Tag Archives: Construction

Brooklyn Bridge

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Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge was a stepping stone in the world of bridge building.

  • Brooklyn Bridge is a neo-gothic styled cable suspension and cable-stayed bridge located in the United State’s New York City, connecting the areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
  • Brooklyn Bridge is 25.9 metres (85 feet) in width and reaches 1.825 kilometres (1.134 miles) in length, and was initially the longest suspension bridge on earth.
  • The building of Brooklyn Bridge began in 1869, as one of the first bridges of its kind, and it is made of steel, granite, limestone and concrete, while the latter materials were primarily used for the bridge pillars.
  • John Augustus Roebling, a civil engineer who emigrated from Germany years before, designed Brooklyn Bridge, but he died before construction commenced.
  • After the death of John Roebling, his son, Washington Roebling, became the engineer for the construction of Brooklyn Bridge, however Washington became incapacitated from caisson disease, a decompression sickness that forced him to be restricted to viewing the work from his apartment window, and as a result, he directed his wife Emily to oversee much of the onsite work.
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Brooklyn Bridge
Image courtesy of keith.bellvay/Flickr
  • ‘Brooklyn Bridge’ has also been known as ‘East River Bridge’ and ‘New York and Brooklyn Bridge’ in its history.
  • The 24 May 1883 marked the official opening of Brooklyn Bridge, which was crossed by 150,300 people on the occasion, including the then US President Chester Arthur and the then New York Mayor Franklin Edson.
  • The construction of Brooklyn Bridge cost approximately US$15.5 million, which converts to almost 380 million US dollars in 2015, and major renovations began on the bridge in 2010, which are expected to be completed in 2016, in response to the deficient standard of the bridge, graded in a previous inspection.
  • Many of those who worked on Brooklyn Bridge were immigrants, with more than 24 people reaching their death throughout the construction, while some worked underwater in airtight containers and many of these workers came away with caisson disease.
  • Brooklyn Bridge reaches a height of 84.3 metres (276.5 feet) from the average East River water level that it spans, and there is approximately 41.1 metres (135 feet) between the water and the base of the bridge.
Bibliography:
Brooklyn Bridge, 2015, History, http://www.history.com/topics/brooklyn-bridge
Brooklyn Bridge, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge

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The Louvre

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The Louvre

“A place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences and arts” – The Louvre

  • The Louvre is one of the greatest and largest museums on Earth, located in France’s Paris, Europe, and it is officially known as the ‘Louvre Museum’, or ‘Musée du Louvre’ in French.
  • The Louvre started out as a fortress, built in 1190 by King Philip II of France; and the fortress was converted into a palace in the 1500s.
  • The Louvre first opened in August 1793 after ownership rights of the palace were forfeited by King Louis XVI, due to his arrest in 1792 as a result of the French Revolution, and the museum opened with 537 art pieces in its collection.
  • Under the direction of Napoléon Bonaparte in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Louvre, called ‘Musée Napoléon’ at the time, acquired thousands of artworks through raids, although around 5000 of these were given back to their original owners after his abdication.
  • The Louvre is known for its four glass and metal pyramids that were completed in 1989, with the largest covering the main entrance to the building and reaching more than 21 metres (69 feet) in height.

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The Louvre
Image courtesy of JH Images/Flickr
  • The Louvre saw 9.7 million visitors in 2012, a record breaking year, making it the most popular and visited museum in the world, while 70 percent of visitors are said to be foreigners.
  • Despite having around 35,000 artworks on display, the Louvre is said to have in its collection approximately 380,000 pieces.
  • The Louvre is famed for housing the Mona Lisa, ever since 1797, and other collections include sculptures, paintings, prints, drawings, Egyptian artefacts, and Greek and Roman relics.
  • On a single visit, it is not humanely possible to view each artwork on display in the Louvre, as doing so would take more than 12 days straight, if each piece was viewed for 30 seconds without stopping over the period.
  • The Louvre covers a total of 60,600 square metres or 15 acres (652,300 square feet or 6 hectares) in area, and spreads beyond its original building.

Visit the Louvre using The Paris Pass! The Paris Pass has also provided additional facts that you can view here.

Bibliography:
25 Interesting Facts About The Louvre, 2015, Unpublished Text Document, The Paris Pass, Paris
Louvre, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre

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CN Tower

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CN Tower

The CN Tower is quite a flabbergasting architectural achievement.

  • The CN Tower is a very tall structure built for media reception and communications, and it houses restaurants – one of which revolves, a theatre and a shop, and also features a number of observation decks.
  • Erected in Canada’s Ontario, in North America, the CN Tower was built in the middle of a disused train shunting yard, in the Railway Lands of Toronto, at a cost that totalled $63 million Canadian Dollars, and it has become a popular tourist attraction.
  • The ‘CN Tower’ is also known as the ‘Canadian National Tower’, ‘Canada’s National Tower’ and ‘Tour CN’, the latter in French; and ‘CN’ stands for ‘Canadian National’, the company who initially owned the tower.
  • The CN Tower has a central hexagonal column that has three large supports at the base, with an antenna spire at the top, and totals 553.33 metres (1,815.4 feet) in height, and has 147 floors.
  • The concept of the CN Tower was first proposed in 1968 by the Canadian National railway, who were the original owners of the tower and had the structure built, although it was not until early 1973 that construction commenced.

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CN Tower
Image courtesy of elPadawan/Flickr
  • When officially opened on 1 October, 1976, the CN Tower was the tallest tower and the tallest freestanding structure in the world; and it held these positions for more than three decades, while in 2014, it ranked third and sixth respectively.
  • The total concrete volume used to construct the CN Tower was around 40,500 cubic metres (52,972 cubic yards), and the concrete was all made at the construction site.
  • Before the use of LED lights, that were installed in 2007 and are controlled in Ontario’s Burlington, the CN Tower used the original incandescent lights until around 1997, and discontinued the use of them due to expensive running and repair costs.
  • Ice can form on the CN Tower, which can prove hazardous in winds, as the ice can fall away from the tower and smash glass and damage objects, including cars.
  • The CN Tower attracts lightning due to its height, and in one year, it is hit by lightning around 75 times; and to protect against this, pieces of copper run from the top of the tower to the base and are used to direct the electrical energy into the ground.
Bibliography:
CN Tower, 2012, World Federation of Great Towers, http://www.great-towers.com/towers/cn-tower/
CN Tower, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower
CN Tower, n.d, Canada Lands Tower, http://www.cntower.ca/site_Files/Content/PDF/Facts_at_a_Glance_2013.pdf

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Beehive

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Beehive

Beehives house busy bees.

  • Artificial beehives are an invention used for raising and managing honey bees, that use the hive as a shelter.
  • Cells, shaped as hexagons, form honeycomb that can be found in a beehive, and this is used by bees to store pollen and honey, and care for the young.
  • Beehives are typically used to attract bees so that they can produce honey for commercial or domestic purposes; to attract them for plant pollination purposes; to support bees in areas where habitat destruction has occurred; or to attract bees for the production of bee products.
  • Ancient Egyptians are said to have raised bees in constructed hives, from as early as 2400 BC, and archaeological evidence of hives used in large-scale beekeeping, has been found in Israel’s Jordan Valley, in the Middle East, that dates back to the 9th and 10th centuries.
  • Traditionally, humans used natural materials to create beehives, like mud, tree hollows, clay and straw, while the latter was often used to make basket-like skeps, although many of these hives were used once only, due to the difficulty of accessing the honey, which often resulted in significant disturbance or death of bees, and/or honeycomb destruction during the harvesting process.

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  • Many ideas for more practical beehives surfaced around the 1700s, although it was not until the 1850s that American clergyman Lorenzo Langstroth, also an apiarist and noted for his significant contribution to the beekeeping industry, invented the now famous beehive that had movable frames; a design on which most modern hives are based upon.
  • If a beehive is to be approached, smoke is usually puffed into the hive to disguise the emissions of chemicals that bees release to alert danger, thus keeping the bees calm.
  • Modern beehives are generally reused for many years, and often feature removable frames, that contain and protect the honeycomb, and are easily removed for inspection and for harvesting honey.
  • Before the use of modern beehives, corridors were sometimes built within hives to direct the queen bee’s egg laying habits and discourage her from using the honey harvesting areas.
  • A new form of beehive, known as the ‘Flow Hive’, enables the user to extract honey direct from the hive without removing the especially designed frames, and it was released to the public in early 2015 via a crowd-funding initiative with huge success, raising $12 million dollars during its initial release, and is set to be popular among backyard beekeepers, due to its convenient honey harvesting method.
Bibliography:
American Beekeeping History, n.d, John’s Beekeeping Notebook, http://outdoorplace.org/beekeeping/history1.htm
Beehives, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive

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Ely Cathedral

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Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral is another inspiring work of art.

  • Ely Cathedral is a large Romanesque stone church, that is part of the Anglican Diocese of Ely and the home to its bishop, located in England’s Cambridgeshire, in Europe.
  • ‘Ely Cathedral’ is also known as the ‘Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely’ and ‘the Ship of the Fens’.
  • The highest point of Ely Cathedral is the west tower measuring 66 metres (216.5 feet) and the building spreads over a distance of nearly 164 metres (538 feet) and covers an area of 4273 square metres (46,000 square feet).
  • Ely Cathedral is situated on the spot, that, in 673 AD, a monastery for both genders was established, by the saint, and Queen, Etheldreda, whose shrine existed at the site for many centuries.
  • The original monastery at the location of Ely Cathedral was thought to be destroyed in the 9th century, by Vikings, while a revival in the area caused the re-establishment and rebuilding of the abbey from 970.
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Ely Cathedral
Image courtesy of Steve Cadman/Flickr
  • Normans, who seized control of the monastery at the site of the Ely Cathedral in the 11th century, ordered the rebuilding of most monasteries, including Ely, and a number of additions were made to the cathedral over the centuries, and restoration works have been undertaken at various times.
  • The construction of Ely Cathedral commenced during the 1080s by Abbot Simeon, although it was halted for a number of years after his death in 1093; and the first bishop was appointed in 1109.
  • In 1322, the central tower of Ely Cathedral collapsed, and was reconstructed as an octagonal tower; while some time later, another part of the building gave way and was never repaired.
  • The Ely Cathedral has numerous panels of stained glass artwork, mainly originating in the 1800s, and the building originally housed numerous sculptures, which were mostly destroyed along with other objects, in the reformation in the 1500s.
  • Two main towers exist in the Ely Cathedral, the west tower comprising of almost 290 steps; and the site also has a number of chapels, a cafe, restaurant, shop, and a stained glass museum.
Bibliography:
Ely Cathedral, 2015, Sacred Cathedral, http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/ely-cathedral
Ely Cathedral, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ely_Cathedral
Ely Cathedral, n.d, Eastern Cathedrals, http://easterncathedrals.org.uk/members/ely-cathedral.php
The Story of the Ely Cathedral, 2015, Ely Cathedral, http://www.elycathedral.org/history-heritage/the-story-of-ely-cathedral

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Channel Tunnel

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Channel Tunnel

Channel Tunnel is more than a World Wonder – it’s a beneficial construction.

  • Channel Tunnel is an underground and underwater European tunnel connecting Kent’s Folkestone, in England, to the town of Coquelles in Pas-de-Calais, France.
  • The ‘Channel Tunnel’ is also known as ‘Chunnel Tunnel’; in French, ‘Le tunnel sous la Manche’; and ‘Eurotunnel’, although this term generally refers to the company that manages the tunnel, or the shuttle service that travels through it.
  • The Channel Tunnel spans 50.5 kilometres (31.4 miles) in length, and reaches depths of 75 metres (246 feet) below sea level, and it sits underneath the English Channel.
  • The Channel Tunnel is a combination of three tunnels – two railway tunnels and a service tunnel, and passenger trains of high speeds, and freight trains that commonly carry vehicles with their passengers and pets, are able to travel in the tunnel, while the service tunnel is used by vehicles for maintenance, evacuations and other tasks.
  • The idea of constructing a Channel tunnel was evident in 1802, and was first expressed by the Frenchman Albert Mathieu-Favier, an engineer, and while various plans and ideas were put forward during the 19th century, it was not until 1880 that preliminary boring work began, although it was quickly abandoned due to perceived national security hazards.
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Inside the Service Tunnel of Channel Tunnel
Image courtesy of Jaguar MENA/Flickr
  • It was not until more than a century later, after various ideas were put forward, that construction of the Channel Tunnel began, after Britain and France agreed on a treaty, known as the Treaty of Canterbury, that allowed the beginning of the construction of the tunnel in late 1987; and the project was finished in 1994.
  • In the 20th century, the Channel Tunnel had the greatest length of tunnel, 37.9 kilometres (23.5 miles), underwater in the world, however the Japanese Seikan Tunnel was slightly longer in total length, and much deeper.
  • Channel Tunnel was officially opened in 1994, on the 6th May, by Queen Elizabeth II and France’s President François Mitterrand after a cost of then 4.65 billion pounds (worth 12 billion pounds in 2015).
  • A number of train failures have occurred in Channel Tunnel, and fires requiring temporary tunnel closures have also occurred over the years, while the 1996 and the 2008 fires caused extensive damage and partially closed the tunnel for approximately 6 months each.
  • In the late 1990s and the early 2000s, Channel Tunnel was commonly used illegally by those seeking asylum in Britain; and to help rectify the problem, a now closed refugee centre was made available, and later a £5 million fence and other security measures were put in place.
Bibliography:
Channel Tunnel, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel Infrastructure, 2015, Groupe Eurotunnel, http://www.eurotunnelgroup.com/uk/the-channel-tunnel/infrastructure/

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