They came West on railroads, in covered wagons, on horses, and the Saints pulling their carts. They weren't the first though, the Romans used similar transportation, but in a different way, in a different time. Regardless, its all immaterial now anyway. Why ?? Because we have the Space Shuttle of course !! There's rationale at every turn, in every nook and cranny. So, why not start with the RR tracks ?? The US standard for RR tracks is exactly 4 feet, 8.5 inches between rails. An odd spacing for sure, but, that's the way they were built in England, and the experienced English expatriates designed our RR's prior to mass immigration. Still an odd number - but, those same expat's also built the old English Tramways, a system of roadways in use prior to the RR, and they used the same tools and Jigs that they used for wagons that traveled on the Tramways. But why 4 feet 8.5 inches ?? If they tried other spacing, the wagon wheels would almost certainly break in a few miles on the virtually permanent, deep and packed Ruts on the Tramways of Europe and England. It appears that the original Tramways were built by Imperial Rome and the uniform ruts were made by their War Chariots. All Chariots were made according to uniform specifications. But still, why 4 feet, 8.5 inches ?? Because silly, the Chariots were pulled by 2 horses and the standardized distance across the side-by-side horse butts is 4 feet, 8.5 inches !! But the Space Shuttle ?? Well, as known, the Space Shuttle requires 2 Solid State Rocket Boosters at takeoff. The boosters are made at the Thiokol plant in Utah, and yes, here it comes. The boosters are shipped to the launch site via RR and there are tunnels along the way, and we all now know that the tunnels are made to accommodate a train whose width on the tracks is slightly larger than 4 feet, 8.5 inches, a standardized measurement from over 2,000 years ago, and based on the width of 2 horses butts side-by-side !! If only our ancestors knew !! Tomasz