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7 Engineering Wonders of the Modern World: Contemporary World Record-Setting Construction

Venice Tidal Barrier System

Would you believe that the tallest bridge in France reaches higher than the Eiffel tower, or that a single dam in China can hold back 1.4 trillion cubic feet or water? Each of the projects depicted here has set at least one world record for its height, scale, daring or ingenuity. From Venice to Boston, Egypt to England, here are seven amazing engineering wonders of the modern world. Know of others? Add to the list below!

Venice Square Flooded

Venice Flooded

Venice Tide Barrier Diagram

Venice, Italy: The Venice Tide Barrier Project will be the largest flood prevention project in the world. The project has been debated in one form or another for over 40 years as a way to protect this historical city-on-the-water for future generations. With Venice slowly sinking, and the water around it slowly rising, and floods always a fear, Italians have known for a long time that something needs to be done. Finally, the Prime Minister of Italy approved the second phase of the plan, including 80 hinged barriers, each approximately 6,500 square feet.

Paroramic Shot of Tallest Elevator

Worlds Tallest Exterior Elevator

Zhangjiajie, China: The Bailong Elevator is the world’s largest exterior elevator. At over 1,000 feet tall, this elevator looms high midway up a cliff overlooking a valley far below. Moreover, the elevator is mostly glass, affording passengers a dizzying view to the depths below. There is some concern, however, about the elevator’s long-term impact on the surrounding natural environment. Worlds Tallest Bridge France

Millau Bridge in the Mist

Millau Bridge France

Millau Bridge

Millau, France: The Millau Viaduct is the highest bridge in the world. At almost 1,000 feet high (taller than the even the Eiffel Tower) and over 8,000 feet long it sometimes sits above the cloud line, as shown in the beautiful photographs above. The engineered wonder of the bridge itself is nearly as amazing as the view of the valley below. Worlds Largest Underground Pipeline

Underground Tunnel 3D Model

More, Norway to Easington, Britain: The Langeled Pipeline is slated to be the longest underwater gas pipeline in the world. It will ultimately supply 20% of Britain’s gas needs, connecting England to the largest gas field in Europe via 750 miles of complex underwater terrain. Engineers have had to account for subzero temperatures an stormy waters in addition to developing techniques for installing the pipeline in the first place. They are able to lay an amazing 8 miles of pipe per day.

Three Gorges Dam Aerial

Three Gorges Dam Map

Three Gorges Damn Photo

Yangtze, China: The Three Gorges Dam has drawn fire from people around the world for its role in raising water levels and displacing millions of Chinese residents in the area. As a work of engineering, however, it is unparalleled. It will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, 600 feet high and holding 1.4 trillion cubic feet of water behind 100 million cubic feet of concrete. This engineering wonder will also eventually provide as much as 10% of China’s vast power needs.

The Big Dig Boston Map

The Big Dig Boston 2

The Big Digg Boston

Big Dig Collapse Boston

Boston, Massachusetts: The so-called Big Dig is a massive tunneling project in the heart of Boston, and is the most massive and expensive construction project in the history of the United States (at 15 billion dollars). Disaster and scandal have haunted this endeavor from the beginning, including accidents, deaths and even arrests for criminal negligence. Engineers were forced to navigate a maze of subways, pipes and utility lines in the course of the project, all with minimum disturbance to the bustling streets of Boston above.

Mubrak Pumpting Station Aerial

Mubrak Pumping Station Model

Mubarak Pumping Station Construction

Mubarak, Egypt: The Toshka Project is an amazing attempt to convert a half million acres of desert landscape into arable land. The Mubarak Pumping Station is at the center of this effort, and will channel millions of cubic feet of water per hour. It will ultimately redirect 10% of the country’s water from the Nile and will increase the inhabitable land in Egypt by as much as 25%.

Want More? Check out These Other Amazing Wonders of the World:

7 Abandoned Wonders of America
7 (More!) Abandoned Wonders of America
7 Underground Wonders of the World
7 (More!) Underground Wonders of the World
7 Underwater Wonders of the World
7 Island Wonders of the World
7 Abandoned Wonders of the European Union
7 Abandoned Wonders of the Former Soviet Union
7 Abandoned Wonders of the World
7 (More!) Abandoned Wonders of the World

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Posted by Urbanist November 7th, 2007
7 Wonders, Architecture, Urban, Urban Images, Urban Videos, Various
Comments: 79

Comments

Comment from Justin
Time: November 7, 2007, 1:46 pm

Some interesting ideas!

Comment from IPTV SPY
Time: November 7, 2007, 8:30 pm

That bridge in China is amazing, it just seems to keep going and going and going. Also their new dam which generates electricity is pretty amazing - somewhat wasteful, but still amazing nonetheless.

Comment from Unwired
Time: November 7, 2007, 10:45 pm

Nice..!!!

Comment from Chris
Time: November 7, 2007, 11:05 pm

IPTV SPY, that bridge you were talking about it’s from France, not China.
Nice article.

Comment from syntex
Time: November 7, 2007, 11:10 pm

The bridge is actually in France
The elevator and the dam are in China

Comment from blackice
Time: November 7, 2007, 11:52 pm

That dam is very impressive.

Comment from Mark Zuckerberg
Time: November 8, 2007, 2:00 am

Wow… The Bailong Elevator is a beautiful sight! I would love to see that.

Comment from Ricardo
Time: November 8, 2007, 3:06 am

You may have forgotten the 11km long brige in Lisbon, Portugal. Its called the Vasco Da Gama Bridge.

Comment from Paul
Time: November 8, 2007, 6:04 am

Impressive! Me wants to go to France.

Comment from subcorpus
Time: November 8, 2007, 6:42 am

like unbelievable …

Comment from K Stone
Time: November 8, 2007, 8:07 am

These are awesome. Nice reporting! How about the construction of Dubai over the last 7 years, especially what they did with creating miles and miles of waterfront properties and man made islands. Pretty amazing.

Comment from David Hughes
Time: November 8, 2007, 8:39 am

Here is the bridge where I live, it’s over 12km long over a straight that has very thick ice in the winter, the bridge has to be strong to resist the ice and break it up as it flows past the bridge piers (legs).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_Bridge

Comment from David Hughes
Time: November 8, 2007, 8:40 am

That should read “strait”.

Comment from gordon
Time: November 8, 2007, 9:06 am

the big dig took to long to be finished but that bridge in france is stunning. I would brave french roads just to drive it.

Comment from Anonymous
Time: November 8, 2007, 9:23 am

hey what about tunnel la manche

Comment from Salsassin
Time: November 8, 2007, 9:26 am

Chunnel anyone?

Comment from Nature Wallpaper
Time: November 8, 2007, 11:25 am

Those images are amazing, and if venice would go under I would be sooo sad! That city is gorgeous and amazing, yet to expensive.

Comment from Anonymous
Time: November 8, 2007, 7:25 pm

They forgot the water bridge in Germany (http://www.funonthenet.in/content/view/223/31/),
the indoor ski resort in Dubai (http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_dubai_ski_resort.htm)
and the longest underwater tunnel (http://www.guzer.com/pictures/bridge.php)
And many more…

Comment from Drezta
Time: November 9, 2007, 11:43 am

What about that massively long bridge in japan?

Comment from Kasper
Time: November 9, 2007, 1:02 pm

What about “The World” in Dubai!?!?!?

Comment from Ammar
Time: November 9, 2007, 6:23 pm

You forgot about Berj Dubai the tallest building ever made in the world, going to stand at 2,684 feet.

Comment from Icaterus
Time: November 9, 2007, 8:10 pm

Whoa! It’s numbing to see the kind of impressive things that have been built.

Comment from rony john
Time: November 14, 2007, 6:33 am

What more can i say about this blog and this post …They are just quality stuff.

Comment from caterina
Time: November 19, 2007, 2:15 am

I have one to add! It’s AMAZING…the Grand Canyon Skywalk, look it up. Here’s the main website.

http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com/mainmenu.html

Comment from Masoud Allameh
Time: November 22, 2007, 9:21 am

very huge … wow .
these are so good but there is very much of the projects which are unknown … in the world . some of those are very wondered than these .

Comment from Wanderer
Time: December 4, 2007, 9:56 pm

I’m very concerned that the transfer of weight in our world, to the spot of the Three Gorges Dam is helping to cause our “global warming”.

The additional weight in that one exact spot on our Earth, has probably changed our orbit around the sun.

Just my thoughts.
You choose.

sincerely,
me

Comment from raja
Time: December 6, 2007, 6:30 pm

very good effort of compiling all these wonderful projects at one place.
fantastic
raja

Comment from Joseph
Time: December 7, 2007, 7:01 am

Nice collection, looks awesome.

Seeing the Venice project, I immediatelly had to think of several dutch anti-flooding projects that are even larger and are around already for many years. Why did you choose the venice project?

Comment from Calvin Gilbert
Time: December 19, 2007, 9:22 pm

Great List!

Comment from Anonymous
Time: December 19, 2007, 11:28 pm

“all with minimum disturbance to the bustling streets of Boston above.”

yeah right

Comment from Ben
Time: December 20, 2007, 8:26 am

The Three Gorges Dam is both an ecological and societal disaster. Countless rare and endangered species have been wiped out or pushed to the brink of extinction, while millions of villagers have been forcibly removed from their homes and relocated without any compensation, housing, or assistance of any kind. Anyone who glorifies this simply because it’s big exhibits extreme idiocy.

Comment from White Boy in Boston
Time: January 29, 2008, 7:38 am

The wonder is if will ever be done.

Comment from Mark
Time: February 6, 2008, 9:42 pm

Should have known the eco-nuts would complain before long. And as for the person speculating that the Three Gorges project weight would change our orbital rotation…just turn off your computer and leave the internet. You’re bringing the grade curve down. That’s like saying a pollen spore is going to change the direction of my pickup.

Comment from Edward Woodward
Time: February 21, 2008, 2:05 pm

@Mark

Sir, please consult Bill Braske’s Opposing Forces Theory. If you consider wedge without providing too much for the backslide of your variable force, then it is quite possible for primary thrust of said object to redirectionalize itself, thusly blasting object A off towards Jupiter.

I am going to go practice cartwheels now.

Comment from Rahim
Time: March 1, 2008, 4:47 am

beautiful, simply amazing!

Comment from Acie Law
Time: March 21, 2008, 2:54 am

This bridge in France is wonderful. Driving a nice car….watching the clouds under the bridge….this is the view that you won’t forget.

Comment from aip
Time: April 2, 2008, 7:29 pm

What about the new Hong Kong airport and its associated road project?

Comment from Mike
Time: April 2, 2008, 7:40 pm

Um,

The Space Shuttle?

Comment from Nate
Time: April 2, 2008, 7:41 pm

Where the heck is the chunnel in this list…

Comment from bbt
Time: April 2, 2008, 7:56 pm

Holy hell, does anyone else here realize how fucking retarded wanderer’s comment is?

Comment from Responant
Time: April 2, 2008, 8:14 pm

Mark: The Space Shuttle? Maybe 20 years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up in the 80s, wanting to be an astronaut like every other kid, but that thing is outdated and flawed to boot. Now, if you’re going to nominate a spacecraft for this kind of honor, look no further than the Saturn V. That thing was a monster.

Comment from Responant
Time: April 2, 2008, 8:15 pm

Also, I hope that picture of people wading around in water isn’t from Venice. Yuck.

Comment from Responant
Time: April 2, 2008, 8:22 pm

Also, to Wanderer: Your comment is incorrect. Why? Isaac Newton’s big accomplishment with the calculus at the time was proving that when doing orbital mechanics, one can generalize a planet’s mass to be centered at its center of gravity. Everything works out exactly like it should if you took every atom into account and did the math that way, as long as you are at a decent distance (hint: 1 AU is many, many, many times over a sufficient distance for this approximation to be exact). Three Gorges Dam will not change the Earth’s orbit around the Sun the slightest bit. I’ve seen some people argue that the increased mass centered there would change the Earth’s moment of inertia and thus its rotational period, but those arguments also suffer from a lack of perspective in just how massive the Earth is.

Comment from from da parish
Time: April 2, 2008, 8:28 pm

What about the causeway ( in LA)
it’s like 24 miles long.
Just saying.

Comment from Telkom
Time: April 2, 2008, 11:47 pm

That China dam is pretty necessary, their power needs are huge. In 2003 there were just over 800 shopping malls under construction across the country.

Comment from Kabouter
Time: April 3, 2008, 12:32 am

What about the Delta Works in the Netherlands? I’ll quote from wikipedia:

“The Delta Works are a number of constructions that were built between 1950 and 1997 in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land from the sea. The works consist of dams, sluices, locks, dikes, and storm surge barriers. The aim of the dams, sluices, and storm surge barriers was to shorten the Dutch coastline, thus reducing the number of dikes that had to be heightened.

The American Society of Civil Engineers has declared the works to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

…

The works were finished after almost fifty years in 1997 with the completion of the Maeslantkering and the Hartelkering. The Dutch government often cites the Delta Works project as the world’s largest flood protection project. With over 10,250 miles of dikes (1,500 miles designated as primary dikes and 8,750 miles as secondary dikes) and 300 structures, the project is one of the most extensive engineering projects in the world.
“

Comment from Simon
Time: April 3, 2008, 4:14 am

I’ve been driven over that bridge before. It is amazing seeing people like ants at the bottom of the valley!

Comment from goldenshahab
Time: April 3, 2008, 9:29 pm

wonderfull

Comment from BigBill
Time: April 4, 2008, 9:14 am

I live in Boston and the big dig is actually a huge improvement. It takes all the highway systems going through the city (93 north and south) and routes them underground. The newly opened space is now being used for parks. Im not saying that they didnt fuck up royally, but I am enjoying the finished product.

Comment from depshika
Time: April 10, 2008, 2:38 am

That builders are humenbeings or what? prety.

Comment from reah guevarra
Time: April 30, 2008, 11:24 pm

Wow… I think I would like to try that elevator, but I am sure I will be shaking.