5 ms·

A man rebuilding the last Inca rope bridge

87 points by kaonwarb 1y ago

taeric 1y ago
The account of the final weaving of the bridge is awesome. I'd imagine it isn't much different from any job you can do while "dangling," but still. Wow. I am curious on the idea that wheels would not have been helpful? I get that full blown carriages and such would have been a bit of work to use, but it isn't like a wheel barrow isn't already useful. I'm also curious on how they wound the rope without some sort of wheel involved?
- soperj 1y ago
  > I'm also curious on how they wound the rope without some sort of wheel involved? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gH4I0R7Hp2c https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gH4I0R7Hp2c
  - taeric 1y ago
    Right, I know it involves spinning, which fair that you can just use a crank. My curiosity was more on the very heavy ropes. I'd assume that you would benefit heavily from a geared like setup to run the spinning.
- subzero06 1y ago
  Its a tradition, they do everything manual like the Incas did it. They don't like using "wheels" or any sort of technology as it would ruin the tradition. You can see the process here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQl6geeY7CM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQl6geeY7CM Oh- and it involves a lot of people not a 1 man job.
  - taeric 1y ago
    Awesome, thanks for the video! And I'd expect anything like this to be more than a 1 man job! Apologies if I implied otherwise. I'd expect even using wheels for the turning that you would need more than a single person. It is obnoxious how hard it is to search on why they would have never invented a wheel for the spinning of thread. AI seems to insist that spinning wheels are directly the result of carting wheels. I'd expect even wheels for a pulley system would have helped with the hanging process.
    - wahern 1y ago
      The Inca had wheels, they just didn't use them for much. There are Incan toys with wheels, for example. AFAIU the consensus opinion is that carting wheels never took hold in pre-Columbian America because of a lack of draft animals. The Inca used spindles for spinning thread, which apparently was sufficient for their needs. And the wheelbarrow is, interestingly (TIL), a relatively recent Old World invention, with the earliest depictions from 2nd century AD China. Even the chariot didn't arrive in the Old World until the early 2nd millennia BC. And the chariot wasn't invented by the Egyptians or Chinese, but by peoples in the Eurasian Steppe. (Who probably not coincidentally were some of the first to domestic horses? More primitive wheeled carts were much older but also contemporaneous with emergence of other domesticated draft animals like oxen, I think. Smaller animals can draft, but the utility is severely diminished beyond very favorable terrain.)
      - WalterBright 1y ago
        Many "obvious" inventions take a very long time to happen. For example, the very slow evolution of boats. It took forever to come up with the keel. Also the fork. Rigid, authoritarian societies also seem to have a lot of problems inventing new things, especially disruptive things. James Burke's "Connections" is a great history of invention.
        taeric 1y ago
        Totally fair. Direct to this one, you could probably look at the evolution of rope and generally fabric. I imagine without modern techniques, many of the clothes that we wear would probably not be possible? Certainly not at the scale that we have them.
        WalterBright 1y ago
        The scale of textiles happened because of factory weaving machines. Before 1800, making thread and fabrics was all done by hand, and consumed an enormous amount of time.
- AngryData 1y ago
  Wheel barrows are certainly useful on relatively flat ground, or relatively short ramps that you can use momentum to climb a short distance. But if you are on actual steep terrain they are kind of a huge pain in the ass in my opinion and not worth it. Walking up a hill with 100+ pounds on my back isn't that difficult and I could do it for quite a long time if not all day, but pushing 100+ pounds on a wheel up a steep hill, while in the short term might be faster if I can manage it, becomes a herculean task after doing it for an hour or two. Your ability to stop and rest is also dictated by the terrain rather than your abilities. If I get halfway up a hill with a load on foot and need to rest, no problem, but if I got a wheelbarrow halfway up the hill, unless there is a convenient spot to stop and set down the wheel barrow you can't stop to rest, you have to keep going, which may be a problem when you are too tired to prevent spilling or dropping the load near the top because some little rock caught the tire and there wasn't enough reserve strength to brute force it over the relatively little obstacle.
  - taeric 1y ago
    Unless you are going up a very steep hill, most any wheel barrow is easy enough to put down to a rest. And combined with a shovel, I use barrows far more than just trying to manage a small bag of rocks in the yard. Granted, if you can just throw more people at the problem, I fully agree that a team of people will be faster than a single person with a wheel barrow. But, that has more to do with it being a team than the barrow.
    - AngryData 1y ago
      Well this area is in the Andean mountains which is pretty much as steep as it gets. The only real flat land they had was the strip of shore on the coast where boats would be better methods of travel and transport.
      - taeric 1y ago
        This seems to imply that none of the rest of the continent would have been viable for travel? It isn't like there were no wheels in mountainous parts of other continents.
jmward01 1y ago
Everyone thinks of Machu Picchu but this bridge is pretty high up there on interesting things to see, and cross.

87 points by kaonwarb 1y ago

The account of the final weaving of the bridge is awesome. I'd imagine it isn't much different from any job you can do while "dangling," but still. Wow. I am curious on the idea that wheels would not have been helpful? I get that full blown carriages and such would have been a bit of work to use, but it isn't like a wheel barrow isn't already useful. I'm also curious on how they wound the rope without some sort of wheel involved?

soperj 1y ago
> I'm also curious on how they wound the rope without some sort of wheel involved? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gH4I0R7Hp2c https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gH4I0R7Hp2c
- taeric 1y ago
  Right, I know it involves spinning, which fair that you can just use a crank. My curiosity was more on the very heavy ropes. I'd assume that you would benefit heavily from a geared like setup to run the spinning.
subzero06 1y ago
Its a tradition, they do everything manual like the Incas did it. They don't like using "wheels" or any sort of technology as it would ruin the tradition. You can see the process here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQl6geeY7CM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQl6geeY7CM Oh- and it involves a lot of people not a 1 man job.
- taeric 1y ago
  Awesome, thanks for the video! And I'd expect anything like this to be more than a 1 man job! Apologies if I implied otherwise. I'd expect even using wheels for the turning that you would need more than a single person. It is obnoxious how hard it is to search on why they would have never invented a wheel for the spinning of thread. AI seems to insist that spinning wheels are directly the result of carting wheels. I'd expect even wheels for a pulley system would have helped with the hanging process.
  - wahern 1y ago
    The Inca had wheels, they just didn't use them for much. There are Incan toys with wheels, for example. AFAIU the consensus opinion is that carting wheels never took hold in pre-Columbian America because of a lack of draft animals. The Inca used spindles for spinning thread, which apparently was sufficient for their needs. And the wheelbarrow is, interestingly (TIL), a relatively recent Old World invention, with the earliest depictions from 2nd century AD China. Even the chariot didn't arrive in the Old World until the early 2nd millennia BC. And the chariot wasn't invented by the Egyptians or Chinese, but by peoples in the Eurasian Steppe. (Who probably not coincidentally were some of the first to domestic horses? More primitive wheeled carts were much older but also contemporaneous with emergence of other domesticated draft animals like oxen, I think. Smaller animals can draft, but the utility is severely diminished beyond very favorable terrain.)
    - WalterBright 1y ago
      Many "obvious" inventions take a very long time to happen. For example, the very slow evolution of boats. It took forever to come up with the keel. Also the fork. Rigid, authoritarian societies also seem to have a lot of problems inventing new things, especially disruptive things. James Burke's "Connections" is a great history of invention.
      - taeric 1y ago
        Totally fair. Direct to this one, you could probably look at the evolution of rope and generally fabric. I imagine without modern techniques, many of the clothes that we wear would probably not be possible? Certainly not at the scale that we have them.
        WalterBright 1y ago
        The scale of textiles happened because of factory weaving machines. Before 1800, making thread and fabrics was all done by hand, and consumed an enormous amount of time.
AngryData 1y ago
Wheel barrows are certainly useful on relatively flat ground, or relatively short ramps that you can use momentum to climb a short distance. But if you are on actual steep terrain they are kind of a huge pain in the ass in my opinion and not worth it. Walking up a hill with 100+ pounds on my back isn't that difficult and I could do it for quite a long time if not all day, but pushing 100+ pounds on a wheel up a steep hill, while in the short term might be faster if I can manage it, becomes a herculean task after doing it for an hour or two. Your ability to stop and rest is also dictated by the terrain rather than your abilities. If I get halfway up a hill with a load on foot and need to rest, no problem, but if I got a wheelbarrow halfway up the hill, unless there is a convenient spot to stop and set down the wheel barrow you can't stop to rest, you have to keep going, which may be a problem when you are too tired to prevent spilling or dropping the load near the top because some little rock caught the tire and there wasn't enough reserve strength to brute force it over the relatively little obstacle.
- taeric 1y ago
  Unless you are going up a very steep hill, most any wheel barrow is easy enough to put down to a rest. And combined with a shovel, I use barrows far more than just trying to manage a small bag of rocks in the yard. Granted, if you can just throw more people at the problem, I fully agree that a team of people will be faster than a single person with a wheel barrow. But, that has more to do with it being a team than the barrow.
  - AngryData 1y ago
    Well this area is in the Andean mountains which is pretty much as steep as it gets. The only real flat land they had was the strip of shore on the coast where boats would be better methods of travel and transport.
    - taeric 1y ago
      This seems to imply that none of the rest of the continent would have been viable for travel? It isn't like there were no wheels in mountainous parts of other continents.

jmward01 1y ago

Everyone thinks of Machu Picchu but this bridge is pretty high up there on interesting things to see, and cross.