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But like… how did they even do the first step of ramming the wood piles into a deep ass river without big machinery of some kind?
Long time and unlimited resources is usually the way to go. Sure machinery would make it fast, but you can get 10 guys to hammer for 2 years to drive it. Then move on. Even today it's a huge logistics and financial problem to build bridges which is why typically it's always governments that did it.
The machine that shows up about 3 seconds in looks to me like a manual piledriver, uses pulleys and cranks yo pull the weight up, then just gravity to drop it down the track.
It is. Time team did a bit on it. I'll try to find it.
Ed: https://youtu.be/8FAF1eW9Lz0
That episode, I'll watch and find a time stamp but it'll be a second.
47:40
Kinda does, yeah, but it’s only put into place after all the piles are in! Maybe they have one of those anchored on a boat or something?
Sledgehammers (or similar) and lots and lots of manpower I'd guess. It's how they made it watertight before they drained it I'm interested in
The weight of the water will push wooden pilings together. The flow of water though the gaps will also bring mud and debris into the cracks.
It's not perfect, and would need a lot of pumping/water removal, but it's just a case of manpower, at that point.
In the old days they made two walls and poured dirt between them. That stopped a lot of water going in if not all.
It doesn't need to be fully watertight. The rate of water passing into the dry area only needs to be lower than the rate you can pump it out.
The oldest way to do it is to start from a bank and work your way in section by section.
It's a cofferdam if anyone is interested.
Aliens