The Ruts of Our Fathers

The standard width of railroad tracks is 4 feet, 8 ½ inches. Historically, this odd width has impacted wars and even space exploration. While some experts believe a gauge of 5 feet would be more efficient, the shorter width (4 ‘ 8 ½ “) has been used for hundreds of years and has been adopted extensively. Why?

Ruts

George Hilton, a professor at UCLA, has studied the history of railroads at length. He states you can track the current rail width all the way back to the Roman Empire. Archaeologists have found that ruts in the roads at Pompeii are almost the same width as the current railways. The grooves in the ancient roads were cut by Roman chariots. On these roads, a chariot of a different width would suffer a broken wheel. The girth of horses used to pull the chariots helped establish the distance between the wheels.

Early Railroads

When early railways were developed in England, railway designers tried several different gauges, but ended in choosing a width similar to the Roman Chariots (4’, 8 ½ ”). Then, when trains came to the United States, many used this standard. However, in the South a wider track was more common (5 feet). Unfortunately, this proved to be a liability during the Civil War, because some equipment from the South could not be transported to other regions. Some scholars feel this was a determining factor in the war. As a result, southern railroads were standardized.

Roman Chariots and the Space Shuttle

Originally, the engineers of the Solid Rocket Boosters for the Space Shuttle designed them to be larger. However, since the rockets had to be moved from Utah to Florida, the size of the railroad restricted their dimensions. So, a simple decision thousands of years ago concerning the width of a chariot impacted space travel.

Find Us Faithful

Jon Mohr wrote these words:

O may all who come behind us find us faithful;
May the fire of our devotion light their way.
May the footprints that we leave Lead them to believe,
And the lives we live inspire them to obey.
O may all who come behind us find us faithful.