Tools & manufacturing · 312 BCE
Roman aqueduct
Gravity and arches carry water tens of kilometers to a city.
The Aqua Appia opened in 312 BCE, and by the 3rd century CE eleven aqueducts supplied Rome. Precise gradients, sometimes under 1 m per km, supported cities of a million people.
What it built on 2
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Related measurements
The dashed line marks when it first worked.
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