A closer look
Richard Trevithick built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive in 1804, and on its maiden voyage, it successfully hauled ten tons of iron and seventy men down the track. However, the machine was so unfathomably heavy that it immediately shattered the brittle cast-iron rails it was driving on, essentially destroying the very infrastructure it needed to function. Trevithick proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that steam power could move massive loads, but he also proved that civil engineering was miles behind mechanical engineering. It is heavily symbolic of modern public transit development, where we invent brilliant, cutting-edge trains but completely refuse to fund the tracks required to actually run the things properly
