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Imposing Structures

Posted by h2o
Monday, February 15, 2010
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The Hoover Dam

Considered one of the marvels of the twentieth century when it was built and even though its size and energy generating capacity has been surpassed it is still possibly the most famous and iconic dam in the world. It was completed in 1936 and still has a gothic cum deco inspired feel to it which renders it art while many other dams simply have utility. Its statistics are impressive as well – it is two hundred and twenty one meters high and has a thickness at its base of two hundred meters (fifteen at its crest)



Nagarjuna Sagar Dam
Built across the Krishna River in the Andrha Pradesh area of India, the Nargana Sagar towers at one hundred and twenty four meters in height and is able to hold almost twelve million cubic meters of water. This makes it the largest dam in Asia – at the moment. It is also one of the oldest. Construction began in 1956 but it was a long time before it became fully functioning.


Sayano-Shushenskaya
The power plant that this Russian dam supports is the fourth largest in the world and it was opened in 1978. Another example of the gravity arch dam, this one has a crest of almost eleven hundred meters in length. The arch itself is two hundred and forty five meters height. The dam itself forms a reservoir of the same name, which covers over thirty cubic kilometers and a surface area of over six hundred square kilometers.

Itaipu
The Itaipu dam of Brazil is given its name from a small island that used to exist near the site and it means “the sound of a stone”. One can only imagine what the dam sounds like when it releases its water. The length of the dam is a staggering 7235 meters and at its highest it is two hundred and twenty five meters.

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Man Made Wonders

Posted by h2o
Sunday, February 14, 2010
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Our world is full of wonders great and small, ancient and contemporary, natural and man-made. They fill us with awe through the sheer scale, radiant beauty, backbreaking effort and amazing inspiration that brought them into creation. Here are 11 marvels of the modern world that exhibit mankind’s industriousness and imagination.

Palm Jumeirah
The first and least audacious of the three Palm Islands in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the world’s largest man-made islands, the Palm Jumeirah is an iconic development that heralds the future of the emirate as a beachside tourist destination. In the years since construction began in 2001, this island effectively has doubled the length of Dubai’s coastline.

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Channel Tunnel
The Chunnel, as the 31.35-mile tunnel under the English Channel is known, opened in 1994, connecting Calais, France, with Folkestone, England. It is the second-longest tunnel in the world (behind Japan’s Seikan railway tunnel), and has the longest underwater section of any tunnel. The Eurotunnel Shuttle (pictured) is a special vehicle transport train that has the largest rail cars in the world.

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Three Gorges Dam
Located in China’s Hubei Province, this largest hydroelectric power station in the world contains a 375-mile-long reservoir within its impressive 7,661-foot concrete bulk. The scale of the controversial project is so huge that it has displaced millions of people, submerged hundreds of cultural sites in the Three Gorges area and precipitated an untold amount of damage on the regional environment. Construction began in 1994, but the dam is not expected to become fully operational until 2011.

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Panama Canal
One of the most difficult engineering endeavors ever attempted, the Panama Canal is a 50.72-mile-long passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that was begun by France in 1880 but completed by the U.S. in 1914. It drastically reduced shipping distances between New York and San Francisco, from 14,000 miles around Cape Horn to 6,000 when passing through the canal. During the American construction phase, 211 million cubic yards of dirt and rock were scraped away over 10 years to finish the canal.

8

Singapore Flyer
Supporting 28 air-conditioned observation capsules, which sit 28 people apiece, the Flyer began spinning over Singapore in February 2008, offering a bird’s-eye panorama of the city core. It holds the distinction of being the biggest observation wheel in the world, reaching 541 feet high and having a 492-foot diameter.

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