There are millions of civil engineering projects out there, but according to Norwich University Online, there are a distinct few that stand out in regards to man power, amount of materials used, and what was accomplished in the end. The top 10 most impressive civil engineering projects (plus an interesting fact about them) are:
10. Qingdao Haiwan Bridge in Qingdao, China
It is built to withstand typhoons, earthquakes up to 8.0 on the Richter scale, and impacts of 300,000 ton vessels
9. Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
This building is standing at 2,717 ft, and it is the tallest building/free structure in the world
8. English Channel Tunnel in English Channel, Strait of Dover
It is the 2nd longest tunnel in the world and contains the longest undersea portion of any tunnel
7. Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California
Each of the bridge’s two main cables is made of 27,572 strands of wire and together the wire is roughly 80,000 miles long
6. Hoover Dam in Colorado River, Arizona
Hoover Dam rises 725 ft above the Colorado River and resulted in the creation of Lake Mead, the largest man-made lake in the Western Hemisphere
5. Panama Canal in Panama
Each of the movable lock doors weighs 750 tons and fills with 52 million gallons of water to accommodate more than 15,000 ships sing the canal every year
4. Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn, New York
The first engineering project to use explosives in a dangerous underwater foundation system called a caisson
3. Aqueduct of Segovia in Segovia, Spain
Built in 50 A.D. by Roman Emperor Trajan, the aqueduct is preserved so well that it is still used today when transporting water from the Fuente Fria River
2. Great Wall of China in China
It took over 2,000 years to complete this 5,500-mile-long wall across China to keep invading Huns out
1. Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt
Built in 2504 B.C., the Great Pyramid consists of 2.3 million stone blocks and the average weight of one stone block was 2.5 tons (but the largest stone blocks were between 25-80 tons and transported from almost 500 miles away)