Rome's first world problem.
Rome’s first world problem… or should I say Rome’s ancient world problem?
We all know some of the history behind the great city of Rome. Once the greatest empire on earth, with its territory expanding all through Europe and great architectural wonders. Well on the modern day, some of those architectural wonders are causing some problems.
In the year 2006 the city of Rome was facing some serious traffic problems and their alternative transport solutions, such as the metro, were not helping at all. City officials decided it was time to build a new metro line, the “Metro C”. Said line would go through the heart of the city, hopefully reducing its increasing traffic problem.
The following year, Rome’s citizens were eager to see the construction of new futuristics tunnels and stations, but all they saw where “archeological investigations” being carried out all over the place.
Scientists began excavations with the hopes of finding nothing and carrying out the construction of the Metro tunnels, but oh boy, digging 100 feet down in one of the world’s richest cities when talking about history is definitely not an easy task.
One of the major problems they faced was when carrying out the excavation in Piazza Venezia for a station. The engineers already had the OK from archaeologists, but once the went digging down they found the remains of what appeared to be a grand stairway made from granite and yellow marble, then they found another matching stairway across the site. Archaeologists quickly stopped the digging and concluded that they were looking at the seats of an ancient amphitheater, specifically the emperor Hadrian’s “Athenaeum”. The construction of the Piazza Venezia station was stopped and now archaeologists had to found another place to put it, as the city officials demanded that a station has to be there. Finally the station was constructed a few yards away where all they could find when digging was just a sewage system and some shops.
Just as the Athenaeum, lots of Roman stone age settlements were found, some being more than 50 feet deep beneath the city. You would imagine archaeologists being mad about the probable destruction of many findings, but in reality they were happy because the project provided a lot of funding for their work.
The new Metro C was scheduled to open on 2015 and it was way off its schedule but in reality it managed to open early at the end of 2014. It took 8 years of construction, all thanks to Rome’s ancient city which lies just a few feet beneath the ground.
Looking to promote your brand? Get your ad here and support The Hat Herald