十張改變你對尺寸認知的歷史照片(下)

Redwood Loggers

5.遭砍伐的大紅杉

The oldest living giant sequoia (giant redwood) on record was 3,500 years old. It was aged based on its trunk rings, so it had to die to get the record.

據記載，目前世界上最古老的大紅杉樹齡已達3500年。由於我們只能通過樹的年輪來判斷其年齡，所以只有在樹木死後，其樹齡纔會被記錄在案。

The giant redwoods of California are an iconic image of Americana, nearly as much so as the fleets of trucks weighed down by redwood logs larger than the trucks themselves. A single truck could carry 16,500 meters (54,000 ft) of boards in raw r to the California gold rush of 1850, California's redwood groves were pristine and untouched. Since then, over 95 percent of the old-growth forest has been cut for timber. The forests from which these trees came had been around for so long that they'd formed an evolutionary symbiosis with the wildfires that have historically swept through California. The redwood's bark is highly fire-resistant, so it takes minimal damage while competing species are completely wiped out.

加利福尼亞的大紅杉是美國的典型象徵，同樣讓人印象深刻的或許還有那些被比車身還大的紅杉原木壓得步履蹣跚的卡車車隊。平均每輛卡車要承載足足16500米（54000英尺）長的原木板。加州的紅杉林原本一直處於無人開發的原始狀態，直到1850年的淘金熱來臨，超過95%的古老紅杉林遭到砍伐並被用於製造木材。歷史上，此地曾被野火橫掃，片甲不留。而這些長久紮根於此的紅杉與這野火逐漸形成了一種共生關係：紅杉木的樹皮高度抗火，因此當其競爭種羣都被大火燒個精光的時候，紅杉樹林卻幾乎毫髮無損。

Mark Twain

4."馬克吐溫"

Even an image of 3-meter-wide (10 ft) redwood logs stacked on a truck doesn't drive in the sheer size of these massive trees like this photo taken at ground zero of the felling of the "Mark Twain" redwood in 1891. This was an example of a trophy tree, a tree cut down as an expression of settlers' conquest over the primeval landscape of the American West. A lot of those photos made their way into era postcards, usually with men with axes assuming casual "no-big-deal" poses.

這張照片攝於1891年，是伐倒"馬克吐溫大紅杉"的伐木工人在樹底下拍的，照片裏可以見到的是被堆在大卡車上的直徑達三米（10英尺）的紅杉原木，即便這樣，人們據此也無法想象這些巨木的原型有多大。"馬克吐溫"被砍倒了，人們視其爲人類"征服"了美國西部大自然的戰利品。男人們手裏拿着斧頭，以漫不經心的姿勢站立着，彷彿在訴說砍掉這樣一顆樹"根本沒什麼大不了"——一張張與此類似的照片，形成了那個時代的明信片。

Since giant sequoias were prone to shattering when they fell, the loggers who took down Mark Twain spent eight days digging a trench that they lined with feathers to keep the tree intact when it crashed to the ground. Two cross-sections from the base were sliced out to go to museums, and the rest was broken up for fence posts.

巨杉樹被伐倒的那一瞬間是震撼人心的，此前負責砍伐"馬克吐溫大紅杉"的伐木工人們花費了整整八天時間來挖溝渠，以確保巨樹倒地時是完好無損的。巨樹的兩端被鋸下送往博物館珍藏，其餘的都被做成了籬笆樁。

's Roman Arch

3.伊拉克的半圓"拱門"

This stone arch in modern-day Iraq is certainly large—impressive, maybe, but not necessarily breathtaking. What's incredible about it, though, is how something so large and seemingly frail could still be standing after nearly 1,500 years.

這座石拱門在當代的伊拉克無疑是一座大型建築，雖然令人印象深刻，卻不至於讓人驚歎不已。但令人難以置信的是，據說這座看似脆弱的石拱門已有1500多年的歷史，而它至今仍能屹立不倒。

Identified only as a Roman bridge over the Wadi Al-Murr by its photographer, archaeologist Max von Oppenheim, it was likely built during the reign of Roman emperor Justinian I. The Wadi Al-Murr is a waterway running through the Ninawa Province of northern Iraq, just under the border of modern-day Turkey. In the sixth century, Justinian built a series of bridges and dams in that region to prevent flooding in the Mesopotamian city of Dara. While most of those structures were decidedly more impressive, this lone arch is one of the few remaining complete structures from the Roman occupation of Iraq. And as of 2006, it was still standing.

而經近代考古學家馬克斯·馮·奧本海姆拍照研究後證實，此拱門實爲建於古羅馬時期查士丁尼一世執政期間的一座石拱橋。橋下的瓦迪艾爾·穆爾河流經伊拉克北部的尼尼微省，與現在的土耳其接壤。公元六世紀，查士丁尼一世（東羅馬帝國皇帝）大量建橋築壩以防洪水侵襲達拉地區美索不達米亞市。雖然伊拉克的大多數建築物都令人印象深刻，但是，這座長拱橋卻是伊拉克地區爲數不多的始建於羅馬統治時期、卻保存比較完整的建築物這一。時至如今，它依然屹立不倒。

Alaska State Fair

2.阿拉斯加州的"巨型蔬菜展"

Cabbages wider than a wheelbarrow, pumpkins so heavy they collapse under their own weight—there's something softly arrogant about giant vegetables, as if they're using space that shouldn't be theirs. In the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, neck-deep in the Land of the Midnight Sun, giant vegetables are a heritage, one fiercely protected by its resident farmers.

你見過連手推車也裝不下的捲心菜嗎？你見過成堆的南瓜因支撐不了自身的重量而轟然倒塌嗎？——這些巨型蔬菜天生"驕傲"，好像整個生長空間都是它們的，想長就長。在馬塔努斯卡-蘇西特納谷這樣一個高緯度地區，巨型蔬菜是一種物質遺產，受當地民衆極力保護。

The Alaska State Fair is where the goings-on get festive, and it's there that you'll find the 210-centimeter (89 in) gourds, the 500-kilogram (1,100 lb) pumpkins, and the largest cabbages in the world. Why do they get so big? A lot of it comes down to geography: Since that part of Alaska gets upward of 20 hours of sunlight per day in the summer, vegetables just sort of keep trucking, feeding on the endless dawn of the Alaskan soul.

在阿拉斯加州農產品展覽會上，你可以看到210釐米（89英寸）長的葫蘆、500千克（1100磅）的南瓜，以及世界上最大的捲心菜。它們爲何如此之大？很大原因在於其特殊的地理位置：此地夏季每天有長達20小時的光照，所以只要交通順暢無阻，這些巨型蔬菜可以保證人們熬過阿拉斯加漫長的冬季。

ding The Nagarjuna Sagar Dam

1.建造納格爾久訥薩格爾大壩

In a world packed with machinery and automation, the impact of sheer manpower is often overlooked in favor of a more technological approach. It's hard to believe, but the seemingly chaotic wooden scaffolding and hive-like workforce in the photo above was just a piece of the carefully planned construction of the largest masonry dam in the world.

在機械和自動化盛行的今天，隨着科技的進一步發展，純人工的影響力往往被忽視。難以置信的是，上圖中展示的看似混亂無序的木質臺架和如蜜蜂般密密麻麻的勞工，其場景實則是建造精心規劃的世界上最大的石壩——納格爾久訥薩格爾大壩的施工片段之一。

Located on the Krishna River in India, the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam spans 1.6 kilometers (1 mi), stands 150 meters (490 ft) tall, and the reservoir it creates is one of the world's largest man-made lakes—and all of it was built with human labor. The dam is considered the first of India's "modern temples," structures meant to reduce India's dependency on foreign imports, and plenty of people can be proud of that: In its 12 years of construction, there were never fewer than 50,000 people working on it at any given time.

位於印度克里希納河的納格爾久訥薩格爾大壩完全由人工建造而成，它長1.6千米，高150米，在它建成的同時也圍造了是世界上最大的人工湖。該大壩被譽爲印度第一座"現代廟宇"，它意味着印度對國外勢力依賴性的減小，很多人以此爲榮：在建造該大壩的12年裏，至少有5萬人參與建造。

編輯:橘子 來源:前十網