State of the Art Technology

In light of Leslie's remark on how past "State of the Art" technologies may seem so antiquated today, let's consider the horse drawn wagon.

One of the architectural thrills of my visit to Vienna was standing in the grand Hall of Pillars in the Austrian Parliament building. The marble hall was truly magnificent. The hall, 40 meters long and 23 meters wide, gets its name from the 24 corinthian pillars made of marble which frame the hall: each column is a monolith weighing 16 tons each. 16 tons! The solid 16-ton columns were brought to the construction site and carved in situ before being installed. It took a 24-horse powered wagon to haul each column from the coutryside of the Habsburg empire into the city.
I marveled at the ingenuity of hauling such a behemoth in an age before the motorized vehicle and thinking what madness to even entertain such a feat. But the feat was accomplished despite the lack of our facilitating modern day technology. While I gazed at th picture of 24-horse drawn cart with the enormous, solid smooth colum in tow, it dawned on me that the cart I was looking at was probably state of the art for the 1870's. The architect Theophil von Hansen dared to undertake this venture because he knew what technologies were available to him to accomplish his feat. And if they were not sufficient, he would improve on them because he was a man on a mission and nothing would stop him from realizing his dream.

I have not been able to find a picture of the column in transport but I have found a picture through Wikepedia of the Hall of Pillars. Of course the image does the reality no justice.

Image: Hall of Pillars