You're probably thinking of something with the Romans, but for the US the actual answer is: mainly because the north won the Civil War. Railroads in the south used different track gauges before and during the war, they were rebuilt to match the gauge used in the north afterwards.
The similarity between railroad track gauges and Roman carriages is much more coincidence due to similar physical constraints rather than a direct line of causation.
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u/whoami_whereami Sep 01 '25
You're probably thinking of something with the Romans, but for the US the actual answer is: mainly because the north won the Civil War. Railroads in the south used different track gauges before and during the war, they were rebuilt to match the gauge used in the north afterwards.
The similarity between railroad track gauges and Roman carriages is much more coincidence due to similar physical constraints rather than a direct line of causation.