just extended periods of time, but 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.440 you do see these wonderful examples of some of these pathways, 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:49.280 particularly in North America and Britain, where just they have 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.120 centuries of wear and tear and they've essentially become a 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.880 little trenches just from all the of the foot traffic. 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.800 And that is is pretty amazing. Yeah. Though the Roman 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:00.839 roads were dug out to be in with I believe 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:02.480 or at least some of them were, right, like they 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.959 would dig down a trench in a way to become 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:07.040 the road. Oh yeah, And that's where we're getting in 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.880 really into a serious construction of roads. And ultimately, that's 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:12.920 what we need to talk about at this point, is 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.840 when when you start constructing a road, it's not merely well, 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.040 we sure did move those goats from from here to 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.079 there enough times that there's the best way to do that. 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.599 You know what, what happens when we get into the 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:30.319 idea of of planning a road, manufacturing and reinforcing it, 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:34.400 caring and maintaining it. When we started asking that question, well, 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:38.040 Lay says that quote, uh, the creation of major lowland 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.520 ways required a degree of engineering skill and organization that 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:45.880 began to develop around four thousand BC. It points out 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.760 that the oldest British quote planned and engineered pathways date 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:54.600 back to Glastonbury, UK thirty three thousand b C. And uh, 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:59.000 good local roads ultimately helped the Britains defeat the Roman 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.880 legions in fifty five b C. And now. Of course, 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.120 on the other hand, extensive, high quality roads are a 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.880 major factor in the military success of the Roman Republic 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.760 and then the Roman Empire right or really any any 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:14.640 particular empire. I think back to episodes of of stuff 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:16.480 double your mind that you and I did on the 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.920 Inca and the important of the the Inca road system, 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:27.200 which also incorporated uh, tremendously impressive rope bridges, and how 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:31.000 that contributed to the success of the Inca. Yeah, great 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.240 part of the power of the Inca Empire lay in 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:36.760 its transportation and communication infrastructure. Yeah, and if you want 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:39.560 to quickly convey your troops from one point in an 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:43.880 empire or kingdom to another, especially across difficult terrain, in 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.680 order to defend or expand a kingdom, um, you're going 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:50.280 to need good roads. And indeed we see this reflected 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:54.120 even in recent history, say the United States Interstate system 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.440 in the early twentieth century, it was considered necessary for 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:00.840 national defense. Yeah, definitely, and their more stable reasons that 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.160 roads are necessary for for military purposes. I mean, one, 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.079 of course, is to get your armies to places. That's 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:09.199 the obvious one. But the other one is the thing 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:11.040 that a lot of times people you know, when they're 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:15.080 when you're playing your historical military games, like that, would 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:18.319 Julius Caesar's army to feed the Mongols or something like that? 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:20.840 You know, you're you're doing all that stuff. People like 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.320 to think about commanders and weapons and fighting styles and 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:26.160 all that, but they don't think enough about the real 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:28.520 thing that makes or breaks a war campaign, which is 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:32.960 supply lines, the ultimate gremlin of military history. The army 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:36.040 marches on its belly, right, Yeah, and undersupplied army can't 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.560 fight at full strength, and so the supply lines, how 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.800 you get food and other major supplies to your troops, 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.360 how you bring reinforcements to the front. I guess that 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.400 all falls under the military category of logistics. But that's 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:50.760 a huge part of the success of a military campaign. 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:52.520 Now it's easy for us to get caught up in 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:54.320 the you know, these sort of country roads. We've been 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:56.760 talking a lot about a lot of cross country paths 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:00.360 and roads. But as as Life points out in his book, Um, 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.640 you know, going back to two ancient times, uh, you 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.000 see roads as a necessity of city planning. As cities 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:11.720 become a thing for for human beings, it becomes necessary 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.280 to think about how people were moving around in them, 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.240 what sort of of of streets or roads are present. 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:18.920 And you see this in the work of the ancient 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:22.880 Egyptians and various Middle and Near Eastern civilizations. Uh. The 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.360 use of roads and sinning city plannings was discussed in 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:30.120 the writings of, for instance, Greek city planner Hippodamus in 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.720 Uh in later reference in the works of Aristotle and others, 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.360 and sometimes city plans were based more on engineering, and 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:39.920 other times there was a there was some element of mysticism, 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.480 as well, which seems seems like it would be highly 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.960 susceptible to mysticism the construction of roads, because it is 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:53.120 this kind of complex like system of on language that 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.440 you're laying out across the world. Roads appear in all 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:00.360 kinds of myths and legends and religiously significance to worries. 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.840 The Road to Damascus, the Road to m s the row, 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.920 little red riding hood on the road to her grandmother's house. Yeah. 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:14.600 How many um horror stories throughout history are essentially stories 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:16.840 about what happens when you go off of the path 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.880 or the road, right right, Yeah, Mirkwood in the Hobbit, Yeah, 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.080 if they stick to the road, gentlemen, and you're not 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:26.280 gonna encounter problems, don't go chasing elf lights into the dark. Now. 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.160 Of course, we'd be remiss if we did mention one 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:31.080 of the great roads, the Silk Road, an example of 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.480 roads running into other roads to become more or less 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.520 a single pathway dating back to roughly three kind of 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:42.360 connecting various caravan routes across Eurasia. One of the all 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:46.480 time grades. D Yeah, top top top five, top three. 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.600 To be sure, all right, we're gonna take a quick break, 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:57.880 but we will be right back. All right, We're back, okay. Now. 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.720 One thing that certainly changes about road it's over time 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.520 is that the original roads were just beaten down areas 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.720 of earth, right and where the there where the cattle 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:10.080 or the large bovids or whatever would push through. They 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.600 trample down the ground and make it flat, and they 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.560 push the vegetation aside, so there'd be a clear pathway 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.080 going somewhere. But over time roads took on a more 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.680 technological character. People were looking for better ways to make 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:23.760 more reliable roads. Because you got a road like that 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:28.200 that's maybe just some trampled down cleared earth. Maybe let's 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:30.280 say you have some heavy rains. What you tend to 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.280 find is that the road like that gets a little 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.280 bit washed out in the roads. Yeah, I mean in 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.760 in in our own neighborhoods here in Atlanta, we we 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:40.639 have at least a few examples of this where we 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.240 have an unofficial pathway and then what happens when it 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.080 becomes a muddy wreck. And then you see some very 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.480 amateur essentially road building where people are like, well I'll 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:51.280 just dump a bunch of rocks in here, or I 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:54.480 have some tire garbage that will really help things out. Yes, 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:56.879 I will fix the path with a whole bunch of 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.240 cans or something. Yeah. And it essentially this is kind 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:02.560 of what we see in some of the the early 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:07.520 corduroy roads or log roads that are that are created 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.639 to deal with muddy terrain. Oh they're better than cans, 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.680 I guess. But but essentially we're talking about placing logs 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.679 perpendicular to the direction of the road. And examples of 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.400 this sort sort of road date back at least four 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:23.720 thousand years. Uh. There's the so called post track in 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:27.719 Somerset levels, England, for instance. Uh. And it makes sense, right, Like, 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:29.879 what what do you do if your your vehicle is 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:33.560 stuck in the mud, right, just grinding, grinding the mud 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.480 until you're buried. You get you get some sticks or law, 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:38.359 you know whatever, pieces of wood and you put them 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:40.720 under the tire. You want something to pull up on 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:42.760 some traction. Yeah, you want to put something under the 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:45.640 tire that will stay where it is when you're driving. Yeah. 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.480 So that is essentially what say, you know the post 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:51.600 track is lay mentions another one. He says the sweet 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:56.280 track uses longitudinal log to support oblique crossed pegs which 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:00.600 form a v uh every meter or so planks between 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.919 these create a walking path. And this is the Sweet 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:08.080 Path from near Glastonbury, which dates back to uh. Three 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:12.800 thousand BC. Now, Robert, when did people first come up 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.080 with the idea of the old the old popper the 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.840 gravel road? Ah, you know, I was. I was thinking 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:20.720 about this, and I was reading around in lays book 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:24.200 and looking at a couple other sources on this, and um, yeah, 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.200 it's one of these things that that feels like it 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.240 should be pretty archaic, because again we come back to 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.160 that idea, what do you do when the path gets muddy? Well, 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:33.880 one solution is get some rocks and throw them on there, right, 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.200 And that that clearly seems to have been something that 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:41.480 would have been utilized by by our our ancient ancestors. 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.560 But but when you start really thinking about gravel roads, 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:49.080 it gets pretty interesting. We can really take the technology 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.600 and the labor involved. For granted. For example, was recently 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.280 in Costa Rica and we went up to Monteverde in 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:59.320 the cloud forests and to get to Mount a Verde, Uh, 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:03.560 you have to take this this winding road, and more 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:05.760 and more of it is paved now, but there's still 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.880 a stretch that is gravel and and these are these 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.040 are good gravel roads. I don't want to cast any 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.840 unnecessary shade on the roads of Costa Rica because uh 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:20.760 uh you know, we never felt in danger or anything. 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:23.680 You know, these are these are nice gravel roads. Uh, 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.080 I mean, hey, I've been on some scary gravel roads 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:28.560 in Georgia. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, and if I'm 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.080 being honest, like gravel roads in general like tend to 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.440 wig me out, but probably unnecessarily so. But yeah, I 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.560 think think about about what essentially a gravel road is. 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:39.240 Instead of lining the road with wood, you cover it 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:43.520 with dirter rocks or gravel, uh, taken from well, in 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:47.359 today's cases, some sort of quarried area, right, but more 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.280 likely in older examples you'll be talking about rocks from 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.280 a creek bed. The problem, of course, is that gravel 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:55.679 can be washed away and then you have you have 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.280 this huge task of hauling it all the gravel back 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:00.720 up and then distributing it where it needs to go. 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:03.200 And this can be quite intensive. I mean, just look 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:06.240 at modern cases. If you see any kind of maintenance 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:08.080 going on, or you know, if you happen to get 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:10.720 to see the creation of a gravel road, you're going 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.240 to see the hauling and distribution via you know, massive 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:17.080 pieces of equipment, dump trucks and what have you. Uh. 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:19.080 And perhaps this is a major reason you tend to 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:22.280 see more widespread use of gravel roads in say, early 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:26.720 twentieth century US and twentieth century developing areas and nations 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.399 as well, because it simply becomes cheaper to transport and 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:32.760 dump all the necessary gravel, which is of course again 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:37.239 now mind and transported on dependable roadways rather than just 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:41.679 laboriously transported from stream beds to uh, you know, roadways 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.600 that might be questionable in their own right. The age 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.040 of the dump truck made it possible. Yeah, so think 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:48.680 about that the next time you're on a gravel road. 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:52.800 Realized that this is perhaps more of a modern conveyance 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:55.879 than you're giving giving a credit for. Now. Of course, 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:59.240 when we talk about like the best, the most modern 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:03.200 examples of a road, you're gonna think of paved roads, right, 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:05.320