Passage Summary: To make bridges strong, you have to drive poles deep into the ground. In the 1500s and 1600s, builders stopped when the poles wouldn't go any further, and we have a specific record of what that meant for a famous bridge in Venice.

Reasoning: The strength of bridge piers depends on how deep the support poles are driven; before 1700, the standard was to drive them until they could go no further, which in one 1588 case was defined as moving less than two inches after twenty-four strikes.

Analysis: Since this is a 'Must be True' question, we are looking for a statement that is a direct logical consequence of the provided facts. The stimulus defines 'refusal' as the point where pilings won't go deeper, but then provides a specific 1588 example where 'refusal' actually allowed for up to two inches of movement. This suggests that the historical definition of 'refusal' was a practical threshold rather than a literal cessation of all movement. Look for an answer that synthesizes these technical details without introducing outside information about modern engineering.