The July Fourth twilight settles like a deep breath on a summer night, and for a moment, the usual noise of the country fades into the background as families gather together. You can almost hear the pulse beneath the asphalt. This old engine has carried riverboats, railroad spikes, Model Ts rattling down Detroit streets, light‑water nuclear reactors feeding a civilian grid now poised for revival, Saturn V rockets, fiber‑optic and space‑borne telecommunications, and, today, large‑language mode...
