Why Victorian structures could be so durable

Why do modern builders not make things like the Victorians did?

Victorian engineers often overengineered their work, producing unusually heavy and durable structures.

Victorian builders tended to overengineer. In Cerberus, the conspicuous mass of iron points to deliberately substantial construction. The claim concerns Victorian building practice rather than an inability of modern engineering to match it. This helps explain why surviving Victorian works can appear unusually heavy and durable.