Factories stretched across the valleys, hidden among the mountains. Tall chimneys belched black smoke, and the rumble of machinery never stopped.
A broad avenue in black and gold ran straight toward the horizon, flanked by imposing high-rises.
At the time, reinforced concrete was nowhere near widespread. The world's first reinforced-concrete building would not be completed in New York in the United States until 1872.
And reinforced concrete would not become widespread until humanity entered the twentieth century.
But reinforced concrete was not all that complicated. After Franz explained it to a group of the Austrian Empire's top architects, engineers, and materials experts, they understood how it worked.
They did not really grasp the science behind it, however. Instead, they believed wholeheartedly in the holy words of the saints that Archbishop Rauscher had touted.
Seeing was believing. Left with no other choice, Franz had the engineers and experts build a simple model with their own hands.
It was a scale model of St. Stephen's Cathedral. Then they began staging a series of disasters to test how sturdy the structure was.
The tests included, but were not limited to, hacking at it with swords, smashing it with axes, shooting it, shelling it, flooding it, setting it on fire, and dropping meteorites on it.
After putting it through the wringer, they finally reached a conclusion: reinforced concrete was highly impact-resistant, explosion-proof, fire-resistant, and moldable. It was also structurally stable and had excellent compressive strength.
But they failed to mention the greatest advantage of modern reinforced concrete: it was cheap!
In fact, steel was expensive at the time. Cement was cheap, but apart from the British-made Portland Cement, it was no good for much.
That was why the monarchs were so astonished by reinforced-concrete buildings. Half their shock came from never having seen so