The Panama Canal
The 48 mile-long (77 km) international waterway known as the Panama Canal allows ships to pass between the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean, saving about 8000 miles (12,875 km) from a journey around the southern tip of South America, Cape Horn. The canal makes the trip from the east coast to the west coast of the U.S. much shorter than the route taken around the tip of South America.
France began work on the canal in 1881, but had to stop because of engineering problems and high mortality due to disease. The United States took over the project in 1904. It was a difficult task: workers had to blast through stone and use strong machines to move the ground. The Canal was officially opened on August 15, 1914.
The Panama Canal
The shorter, faster, and safer route to the U.S. West Coast and to nations in and around the Pacific Ocean allowed those places to become more integrated with the world economy. The approximate time to traverse the canal is between 20 and 30 hours.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has named the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world.
The Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel, often called the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that lies underneath the water of the English Channel and connects the island of Great Britain with mainland France. The project began in 1987, and the official opening of the Tunnel was on May 6, 1994. Using high-tech drilling equipment, workers bored through the ground from both ends. The Channel Tunnel, 31 miles (50 km) long, consists of three tunnels: two for rail traffic and a central tunnel for services and security.
The Channel Tunnel is considered to be one of the most amazing engineering features of the 20th century.
It was selected by American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World in 1996.
The Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway not only in Russia but in the world also. It goes from Moscow in Europe to Vladivostok on the Asian Pacific Coast. There are connecting branch lines into Mongolia, China and North Korea.
It was built in the period between 1891 and 1916 to provide an adequate transportation link between European Russia and its Far East provinces. Convict labor and Russian soldiers were drafted into building the railway.
The Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway gave a positive boost to Siberian agriculture. Electrification of the line, begun in 1929 and completed in 2002, allowed a doubling of train weight to 6,000 tones.
The Trans-Siberian line remains the most important transportation link within Russia; around 30% of Russian exports travel on the line. While it attracts many foreign tourists, it gets most of its use from domestic passengers.
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam , once known as Boulder Dam , is a famous construction in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression. The construction gave employment to jobless people. Its construction was the result of a massive effort of thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. The dam was built to produce electricity for California, Amazon and Nevada. Hoover Dam is a major tourist attraction; nearly a million people tour the dam each year.
Hoover Dam
Such a large concrete structure had never been built before, and some of the techniques were unproven. The torrid summer weather and the lack of facilities near the site also presented difficulties. Nevertheless, Six Companies turned over the dam to the federal government on March 1, 1936, more than two years ahead of schedule. Explosives and heavy equipment enabled builders to create this huge dam.
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England. One of the most famous sites in the world, once considered as a wonder.
Modern theories speculate that the stones were dragged by roller and sledge from the inland mountains.
At least 600 men would have been needed just to get each stone to its place . It is believed that the ditch for the stones was dug with tools made from the antlers of red deer and, possibly, wood.
In its first phase, Stonehenge was a large earthwork; a bank and ditch arrangement called a henge, constructed approximately 5,000 years ago.
Stonehenge
The question of who built Stonehenge is largely unanswered, even today. A number of myths surrounds the stones. The legend says that King Arthur and Merlin began to bring stones to that place from Ireland. Speculation on the reason it was built range from human sacrifice to astronomy.
There is little or no direct evidence for the construction techniques used by the Stonehenge builders.
Some people suggest that it was used as an astronomical observatory or as a religious site.
This ancient monument of huge stones has captured imaginations for centuries.
Christ the Redeemer
Christ the Redeemer is a statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that was built as a symbol of Brazilian Christianity. In 1850, the idea of building a religious monument was first suggested by a Catholic Priest. But the construction began in the 1920s. The statue was completed in 1931. Today, Christ the Redeemer is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Christ the Redeemer is the largest art deco statue in the world. It is 98 feet tall (not including the 26 foot pedestal), and the arms stretch to 92 feet wide.
Christ the Redeemer
The stones that were used to build Christ the Redeemer came from Sweden.
The statue had to be constructed in pieces and carried to the mountain top to be erected.
The money to build Christ the Redeemer came from Brazil's Catholic community.
The statue is meant to show that Christ loves all and will embrace all that come to him. It is a symbol of peace.