They thought big in those days!
Thinking big is something we are still good at - but we are no longer willing to archieve the result by any means possible.
There is a neat story on this topic: In the second half of the 19th century (i am terrible at remembering exact dates) Hamburg city was facing yet another cholera outbreak. Except for the city of Altona, present day district of Hamburg, then a danish city near Hamburg. Which means this happened shortly before the (re)conquest of northern Germany by the Prussian empire and the founding of the modern, unified German state.
Edit: Actually, doesn't have to be, Altona was probably a seperate city until the "Great Hamburg Law" which legally unified all the urban sprawl into one city.
What was the difference ? Altona had a state of the art water filtration facility that provided clean uncontaminated water into a mains. Hamburg diddn't.
So the senate decided to build one - right now.
Took a bit longer than expected - in went the Prussian Army Cops of Engineers and presto - finished it ahead of schedule.
No excuses, no stupid delays, just do the job and get on with life.
That is the one thing we seem incapable of today.
