Can’t get back to all the comments, thanks all <3
EDIT: I used HILLS and not MOUNTAINS on purpose lol, c’mon guys I’m not *that* clueless. Tunnels absolutely do not figure into my question. Thank you everyone for answering this has been enlightening.
EDIT 2: I don’t think it has occurred to some browsers of this sub that the people asking these questions have probably considered their own question and come up with hypotheses already. Trust me, I had 2 hours longer to drive and think after I posted the question at a gas station haha. has confirmed some of my hypotheses about this and also added many new pieces of information to the puzzle which I am grateful for. Some of you taking time out of your day to say “stupid question” or something along those lines, please don’t consider becoming teachers, and go forth in this sub operating under the assumption that a lot of the questions asked here are not just asked out of curiosity, but also just seeking confirmation of hypotheses before going out into the world and spewing BS lol.
In: Engineering
I have a fun colloquial fact (never found any actual data on this)
People have been building roads for millennia, check out the Egyptians and the Romans. I was told that before we knew these hard science engineering type math numbers for road grade. It was just a matter of trusting the animals the pulled wagons and carried loads.
So by allowing the animal it’s choice on where to walk while pointing in the right direction it would instinctually walk what we now accept is a safe road grade %.
In a situation where you ran into mountains you then understand why we have many many miles of winding twisting roads trying to get over that mountain while respecting that natural road grade limit.
If you want to save miles and miles of winding roads up and over and back down guess what you do? Build a tunnel or just blast a valley through the mountains. Of course this level of risk in engineering is something that modern humans mastered much better than our ancient counterparts but I bet there’s some cool story out there of a brilliant commander who tunneled through a mountain pass to surprise an enemy force!
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