Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]
Nice animation, but I bear in mind that stuff that is presented like this is really just hearsay - we don&#x27;t really know that it was built as presented.  It could well have been built as shown - its a plausible hypothesis.  But it is also plausible that the bridges were only built in the 18th century.  Or maybe they were built 100&#x27;s of years earlier.<p>With any historical claims, we should have access to the source to be able to confirm.<p>On the wiki page that was posted we read:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Charles_Bridge" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Charles_Bridge</a><p>&quot;Throughout its history, Charles Bridge has suffered several disasters and witnessed many historic events. Czech legend has it that construction began on Charles Bridge at 5:31am on 9 July 1357 with the first stone being laid by Charles IV himself. This exact time was very important to the Holy Roman Emperor because he was a strong believer in numerology and felt that this specific time, which formed a palindrome (1357 9, 7 5:31), was a numerical bridge, and would imbue Charles Bridge with additional strength.[4]&quot;<p>Where 4 is:<p>&quot;Frucht, Richard (2005). Eastern Europe : an introduction to the people, lands, and culture. 1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp. 251. ISBN 9781576078013.&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;details&#x2F;easterneuropeint0000unse&#x2F;page&#x2F;251" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;details&#x2F;easterneuropeint0000unse&#x2F;page&#x2F;25...</a><p>When you search that book on archive.org though, there are no references to &quot;1357&quot;, &quot;5:31&quot;, &quot;numerology&quot;.  There is a single reference to &quot;numerical&quot; but this relates to 1944.<p>So we have a paragraph in wiki, that has some very specific information, that it claims is from a book that doesn&#x27;t seem to contain that info.<p>This is to say that &#x27;we&#x27; don&#x27;t know anything about this bridge - the sources do not check out.<p>I was hoping to get a little further than this.  I wanted to track the primary or secondary source for this claim about the bridge build date.  But I couldn&#x27;t even get that far.<p>What should one conclude, when the detailed information being provided does not check (or should that &#x27;Czech&#x27;) out?