Jared Haselbarth

Lay Dominican,
Catholic musician,
Small Business Owner

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

The best playlist for #Catholic #prayers in song: https://t.co/OwvP9G24hq

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

https://t.co/JzJXO21GuA

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

Pre-1913 roads were overwhelmingly rudimentary (dirt, gravel, or basic macadam).
~98% of current US bridges and a substantial majority (likely 60-80% by modern standards/investment) of roads were built or substantially developed after 1913.

### Bridges
Data from the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) provides clear numbers. There were roughly 9,857–10,000 bridges still in service built before 1910 (as of data around the 2010s–2020s), out of a national total of ~600,000–623,000 bridges.

This means **only about 1.6–2% of existing bridges predate 1913** (pre-1913 additions in 1910–1913 were minimal). Thus, **~98% were built after 1913**.

Supporting context:
- Bridge construction accelerated dramatically with automobiles, the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, and especially the Interstate era (1950s–1970s). One analysis found ~27% of bridges built in the peak 1957–1971 period alone.
- Another noted nearly 400,000 out of ~618,000 bridges built between 1950 and the early 2000s (~65%).
- Age stats align: average bridge age is ~42–47 years (built mostly 1970s–1980s); ~42% are 50+ years old and ~12% are 80+ years old. The pre-1913 tail is tiny because many early bridges were replaced.

Over 100-year-old bridges (pre-~1920s) number in the low tens of thousands at most and represent a small preserved historic fraction.

### Roads
This is harder to quantify precisely because “built” is ambiguous—roads are often rebuilt, widened, paved over, or realigned multiple times, and many follow historic alignments. Total public road mileage provides the best proxy.

Historical FHWA data:
- ~1900: ~2.32 million miles (mostly dirt/unpaved rural roads; only ~4% paved).
- ~1913: ~2.59 million miles.
- Today: ~4.0–4.1 million miles of public roads.

**Key takeaways**:
- Mileage roughly doubled since 1900 and increased ~58% since 1913.
- Of the ~1.5–1.8 million miles added since 1900, the large majority (~1.4+ million) came after 1913.
- Pre-1913 roads were overwhelmingly rudimentary (dirt, gravel, or basic macadam). Major paving, standardization, and expansion ramped up after the 1916 Federal Aid Road Act, accelerated in the 1920s, continued through the New Deal, and exploded with the Interstate Highway System (mostly built 1956–1980s/1990s; ~48,000–49,000 miles today, a small but high-impact share of total mileage).

**Rough split for roads**:
- By raw current mileage: ~60–65% of today’s miles “existed” in some form before 1913 (the pre-existing rural network), with ~35–40% added afterward.
- By *modern infrastructure* (paved/high-standard roads, urban networks, Interstates, capacity/quality): **Likely 70–80%+ effectively built or transformed after 1913**. The pre-1913 network was the skeleton; the vast majority of paving, widening, engineering standards, and new construction happened later. The system “has less than doubled in length since 1900, but the capacity has multiplied.”

### Summary Estimate
- **Bridges**: ~2% before 1913 vs. **~98% after**.
- **Roads**: ~20–40% before 1913 (by mileage/skeleton) vs. **60–80% after** (by modern paved/improved infrastructure and new mileage). The exact split depends on whether you count historic alignments or current engineered roads.

These are informed estimates based on NBI data, FHWA historical mileage series, and infrastructure reports. Exact “built” percentages for roads would require detailed reconstruction histories that don’t exist in aggregate form. The post-1913 era (especially 1920s onward and post-1956) dominates modern US road and bridge infrastructure.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

@Grace_Peletier Yes, Grace, these work in a similar fashion. Great tools.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

I am no computer science person, but, I am trying to keep with the times to run my small business. I am using Grok Build to create a personal, customized CRM tool that integrates with Quickbooks. And using Replit, which I think is OpenAI, not sure, to build my entire website and chatbot tools. It's been a learning curve, but these tools make this kind of work much more accessible.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

First round of strawberries from our garden. These always do well. Smaller than the stores, but much much sweeter.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

I think we may have all gotten duped by that couple who said they aborted their down syndrome child. Was it all just content for views?

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

Bitcoiners be like...

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

Maybe because the infrastructure costs a LOT more than we think.

How can it be possible to create an enormous network of paved, lined, safe, roads and bridges across AN ENTIRE CONTINENT like North America cheaply? It was never a sustainable enterprise in my opinion. It benefitted the boomer generation as they developed the automobile. But it was and is heavily subsidized.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

The amount of government subsidies that make the widespread modern American ease of life possible is staggering. Unsustainable, sure, but it is nevertheless what makes all of this ease possible. This was manifestly the case in the boomer generation. The next generations will start to feel the weight of paying the bill as it comes due.

People complain about taxation and inflation, but they have no idea how difficult life will be when the government is unable to subsidize the economy.

St. Paul teaches us to be content with food and clothing. Christians should make best use of the abundance they have now, but should also be prepared for a time when food and clothing is all that they can afford. That would still be a blessed life - to have food and clothing. Why? Because we are promised much more in eternity.

I am not prepared for such a time. So, I have work to do to ask God to become more poor in spirit, and help me to provide for my children in his mercy.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

@peritutvivat @chrismassella @Joeinblack It is hard to keep up, are you saying I have to think again?

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

@peritutvivat @chrismassella @Joeinblack Previous post of mine in this thread: "I am not saying these tax dollars are all well spent..."

Nope, not ignoring.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

I am building a CRM app in Intuit Developer, knowing nothing about coding, and to meet the necessary compliance, I simply copy and paste the compliance questions into Grok Build and Grok will immediately update the code of my app to meet the compliance issue. This kind of stuff would have been out of reach for the common business owner a year ago.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

@peritutvivat @chrismassella @Joeinblack

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

@chrismassella @Joeinblack In this discussion, it was made explicit that talking about "sides" is inherently divisive and unhelpful. That is part of the problem with the 2 party system. There is no room for discussion, only suspicion.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

@EamonnClark @Joeinblack The gated community is not anywhere near possible without the greater government protecting it and providing what is necessary for it to be established.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

Aristotle teaches that achieving the good of the whole State is superior to achieving the good of the individual, even though the good is the same for both. The modern liberal tendency to posit individual liberty as superior to the common good is not Aristotelian.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

@EamonnClark @Joeinblack Privatization of public goods makes no sense.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

@Marlodella @Joeinblack lol

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

I don't think we really try to calculate how much we benefit from government services. I don't think your assessment is correct. The waste is much less than the services. We are always comparing things to some ideal, which is not reasonable. We should compare it to, for instance, frontier families in the 1600s building their own homes from timber they cut (no timber subsidies so that Home Depot can offer you everything in nine trips), clearing their own land, no roads, warring Indians surrounding them, no heat, no insulation, growing their own food, no mail service, no educational options, on and on. The whole superstructure of a peaceful, safe environment to conduct commerce is not possible without taxation.

This is all weird to hear myself say it, because I am very conservative politically. But I think we exaggerate here, mainly because the two-party system, as mentioned, creates animosities where we fall into tropes - taxes are theft, government is waste, etc. It is better to think reasonably about this, which I think Father is doing.

[Jared Haselbarth @One_That_Rules]

@LouisGambetta @Joeinblack Yes, this has been mentioned.