Mud, water and wood: The system that kept a 1604-year-old city afloat

Mud, water and wood: The system that kept a 1604-year-old city afloat 1 day ago Share Save Anna Bressanin Share Save Emmanuel Lafont/ BBC (Credit: Emmanuel Lafont/ BBC) Most modern structures are built to last 50 years or so, but ingenious ancient engineering has kept this watery city afloat for more than 1,600 years – using only wood. As any local knows, Venice is an upside-down forest. The city, which turned 1604 years old on March 25, is built on the foundations of millions of short wooden piles, pounded in the ground with their tip facing downwards. These trees – larch, oak, alder, pine, spruce and elm of a length ranging between 3.5m (11.5ft) to less than 1m (3ft) – have been holding up stone palazzos and tall belltowers for centuries, in a true marvel of engineering leveraging the forces of physics and nature. In most modern structures, reinforced concrete and steel do the work that this inverted forest has been doing for centuries. But despite their strength, few foundation ... Read full article.