July 16, 1867: Concrete Gets Some Positive Reinforcement

(Wired) - ... The problem was that it didn’t stand up well to tension or shearing. You couldn’t make a concrete wall too thin, concrete pillars were likely to buckle, and concrete horizontal beams are just not up to the task of holding things up.
Enter Monier, a French gardener looking for a better flower pot. Clay pots broke too easily, and wood weathered poorly. He tried making them out of concrete. But the weight of the plant and the soil tended to stretch the concrete pots and break them. Continued

Photo: Columbia/Wrightsville Bridge (Nightening).