There has been a meme circulating on Reddit about Roman road quality vs. modern roads with the joke being that we forgot how to make roads. With the response:<p>Roman engineering was phenomenal, there's no denying that. But modern roads work entirely differently. They are intended for a radically different usage (modern vehicles traveling at high speeds and carrying heavy loads. They also need to be built quickly and cheaply, since we need far more of them than the Romans did. It makes far more sense to make roads which are cheap and quick to build, and then resurface them when they begin to wear out. Poor quality of roading in the 21st century is entirely down to economics and politics. Under-spending on infrastructure and cutting corners in building are the main culprits. If we wanted to build roads that would last thousands of years we could do it, but it would require spending radically more money, and not having any cars or trucks drive on it for the first 18-21 centuries after they're built (as was the case with Roman roads).<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/terriblefacebookmemes/comments/i1nn03/can_you_guys_debunk_this/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/terriblefacebookmemes/comments/i1nn...</a>
Are there other examples of similarly old roads or routes that are still in use today? I know of the Grand Trunk Road [1] and other examples would be cool to learn about.<p>1. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Trunk_Road" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Trunk_Road</a>
I wonder if this (road building) was not one of the Roman's secret sauces to be such a dominant military power. Dispatching a legion from point A to point B is probably a much easier logistical affair if you have really good roads than if you don't.