Прочитайте текст и найдите соответствующий перевод подчеркнутого выражения. Metals began to be widel...: ответ на тест 1072311 - Английский язык

Прочитайте текст и найдите соответствующий перевод подчеркнутого выражения.
Metals began to be widely used as construction materials not so long ago. Before the beginning of the nineteenth century metals played little structural role in the process of building. Mostly they served for joining parts of buildings. The ancient Greeks and Romans are known to use bronze for joining slabs of stone.
It was only in the eighteenth century when the first all-metal structure was built in Europe. It was a cast-iron bridge across the river Severn in England. The strength of the bridge turned out to be so great that now, more than two centuries after its construction, it still carries heavy modern traffic across the Severn.
In the first half of the nineteenth century cast iron and wrought iron were introduced and used for industrial construction in Europe and North America.