Monuments to Folly: When Grand Projects Reject Reality

The Line promised a new urban civilization: 170 kilometers long, mirrored, car-free, and home to nine million people. It also became a revealing test of what happens when political power, engineering spectacle, and financial optimism outrun the evidence. Monuments to Folly examines the project without the easy wisdom of hindsight. What could have been known before the cuts, delays, and retreating targets? Why did technical warnings fail to alter the plan? How does sunk cost turn yesterday's commitment into tomorrow's justification?From the pyramids and Brasília to Concorde, HS2, and cities created by decree, Paulo Roberto Truchlaeff compares grand undertakings that succeeded, failed, or remain unresolved. He develops six practical tests for distinguishing a great achievement from a wager-and a wager from folly.A critical dossier on The Line, and a guide to recognizing failure before it becomes a monument.