How many years was it where bridges were made only out of wood? I feel engineers before us had the foresight to see the possibilities but lacked the tools and u

How many years was it where bridges were made only out of wood? I feel engineers before us had the foresight to see the possibilities but lacked the tools and understanding. I fear only when people realized the economy needed to support large mammals crossing a bridge at one time did they really engineer bridges to support that weight. I think the same metaphor could be said for computing.