Скачать или смотреть The 500-Ton Dredge: The Super Machine that Dug Riverbeds For Gold in The early 1900s

In 1908, the California gold rush didn't die—it evolved into a 500-ton monster known as the Yuba Number 17. This wasn't just a machine; it was a floating fortress of steel and steam designed to do what a thousand men with shovels couldn't: rip the heart out of ancient riverbeds to find the fortune buried beneath millions of tons of glacial gravel.

In this video, we go inside the brutal world of the gold dredge—an era of "iron men" who worked in 130-degree engine rooms and freezing riverbeds with no safety nets, no computers, and no room for error. We explore how these machines reshaped the American landscape, the toxic legacy they left behind, and why modern engineering has lost the "brutal competence" required to build something that lasts 60 years under continuous warfare with geology.