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The Empire State Building  The Empire State Building is a 102-story contemporary Art Deco style building in New York City, declared by the American Society of Civil Engineers to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, it was finished in 1931. Since the September 11th attacks, it is again the tallest building in New York City. Unlike most of today's high-rise buildings, the Empire State has a classic masonry facade. The building's distinctive art deco spire was originally designed to be a mooring mast and depot for zeppelins. However, after a couple of test attempts with airships, the idea proved to be impractical and dangerous due to the powerful updrafts caused by the size of the building itself, though the T- shaped mooring devices remain in place. Although the lower floors occupy the entire block, there are various "setbacks" in the building's design, as required by the New York City zoning law of 1916 (aimed at reducing shadows cast by tall buildings). These setbacks give the building its unique tapered silhouette. Location: New York, USA MoreInfo: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=114095 The Itaipu Dam  The Itaipú hydroelectric power plant, located 14 kilometers North of the International Bridge linking the cities of Foz do Iguaçú, Brazil, and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. It consists of a series of various types of dams a total distance of 7,744 meters with a crest elevation of 225 meters. The Powerhouse is located at the toe of the main Dam, most of it on the river bed and the rest on the Diversion Channel. The nominal power of the plant is 12,600 MW, divided between 18 generating units of 700 MW each, 15 of which are located in the main Powerhouse and the remaining three on the Diversion Channel. The Spillway is located on the right bank, and it has 14 segmented sluice-gates with a total discharge rate of 62,200 cubic meters per second (twice that of the highest flood- level on record). The Concrete Main Dam is of the hollow gravity type and is connected to the Spillway by a concrete buttress-type Wing Dam which continues thereon as a small Cardhfill dike. On the left bank a Rockfill Dam is linked to the Main Dam and at the other end to an Earthfill Dam. In order to build the main dam wall and the Powerhouse, the river was diverted through a Diversion Channel on the left bank. MoreInfo: http://wonderclub.com/WorldWonders/ItaipuHistory.html The CN Tower  It is fitting that television, the technological wonder that profoundly changed life in the 20th century, spurred the building of the era's tallest freestanding structure. In the late 1960's, Toronto's soaring skyline began to play havoc with signals from conventional transmission towers. Signals bouncing off the city's skyscrapers produced a number of problems, including the annoying phenomenon of "ghosting" on television sets. Weaker signals competed with stronger ones, giving viewers the effects of watching two programs at once. To improve the situation, Canadian National Railways, or CN, proposed building a transmission tower that would stand head and shoulders - and then some - above Toronto's tallest buildings. A Toronto firm prepared the initial design, enlisting the aid of engineering experts the world over. Their original plan showed three towers linked by structural bridges. Gradually the design evolved into a single 1,815.5-foot-tall tower comprised of three hollow "legs." MoreInfo: http://wonderclub.com/WorldWonders/CNTowerHistory.html The Panama Canal  The Panama Canal (Spanish: Canal de Panamá) is a major ship canal that traverses the Isthmus of Panama in Central America, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The construction of the canal was one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken. It has had an enormous impact on shipping, as ships no longer have to travel the long and treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South America. A ship sailing from New York to San Francisco via the canal travels 9,500 kilometres (6,000 mi), well under half the distance of the previous 22,500 kilometre (14,000 mi) route around Cape Horn. MoreInfo: http://wonderclub.com/WorldWonders/PanamaHistory.html The Channel Tunnel  The channel tunnel spans under the English Channel from Cheriton, England to Folkestone, France. The tunnel is 32 miles long and is considered one of the greatest civil engineering projects of the 20th century. It has a capacity of 600 trains per day each way. There are three tunnels: two for trains and one for shuttles. If you were to shuttle from the beginning of the tunnel to the end of the tunnel it would take you 35 minutes. Each shuttle travels 80 miles per hour and can pull 120 shuttle cars. Each train travels at about 87 miles per hour in a 24.9-foot wide tunnel. This wonder of the modern world makes it easy to travel between England and France and will do so forever. MoreInfo: http://www.teachingtools.com/Slinky/tunnel.html The North Sea Protection Works  Built to prevent the Netherlands, which is below sea level, from being flooded during severe storms. Two areas that were severely affected by the storms include the large tidal inlet named Zuider Zee and the delta created by the Rhine and Meuse rivers. The tidal inlet called Zuider Zee was dammed after a storm in 1916. The dam is 300 feet wide at sea level and 25 feet high at the level of its causeway. Then in 1953 another storm hit the southwestern provinces and caused a lot of damage, which included more than 1800 deaths. A plan was then made to dam the southwestern delta. MoreInfo: http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0311400/Modern_Wonders/modern_6.htm The Golden Gate Bridge  The Golden Gate Bridge links San Francisco with Marin County in absolute splendor. The bridge is one of the architectural marvels of the Twentieth Century and a testament to human strife, as it was constructed during the years of the Great Depression. For years, the Golden Gate Bridge held the title as the longest suspension bridge in the world. Before its completion in 1937, the bridge was considered impossible to build, due to persistently foggy weather, 60-mile-per-hour winds, and strong ocean currents, which whipped through a deep canyon below. In fact, the bridge is commonly known as the "Bridge that couldn't be built." Despite these unforgiving natural elements, the bridge was constructed in a little more than four years. The total cost was $35 million. The total length of the bridge spans 1.2 miles. Eleven men lost their lives during the construction of the bridge. Even today, the massive spans of the bridge are often shrouded in fog. The bridge sways 27 feet to withstand winds of up to 100 miles per hour. International Orange was the color chosen for the bridge because it blended well with the bridge's natural surroundings. The two great cables extending from the bridge contain 80,000 miles of steel wire, which is enough to circle the equator three times. The concrete poured to cement the bridge into the stormy waters below could have also been used to pave a five-foot sidewalk from New York to San Francisco. MoreInfo: http://wonderclub.com/WorldWonders/GoldenGateHistory.html |
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