Engineering+Oddities

This will be a page composing of engineering marvels and oddities all over the world. __**Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge**__ The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge opened on April 5, 1998 between Honshu and Shikoku, Japan. The overall suspended length with side spans totals 12,831 ft. 8 in., or 2.43 miles - 1.4 times as long as the Golden Gate Bridge! It also has the tallest bridge towers in the world at a height of 928 feet.
 * __Engineering Marvels and Oddities:__**

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline took $8 billion and two years to build. It is one of the most difficult engineering feats of all time. The pipeline is 800 miles long and has a diameter of four feet. The zigzagging pipeline carries crude oil from 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle to the terminal at Valdez. It crosses three mountain ranges, 34 major waterways, and 800 small streams. The oil travels at 5.4 mph and takes 6.2 days to travel the whole pipeline.
 * __The Trans-Alaska Pipeline__**

Atalaya, Spanish for "watchtower", was built in 1931-33 by William Thomson. Thomson took verbal instructions on how and what to build from Atalaya's designer and owner, Archer Huntington. The unique engineering feature of Atalaya is its water system. This engineering achievement was way before its time. The system consists of Artesian well water pumped into a 10,000-gallon cistern, where the sand was allowed to settle out. From there, the water is pumped into a 3,000-gallon tank in a 40-foot high tower. This height created enough pressure to provide running water throughout the 55-room home.
 * __Atalaya__**

In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the Crystal Bridge Conservatory is the focus of the Myriad Botanical Gardens. Engineers designed a cloud-making system to provide the necessary environment for a rainforest. A path next to a 35-foot waterfall leads up a "mountain" of rock formations, which are really latex molds from actual rock outcroppings. The conservatory is made from over 3,000 acrylic panels. It is seven stories tall and 224 feet long.
 * __Crystal Bridge Conservatory__**

Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee had been made famous in the "Battle of the Clouds" during the Civil War. But since it was a four hour trip on a two-dollar toll road to get to the top of the mountain, few people visited during the 1870's. Once at the top, however, visitors would see what could only be called a breathtaking view. After the railroad boom, speculators decided to build a hotel on the mountaintop, accessible by a service railroad. In 1885, John Crass and his company, the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway Company, built a steam-powered incline railway up the steepest part of the mountain. The incline has a 72.7% slope near the top of the mountain, making it the world's steepest passenger railway.
 * __Lookout Mountain__**

The Mormon Tabernacle's unique shape is so acoustically sensitive that a pin dropped in the pulpit can be clearly heard at the back of the hall - 170 feet away! The idea for the Tabernacle's egg-like shape, according to legend, came to Mormon leader Brigham Young while contemplating a hollowed-out egg shell cracked lengthwise. Young wanted the Tabernacle roof to be self supporting, without pillars or posts to block audience views. So, the 150-foot-wide domed roof was created by using steam to bend the wood planks, which were then lashed together with rawhide thongs and wooden pegs.
 * __Mormon Tabernacle__**

__**The Millenium Force Roller Coaster**__ The Millennium Force Roller Coaster is unique in many different ways. It is the first coaster to use an elevator cable system to get it up the first hill. It uses a magnetic braking system instead of friction. At 310 feet, it was the first 300-foot coaster and it was the world's fastest coaster at 92 miles per hour! The coaster has 226 footers, which contain 9400 yards of concrete. The best thing about the coaster is that it takes riders up at a 45 degree angle and they go down at an 80 degree angle - almost straight down!

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 * __Sources__**