Niagara Falls was only a few hours’ drive from my childhood home in Pennsylvania. We could easily cross the border and drive up the falls (and there were even winters before my time when Lake Erie froze thick enough to walk straight across to Canada).

The Falls had cut out a gorge over thousands of years since the past ice age. Above the Falls, a bridge goes over the river; below the Falls, the bridge needs to space a hundred foot drop first. Both those situations required a building a bridge.

The first step was not laying down steel beams — it was flying a kite.

How was the first suspension bridge strong enough to support rail transport built across this massive, intense rush of hydro-force? It started with a kite-flying contest (decades before the first airplane) to fly the first string across the great divide. From there, they pulled across larger and stronger ropes and materials until they could begin to build a strong foundation to support the weight of trains.

From a kite string to a bridge capable of train traffic — think about it.