Not just the ancients, either. Building the first transcontinental railroad through the hard granite rock of the Sierras, before plentiful hard steel, before dynamite, before diesel equipment. It was built in six years. During a war. 1,776 miles of track. $4-$5 billion in 2026 dollars.
They didn't have dynamite to blow through the rocks, but they had nitroglycerin. Highly unstable, but just as effective.
“During a war. 1,776 miles of track. $4-$5 billion in 2026 dollars.”
During a war, perhaps they were pressed to get rapid transport of all that western gold and silver moving east as fast as possible to finance it. The Railroad industrial complex was a growing business power. Had the Military Industrial Complex established its power by that time?
I am amazed at the boulders in my area of New Hampshire. Left by the retreating glacier 12m years ago.
Meaning the rock walls that were moved with horse, oxen and levers. Clearing a field full of rocks to grow corn/crops.
I have boulders on my property that a 30m# excavator had trouble moving. Yet, there is a wall on the northern border of my property where some Pilgrim piled up rocks for a hundred of more years from plowing a field. Before they wisely moved to Ohio/Indiana/Iowa where the ground has less rocks.