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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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%.
More Underground, Underwater and Other Wonders of the World
7 Underground Wonders of the World
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7 Island Wonders of the World
7 Engineering Wonders of the World
7 Urban Wonders of the World
7 Wonders of Modern Green Design and Technology
Amazing Abandoned Cities, Places and Property of the World
7 Abandoned Wonders of the World
7 (More!) Abandoned Wonders of the World
7 Abandoned Wonders of America
7 (More!) Abandoned Wonders of America
7 (Even More!) Abandoned Wonders of America
7 Abandoned Wonders of the Former Soviet Union
7 (More!) Abandoned Wonders of the Former Soviet Union
7 Abandoned Wonders of the European Union
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93 Comments
November 7th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Some interesting ideas!
November 7th, 2007 at 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.
November 7th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Nice..!!!
November 7th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
IPTV SPY, that bridge you were talking about it’s from France, not China.
Nice article.
November 7th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
The bridge is actually in France
The elevator and the dam are in China
November 7th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
That dam is very impressive.
November 8th, 2007 at 2:00 am
Wow… The Bailong Elevator is a beautiful sight! I would love to see that.
November 8th, 2007 at 3:06 am
You may have forgotten the 11km long brige in Lisbon, Portugal. Its called the Vasco Da Gama Bridge.
November 8th, 2007 at 6:04 am
Impressive! Me wants to go to France.
November 8th, 2007 at 6:42 am
like unbelievable …
November 8th, 2007 at 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.
November 8th, 2007 at 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
November 8th, 2007 at 8:40 am
That should read “strait”.
November 8th, 2007 at 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.
November 8th, 2007 at 9:23 am
hey what about tunnel la manche
November 8th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Chunnel anyone?
November 8th, 2007 at 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.
November 8th, 2007 at 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…
November 9th, 2007 at 11:43 am
What about that massively long bridge in japan?
November 9th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
What about “The World” in Dubai!?!?!?
November 9th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
You forgot about Berj Dubai the tallest building ever made in the world, going to stand at 2,684 feet.
November 9th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Whoa! It’s numbing to see the kind of impressive things that have been built.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:33 am
What more can i say about this blog and this post …They are just quality stuff.
November 19th, 2007 at 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
November 22nd, 2007 at 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 .
December 4th, 2007 at 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
December 6th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
very good effort of compiling all these wonderful projects at one place.
fantastic
raja
December 7th, 2007 at 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?
December 19th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Great List!
December 19th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
“all with minimum disturbance to the bustling streets of Boston above.”
yeah right
December 20th, 2007 at 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.
January 29th, 2008 at 7:38 am
The wonder is if will ever be done.
February 6th, 2008 at 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.
February 21st, 2008 at 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.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:47 am
beautiful, simply amazing!
March 21st, 2008 at 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.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:29 pm
What about the new Hong Kong airport and its associated road project?
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Um,
The Space Shuttle?
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Where the heck is the chunnel in this list…
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Holy hell, does anyone else here realize how fucking retarded wanderer’s comment is?
April 2nd, 2008 at 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.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Also, I hope that picture of people wading around in water isn’t from Venice. Yuck.
April 2nd, 2008 at 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.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
What about the causeway ( in LA)
it’s like 24 miles long.
Just saying.
April 2nd, 2008 at 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.
April 3rd, 2008 at 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.
“
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:14 am
I’ve been driven over that bridge before. It is amazing seeing people like ants at the bottom of the valley!
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:29 pm
wonderfull
April 4th, 2008 at 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.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:38 am
That builders are humenbeings or what? prety.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Wow… I think I would like to try that elevator, but I am sure I will be shaking.
May 24th, 2008 at 10:57 am
estoy sorprendido con los avanses de la ingenieria y estas megaestructuras dan a reducir lo grandioso que es la ingenieria y lo lo dijo yo que soy estudiante de ingenieria
May 28th, 2008 at 11:57 am
These are great and amasing, but waht about the Panama Canal as agreat feat.
May 29th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Amazing bridge..!!
July 13th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
i like this bridge
October 26th, 2008 at 12:25 am
It is amazing! so great!
October 26th, 2008 at 12:27 am
It is amazing !so great!
November 1st, 2008 at 6:10 am
Really great stuff; all that man has accomplished but hey guys many cannot still feed themselves. Some groups are in self destruct mode! We need to watch it.
Too many alarmist on the three Gorges dam. If it will improve quality of life overall, am 4 it!
December 15th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
What about the expansion of the Panama Canal? and the old canal?
February 21st, 2009 at 4:18 am
its very interesting to see these engineering wonders.
April 29th, 2009 at 11:13 am
This bridge in France looks really fantastic in this fog.
May 14th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
The three gorges dam is an engineering marvel. The total mass of the dam even when it is full of water will not throw off the earth’s rotation or change the eliptical orbit or the period of rotation, the Krakatoa volcanic eruption was many times greater in displacement than that. Even though millions of Chineese citizens were forcibly displaced and many species of flora and fauna were erased from the face of the earth, those things cannot be undone. The real tragedy will be when the three gorges dam comes online with an output of many gigawatts of cheap electrical power for the chineese factories. This will have a significant negative impact on the economies of the rest of the world as if it wasn’t already hard enough to find a job in this country. The only positive aspect of this monstrosity is that it will reduce temporarily, green house gas emissions
until the chineese outstrip our economy and start driving more autos.
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