As negotiations heat up with deadlines looming for the White House and Congress, we're taking a look at infrastructure. Infrastructure is a system — of systems — that make up the foundation for modern life. Infrastructure has a history dating back more than 2,500 years.Romans took technology from Egypt and India, made some improvements, and used it to build an aqueduct system that supplied fresh water to public baths and wealthy homes, where they cooked things like pizza.Speaking of pizza, even ordering one requires infrastructure. Calling it in or ordering online requires phone lines, cell towers or internet. It doesn't stop there. The pizza shop likely didn't make all the ingredients on site. Some might have come from Italy on a cargo plane through an airport or by freight train, using a rail system.A water system helps provide the water used to make the dough, while a power grid supplies electricity to heat the oven. On top of that, a system of roads helps the pizza shop get the pizza to your home.Want it there even faster? Take an interstate, a system the nation expanded and standardized in the 1950s.For more than 20 years, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave U.S. infrastructure a D average grade. The reason for a lot of failing infrastructure is the expense of projects. Private companies own and run a lot of it, meaning they're responsible for construction, repairs and security. A lot of it, however, can be subsidized by the federal government. For example, tax dollars have paid for many airports since the 1940s. And, when infrastructure dollars do flow, they create jobs. One example of this is The New Deal, former President Franklin Roosevelt's infrastructure plan that created jobs for people building parks, levees and more to get the nation through the Great Depression. As technology evolves and communities change, the need for what's considered key infrastructure will also change. At its core, infrastructure is all about building a foundation for a stronger society.