A popular urban legend makes the conveniently simple and elegant claim that the standard

gauge of train tracks used in most of the world descends directly from an official Roman

military specification for war chariots.

Seems like a good place to point the skeptical eye.

We're going to have to go through the history of Roman roads, wagon development in Europe,

the emergence of the railed tramway and steam locomotive and the American Civil War.

And we're doing all of that right now on Skeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid, I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

On rail road tracks and Roman chariots.

I'd like to open this episode with a warning.

The internet is full of little meme graphics, festooned with text that often makes some

historical claim.

And my caution to you is that, hold onto your hats, they may not all be 100% factually

accurate.

One of these is the perennial claim, first put forward in a popular mechanics article

in 1905, that the standard gauge of the world's railroads goes all the way back to the

ruts in Roman roads made by war chariots.

It seems logical, but also raises a few red flags.

Honestly, when I came into this, I had no idea whether I was going to find that it was

completely true or completely false.

But this is Skeptoid, so we are legally obligated to get to the truth.

Here is the basic story, widely available all over the internet is some variation on

...