usage of would confusing

[mamajonov]

In 1860, the Philological Society launched its effort to create a dictionary more comprehensive than the world had ever seen; although the project would take more than 60 years to complete, the Oxford English Dictionary was born.
This is the correct version of the sentence.
However, I could not understand the usage of "would" in this sentence.
DEar experts, your free(:)) yet valuable explanation is highly apprecited.

[jnelson0612]

Sure! Please check out this thread about the problem; this is all discussed in depth here: in-1860-the-philological-society-launched-its-effort-t421.html