1. The Three Gorges Dam Is So Big that it has the capacity to slow the rotation of the earth by strategically shifting significant masses of water. It is one-and-a-half miles wide,over 600-feet wide,and almost 400 miles long.This innovative engineering feat creates electricity eqaul to 18 nuclear power plants.
The Three Gorges Dam is one of the most amazing feats that engineering has achieved in modern times. The dam is 181 m (594 ft) in height and 2,335 m (7,661 ft) in length, with a crest that’s 40 m (131 ft) wide and a base that’s 115 m (377 ft) wide. It has the capacity to shift 16,000 cubic meters (4,100,000 cubic feet) of water! The dam produces over 20,000 megawatts of hydroelectricity. This number is 20 times more than that of Hoover Dam and is equal to the electricity produced by 18 nuclear power plants. In its full capacity, the Three Gorges Dam would be enough to fulfill 10% of China’s power requirements.
The dam is so gigantic that it has the ability to affect the Earth’s rotation itself. Scientists in NASA calculated that the shifting of the large mass of water by the dam can eventually increase the length of a day by 0.06 microseconds. This would also make the Earth rounder around the middle and flatter on the poles.
Despite all the advantages of the dam, it has not been excluded from controversies. There are concerns regarding the environmental impacts by the dam like landslides and earthquakes, along with the forced relocation of about 1.3 million people. Environmentalists are also concerned that the dam would lead to more pollution and degradation of water quality along with affecting aquatic lives. (
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2. Capital Gate is a 35-story skyscraper that leans a full 18 degrees – four times more than that of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Engineers had to drill 490 piles almost 30 meters into the ground to make it the farthest-leaning building.
The Capital Gate Tower is the most-inclined building in the world. It’s four times more inclined than the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa and has 35 floors with a height of 160 meters. And the best part is that this building is not just for show. There are offices, retail spaces, and fully-functioning commercial spaces inside the building! The tower also has the Hyatt Capital Gate hotel and a helipad.
Located in Abu Dhabi, UAE, the construction of the building was completed in 2011 on a $231-million budget. The construction procedure utilized for the building is quite impressive and a glorious engineering feat. The building lies above a two-meter-high raft made of concrete. The raft is, in turn, resting upon 490 piles which have been drilled 30 meters underground to withstand the strongest winds, seismic disturbances, and gravitational forces created due to the inclination. The basement for the tower has been constructed with more than 6,000 cubic meters of concrete. The construction of the tower involves the use of 21,500 tons of steel. It has around 8,500 structural steel beams to support the inclination.
The building was designed by an architectural firm by the name of RMJM. (
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3. The Channel Tunnel is an underwater rail tunnel that links France and England and has 38 km of its tracks underwater. At its lowest point, the tunnel is about 75 meters deep below the surface of the water. Trains travel at 100 miles per hour inside the underwater tunnel.
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The Channel Tunnel is the longest underwater train tunnel in the whole world. The entire tunnel is 50 km in length with 38 km of the tunnel lying underwater. The entire system consists of three such tunnels. The tunnels link the towns of Folkestone and Coquelles, which are located in England and France respectively.
All the three tunnels are bored at an average of 40 meters below the sea bed. Trains run on the two, monodirectional tunnels which are connected in between by cross-passages that lead to a service tunnel, a tunnel for maintenance purposes, and an emergency-rescue tunnel. The tunnels have a specially designed vehicle for maintenance operations and for rescue in case of incidents. At its lowest point, the tunnel reaches 75 meters below the sea bed and 115 meters below sea level.
Plans for building the tunnel goes as far back as 1802, but the British government was unwilling to compromise national security. The project became successful in 1988 after being organized by Eurotunnel. Construction was completed in 1994. The final cost amounted to £9 billion ($21 billion), which was way over the proposed budget of £5.5 billion ($13 billion) in 1985. (
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