Archaeological Excavation

On my bike ride the other day there was a traffic slow up because the road was down to one lane.  I waited my turn to get through with the line of cars, and saw that there was a large excavator and a huge hole in the ground over by the curb, and a long trench.  After I got through, I kept on riding.  There is one part of my ride, however where I come back to the same place and then continue on by another route.  So that's where I passed these pieces of a rusted water main piled up by the curb.  So I stopped because I thought it would make an interesting photograph.  One of the workmen on the job came over to me and asked if there was a problem.  I said there wasn't, I just thought I could make an interesting picture.  He said that there was an automobile accident and a car crashed into a fire hydrant and broke is off but that damaged the water main, so they are replacing something line thirty feet of this old, rusted water main.  He said these pipes were put down a long time ago!