My sister and her husband just got back from their holiday to Patagonia. I spoke with her today and it sounded like she has a great time.
One of the places that they visited was a Chilean port city called Valparaiso. In the 19th century, it was one of the wealthiest cities in the world, due to it being a major port as ships navigated from Asia and the west coast of America to Europe. All the large shipping companies set up offices there, and the wealth generated was turned into stunning building and architecture.
That all changed in 1914, when the Panama Canal was built. Now there was no need to navigate around the base of South America, you could just squeeze right through the middle.
Over the coming 11 decades, those shipping companies left, the wealth evaporated, and while the building are still beautiful, they have fallen into quite a state of disrepair. Similar stories abound in places like St Louis, Detroit, Liverpool, Geelong.