The Notre Dame fire and the future of history
The thing that amazes me about Notre Dame, and several other structures of that era, is that it took 200 years to build.  The reason this is so amazing is that the architects and planners knew it would not be completed in their lifetime, and  yet they progressed for a greater cause.<p>We don't really have projects like that anymore.  Contemporary structures and infrastructure are designed to be completed within the lifetime of the creator.<p>We might be able to attribute that to advances in technology allowing for faster development times.  But sometimes it seems we've lost sight of the grandeur that existed at those times, and perhaps we are not challenging ourselves enough.