They Built a Bridge with Oysters That Lasted 1,000 Years — I Found Quanzhou's Medieval "Silicon Valley" in 33 Local Archives
900 years ago, the people of Quanzhou built a bridge. A sea-crossing bridge. And they used a material you would never guess — oysters. Yes, the same ones you eat at a barbecue stand. They cultivated oysters on the bridge foundations. The oysters secreted a biological glue that fused the stones together into one solid mass. And that bridge has been standing for nearly a thousand years. Typhoons. Earthquakes. Ocean waves. None of it brought it down. ...