Modern Wonders

With the advent of modern engineering tools, constructing building has become much more mechanised and faster. As a result, engineers are taking up more challenges and experimenting with unusual structures and newer building materials.

WORLD TRADE CENTER, NEW YORK, USA

About 200,000 tons of steel was used to build the World
Trade Center.

A complex of seven buildings designed around a central plaza was best known for its 110 storey high, Twin Towers. Designed to be the tallest buildings in the world, tower one was completed 1972, followed by tower two in 1973. With the highest point of these buildings being 1,368 and 1362 feet respectively, they were the tallest in the world, before the Petronas Twin Towers took over, followed by Taipei 101. This building was, however, destroyed in a terrorist attack in 2001.

THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, U.S.A

The Golden Gate Bridge, USA

The Golden Gate Bridge, built in 1973, link San Fransisco with Marin Country. It is 27 kms long, and has a six lane-road and sidewalks. The towers, on either side, hold up two steel cables from which the bridge hangs.

THE PANAMA CANAL

This was a centuries-old dream of uniting two great oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific, for the purpose of the trade and travel. Built across the Isthmus of Panama, and completed in 1914, the canal is about 64.8 km (40 miles) long.

THE EIFFEL TOWER, PARIS, FRANCE

This tower was designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel for the great Paris Exhibition of 1889. It is about 1000 feet tall, and has survived numerous demolition attempts and natural calamities. Now, of course, no one would even dream of suggesting its demolition, since it is such an important landmark in Paris.

The Eiffel Tower is the tallest
structure in Paris.

FUN FACTS ! Kansai International Airport, Osaka Bay, Japan, is the first offshore airport in the world. Can you imagine an airport in the sea??

THE BIG BEN, LONDON, BRITAIN

The four clocks of the Big
Ben are 55 meters above the ground.

This is the most famous clock in the world, with the biggest bell weighing 13.5  tons. The Clock Tower, which is about 320 feet high, and also known as the 'St. Stephen's Tower', is a part of the House of Parliament. Built in 1858-59, the clock's four dials have a diameter of 23 feet each. Did you know that there is alight at the top of the tower, which when it lit, it indicates that the House of Commons is sitting.



MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, U.S.A

Mount Rushmore is the most important
tourist destination of South Dakota.

One of the world's greatest mountain carvings, Mount Rushmore is a 60-feet sculpture of the four great American presidents-George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. A tribute to democracy, the sculptor, Guzton Borglum, completed this masterpiece in about 14 years. Work on the carving started in 1927 and ended in 1941.

 CHANNEL TUNNEL

This is the world's longest undersea tunnel. Completed in 1994, the tunnel is about 50 kms long. 38 kms of the tunnel are under the English Channel, between England and France. Truly a modern engineering wonder.




THE HOOVER DAM, U.S.A

Hoover Dam is also known as
the 'Boulder Dam'.

This 726 feet high dam was built across the Colorado river between 1930-36. It was named after the American President, Herbert Hoover. Hoover Dam was chosen as a National Historic Landmark in 1985.



THE CN TOWER TORONTO, CANADA

The word CN stands for Canada's National.

In the late 1960's, Toronto's soaring skyline began to play havoc with signals from conventional transmission towers. To improve the situation, Canada National Railways, or the CN, proposed building a transmission tower that would be higher than Toronto's tallest buildings. About 1,815.5 feet tall, this tower was completed in 1976.

FUN FACTS! The CN Tower is almost twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower. It is almost more than three times the height of Washington Monument.