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Comment by tobltobs | Hacker News Reader

Imho even more amazing are those water bridges of the Canal du Midi. Built around 1670.

https://www.beziers-in-mediterranee.com/sites/ot-beziers/fil...

I'm sorry but as an engineer there is no way aqeduct is from 1670, it looks mid 1800s (and definitely no earlier than 1800).

Edit: Google shows canal du midi is indeed from 1670 but this aqeduct section is later, completed in 1858 (the order was decreed by Napoleon himself according to wiki)

Thanks for pointing out this mistake. Here is one of the canal bridges which have been built around 1670.

https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont-canal_du_R%C3%A9pudre

and one from 1690: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesse_Aqueduct

Ah yes, they are both very nice structures that would have taken some good engineering at the time. I wonder what would have been used as the impermeable water barrier - puddle clay or similar?

Impressive, I had no idea that it is that old. Not quite fossa carolina old ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossa_Carolina ) but compared to the canal du midi with all its impressive locks that one was just a series of ponds connected by slides.

Impressive, but not quite Valens Aqueduct old.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valens_Aqueduct

Impressive, but not quite Pont du Gard old.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_du_Gard

Well, Roman antiquity is full of infrastructure far beyond and above anything from the middle ages, that's a given.

The surprising part about fossa carolinga is how it happened at a time when most known infrastructure projects were hardly more than permanently staffed camps for a roaming band of warlords.

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