Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Man-Made

"At 12 stories high, Henderson Waves is Singapore's tallest pedestrian bridge. It snakes across Henderson Road, connecting Mount Faber Park and Telok Blangah Hill Park. The bridge, which opened in 2008, is made of seven undulating curved steel ribs that alternately rise over and under its deck. The curved ribs form alcoves that function as shelters with seats within."-Bing Travel
"Not afraid of heights? Check out the view from the Ledge at Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower, in Chicago. The five-sided balconies, which opened in 2009, are suspended 1,353 feet in the air and jut out four feet from the building's 103rd floor Skydeck. They're actually more like boxes than balconies, with transparent walls, floor and ceiling. Visitors can see unobstructed views of Chicago from the building's west side, and a heart-stopping vista of the street and Chicago River below — if they're brave enough to look straight down."
"Palm Jumeirah is an artificial island, the first and smallest of the three Palm Islands created off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The palm-tree shaped island is so large that it can be seen from the International Space Station. It is currently home to luxury homes and the megaresort Atlantis, The Palm, and will eventually tout many other deluxe hotels. In the years since construction began in 2001, this island effectively has doubled the length of Dubai’s coastline."
"The Chunnel, as the 31.35-mile tunnel under the English Channel is known, opened in 1994, connecting Calais, France, with Folkestone, England. It is the second-longest tunnel in the world (behind Japan’s Seikan railway tunnel), and has the longest underwater section of any tunnel. The Eurotunnel Shuttle is a special vehicle transport train that has the largest rail cars in the world."
"One of the most difficult engineering endeavors ever attempted, the Panama Canal is a 50.72-mile-long passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that was begun by France in 1880 but completed by the U.S. in 1914. It drastically reduced shipping distances between New York and San Francisco, from 14,000 miles around Cape Horn to 6,000 when passing through the canal. During the American construction phase, 211 million cubic yards of dirt and rock were scraped away over 10 years to finish the canal."
 
"The Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off on its long-awaited first flight on Dec. 15, 2009. The Dreamliner is the first commercial airplane that’s mostly built from carbon-reinforced plastic. This composite material is light and strong and won’t corrode or be susceptible to metal fatigue. Using this kind of construction also reduces both the financial and environmental costs of building a new plane."

"The Millau Viaduct in southern France, which opened in 2004, is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with a roadway nearly 900 feet in the air. The cable-stayed design gives the bridge the appearance of a row of sailboats at sea, and the masts rise 1,125 feet — higher than the Eiffel Tower."
 
For more information on how to visit these destinations please contact Unique Travel Concepts
619-464-6426 or 800-879-8635