more ado about trains

Here's an interesting little tidbit that you might have read in an email chain. If so, you can stop reading now. If not, read on!

The Romans decided they didn't like their road/carriage system. So they revamped it, and standardized everything. They said the wagons needed to be such and such wide, so they all landed the same place on the road, so they wouldn't fall into and out of ruts, they'd just all stay in the same tracks. That was such a good idea (and everyone needed to business with the Romans, aka world dominators) so everyone else copied them, and the width for wagons was almost universally the same worldwide for hundreds of years. then came the car and since it had to fit on the same roads as the horse pulled wagons, it was made to nearly the same specifications. As horses went out and cars came in, the roads stayed the same to accommodate the cars. Buses and trucks were built to fit into the road lanes as well. Trains were made to accommodate wagon beds, and later truck loads, so the train too was standardized based on the Roman ideal.

Isn't it funny that our whole transportation infrastructure hasn't changed all that much, at least in dimensions, since the Romans? An interesting thought, especially when contemplating the far-reaching effects of our actions.