Modern Bridges and Medieval Castles

Dearest Reader,

Pardon my absence and relative tardiness, I have been exceedingly busy as of late.

So comparing the construction videos, here are the links to those who haven't watched them

Medieval Castle Construction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CboJzrDhoSk&feature=youtu.be

New NY Bridge Construction

http://www.newnybridge.com/three-years-in-two-minutes-new-video-captures-construction-progress/

Both of these videos are astoundingly cool to say the lease and represent very different construction methodologies and practices. The castle is being hand built using historically accurate practices, from treadmill cranes to hand chiseling the pieces. The castle is being built by a few dozen people in their spare time. Comparing that to the bridge construction, modern equipment is being used by thousands of full time workers, contractors, and subcontractors to produce the end product. The comparison is fascinating. Between the two construction projects 800 years of advancement can be seen.

The skills required for each project are quite divergent and difficult to compare. In the castle you have stone masons doing work that is thousands of years old dating back to the beginning of civilization. Comparing that to the bridge with modern construction practices and equipment, as someone with a romantic love of history, there just seems to be more skill and art in the craft of the mason as employed in the castle. This is by no means a slight to the iron worker or crane operator, but the hands of nature of masonry, each stone being individually crafted by hand one hammer blow at a time, has such a romance and connection to it. As well the fact that they're doing work that has been done for millennia, that connection to the past to me is highly intriguing. Each cut stone or hewn timber has an intimacy with its craftsman. A human hand has handled and shaped each piece, leaving with it the signs of its maker  that will last for many thousands of years. The bridge will last maybe a hundred years or more, the castle will easily last hundreds or thousands.