20 Most Epic Transport Operations in History

welcome to the realm of Epic transport operation where colossal loads defy gravity and immense challenges or overcome with engineering Mastery we'll watch as Mammoth structures are relocated historical artifacts find new homes and awe-inspiring Feats of logistics unfold every epic transport operation telling the tale of innovation teamwork and unwavering determination join us on a journey where colossal loads are moved across vast distances where the impossible becomes possible and where the world's most awe-inspiring projects come to life these are the 20 most epic transport operations in history [Music] number 20. the Buchanan Mansion preserving old buildings really does get rather in the way of a whole lot of potential money making schemes you know and if you're a big old property Tycoon then there's nothing less fun to hear than well there's a preservation order on that site so we have to scale down but of course I could contradict that with saying there's an even worse thing to hear and that would be we're getting audited by the IRS that's a whole different story though this is the unlikely tale of the Buchanan Mansion it was moved for a more convenient location five miles down the street weighing in at 300 tons the 125 year old brick built Mansion was hoisted and wedged and inched forward very carefully until it was finally atop enough Wheels to transport it along the street it would take a team of 20 crew members over an hour to position the house and then the big question would be answered would the house fall off on the journey well fortunately there were no bridges in route things went approximately according to plan and the house is parked in its new place atop wooden cribs while it awaited a shiny New Foundation it does lend a whole new meaning to the term moving house number 19. colossal machine next up we have a totally enormous piece of heavy machinery that needed to be moved from the industrial yard in which it was built to its new location at inter pipeline a massive three and a half billion dollar petrochemical development project across the other side of the region of Alberta in Canada now usually when a large and cumbersome piece of equipment is made it will be created in parts and then more often than not assembled on-site and this crazy footage is a fairly strong indicator of why that is this is the 315 foot long almost 900 ton Pro poline propane splitter that was transported through Canada in 2019 this is the heaviest thing that's ever been moved on an Alberta Highway and it was such a colossal undertaking that no one will be in any hurry to repeat that record-breaking maneuver anytime soon in fact it would take four days to creep its way along the highway and it caused enormous disruptions to motorists and commuters for the whole entire ridiculous Journey number 18. lady Liberty's torch moves house the Statue of Liberty may be one of the most easily recognizable and iconic sites in the United States she stood in the New York Harbor since arriving from France in 1885 and for many decades she would be the first site of the new Homeland for countless immigrants as they arrived at Ellis Island and has become more than a statue she is also a symbol of the idea of freedom and a part of the idea of American identity Lady Liberty has undergone many many Renovations over the years standing out there in all of that weather after all she's no longer a spring chicken the most extensive period of fixing and maintenance was in the 1980s when she would be covered in scaffolding and thoroughly assessed for damages and structural soundness it was determined back then that her original torch was actually so damaged that it was deemed Beyond repair that's a bit of a bummer when you consider that that torch had been the symbol of Enlightenment which is said to be there to light the way to Freedom by Illuminating the path to Liberty So what had to be done to preserve of this most iconic of images that's when they took the torch down in 1984 figuring out that they would have to build a new one it was no mean feat to remove that 3 600 pound torch in the first place though and back then they put it inside the base of the Statue of Liberty for visitors to view the original torch and also a replica of the lady's massive face then went on another Journey this time across the island to a newly built Museum the moving of such a large and unwieldy object is a tricky business and it drew the attention of many a reporter and news crew in the end the whole wobbly Fandango passed without any major catastrophes and Lady Liberty's torch and spare face found themselves in their new home in the museum of Liberty Island ready to greet many more visitors to come number 17. the world's largest electromagnetic ring an electromagnet is a device that produces a magnetic field by using an electric current it consists of a coil of wire wrapped around a magnetic core and the strength of the magnetic field can be controlled by adjusting the current flowing through the coil so this is the muon G2 a massive electromagnetic ring and it's the biggest in the whole entire world what a thrill Fest it is for all of you magnet enthusiasts everywhere back in the summer of 2013 the team that built this thing would accomplish the impressive task of transporting the 50-foot wide electromagnet from Long Island to the Chicago suburbs the 35-day journey covered 3200 miles over land and sea and naturally it drew the attention of thousands of Spectators specially adapted trucks and a 45-ton metal apparatus would be used to keep it flat during transport the ring was loaded onto a barge which had sailed for nearly a month along the east coast around Florida and up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers finally it would reach its destination in Illinois where it arrived on July 26th of 2013. firmalab the institution that hosted it had a celebratory event attended by approximately 3 000 people to welcome this extraordinary achievement in big magnet maneuvering number 16. massive Spar platform now don't say I've never given you anything this is the thrilling story of how a c platform for natural gas extraction was moved from one place to another it might just Mark the most awesome moment in fancy banana history if you happen to like that sort of thing the Asta henstein Spar is an impressive floating production storage and offloading unit situated 186 miles offshore in the Norwegian sea it holds the great distinction of being the first Spar platform on the Norwegian continental shelf and this thing is named after Asta hanstein a notable Norwegian painter writer and early feminist during construction this Spar would be built horizontally on barges in a dry dock and then it was floated onto the transport ship dockwise Vanguard and transported to a fjord near stored in Western Norway after being upended in the Fjord the top sides were then installed using the float over technique and finally The Spar was towed vertically to its location station in the gas field that situated 300 kilometers on the northwest coast of Norway polyester Moorings would be used to secure The Spar north of the Arctic Circle to the seabed which lies 1200 meters below on December 17th of 2018 production would commence at The Spar marking a significant milestone in its operational history and after all of that I sure hope that you haven't fainted from all of the excitement number 15. wind turbine blade in February of 2023 workers in China would undertake a super treacherous Journey up a mountain to deliver a 250 foot long wind turbine to the top why exactly would they be doing such a thing well naturally so that it could be filmed and uploaded to the old internet for all of us to enjoy but also because the president had made commitments to expand China's wind and solar capacity to at least 1200 gigawatts and to cap carbon emissions by 2030. the country aims to increase solar and wind power generation to approximately 11 percent of total power consumption so it seems kind of likely that they also wanted this to sort of be an effort that would be seen by the world anyway the footage captures the workers attempting to maneuver this massive blade which also weighs 19 tons by the way along the extremely precariously narrow mountain pass and as you watch it it is possible to see the blade wobbling about and Swinging slowly from side to side right at the edge of the mountain with a sheer drop thousands of feet off the cliff this challenging Transportation process took two weeks per blade exposing the delivery team to extreme temperatures altitude sickness heavy storms and even snow and this is just one blade I mean how many more had to be transported like this you know number 14. moving the sky Bridge in a feat of engineering prowess mammot undertook the transportation and installation of a 650-foot long bridge at Hong Kong International Airport dubbed the sky bridge this piece of architecture links hkia's Terminal 1 with its North satellite Concourse which is apparently massively improved the airport's connectivity to move this colossal 5100 ton load across a distance of 2.2 miles the company had employed a fleet of 264 axle lines of self-propelled modular Transporters whatever the heck those are onlookers watched as the bridge was carefully raised above the support piers and then lowered into its final resting position throughout the intricate welding process the company's hydraulic experts monitored the mega Jack's performance ensuring the execution went on without a hitch remarkably the intricate Endeavor would be accomplished in only seven days which shows that if you do want to get something done in time for a holiday you know like the Lunar New Year then it is entirely possible perhaps there are a few endless roadworks out there that could try this method who could possibly say number 13. wreck of Sue wall ferry in April of 2014 in South Korea the Sioux wall Ferry embarked on a routine 13-hour journey and however tragedy would strike and it became a rusted wreck three years later in 2017 1801 days after its departure the salvaged Ferry would arrive at a port and families of the victims along with ordinary citizens would witness the somber moment the sinking of the Sewell had been the country's most devastating Maritime disaster claiming the lives of over 300 individuals mainly high school students who were on a field trip after resting on the seabed at a depth of 145 feet for nearly three years the ill-fated vessel was finally lifted out of the water in March of 2017 and the search for the missing passengers bodies then began after a period of time to make the vessel safe The Vessel would then be transferred to a dry dock using a rail-like transporter and it was all very sad and even if it was kind of an epic maneuver it's pretty hard to enjoy something as tragic as all of this let's just move swiftly on shall we number 12. the James Webb Telescope how do you transport the world's biggest Space Telescope Halfway Around the World very carefully I should imagine this thing is worth a few pennies you know in 2021 the NASA James Webb Space Telescope had to be moved before it could be launched into space it was necessary to transport this massive and very important piece of super expensive rocket science 5800 miles across the ocean and in order to ship such an item it's necessary to pack it all up very carefully indeed because it was actually put into a massive and custom-built suitcase in order to protect it this was no regular sort of luggage though this suitcase known as the St tars or Space Telescope transporter for air Road and sea weighed a staggering 168 000 pounds it was 18 feet high and 15 feet wide and an astonishing 110 feet long there's no way that it could be transported by any normal kind of method the logistics of transporting anything across this distance and through this many places is pretty tricky to handle even at the best of times but when you factor in the entire extremely sensitive and insanely expensive elements of this particular Transportation that's when you've got a recipe for a headache this massive machine began its epic Voyage in California in September of 21 and then headed off to the Panama Canal so that it could reach its final destination in the very Northeastern coast of South America it then had to be prepared for launch in a process that would take well over two months to complete however it did make it and nobody accidentally dropped it into the sea or anything number 11. moving a steam generator all the way back in 2016 if you happen to be on or even near the Hudson River you may well have witnessed one of the more weird and decidedly more difficult of our epic transport operations from today's list this is the strange site of a massive barge on which rests a tower-like structure as it passed beneath the Rip Van Winkle bridge in New York it may not seem like an especially thrilling event but it was considerably more complex and much much more difficult to achieve than mere appearances would suggest in fact it would take months of meticulous mathematical calculations and painstaking planning to get it right a fraction of a calculation wrong and the entire thing just gets stuck under the bridge are unceremoniously dumped into the Hudson this is the moving of a huge and extremely unwieldy heat recovery steam generator and it weighed a ridiculous 4 000 tons measuring over 120 feet tall and so they measured everything very carefully indeed and then took it real real slow the operation did take its time 36 hours in total traveling at a speed of just five knots until finally arriving at its destination where it would be ready to be placed in its new location number 10. the big Merino one of the more weird things that you could see in New South Wales and Australia would be the big Merino this is actually a 50 foot tall concrete Merino Ram because of course it is the big Merino has a gift shop and it's undercarriage and wool display on his second floor so this place was a bit of a tourism stop for visitors to the area that was until a new bypass had to be built in 1992 and the number of visitors took a massive nosedive and so local authorities decided to do the obvious thing they took the massive sheep to where the people were going it now sits farther down the highway at a service station enjoying all of the tourism dollars that jangle its cash register every day and that's the story of how the big Merino took a trip and the people that witnessed it likely wondered if they were tripping as well number nine largest oil rig ever in these incredible images we witnessed the remarkable journey of a colossal oil platform base as it's transported out to sea the base known as a jacket is made of steel and serves as the foundation for the oil platform resting on top it's interesting to note that approximately 95 percent of Offshore platforms worldwide are designed in this jacket style suitable for water depths that do not exceed 1 640 feet and securely anchored to the seabed well how riveting that information is this specific jacket holds a special place in engineering history though back in 1988 the shell Corporation would install it in the Gulf of Mexico and it quickly gained Fame as one of the most extraordinary engineering achievements of the 20th century fondly nicknamed Bullwinkle this platform held the prestigious title of being the tallest oil rig in the world during its construction to put its Grandeur into perspective Bullwinkle stands 150 feet taller than the renowned Sears Tower in Chicago the construct production of Bullwinkle required an immense amount of materials and effort it utilized a staggering 10 times the amount of Steel that was used in the Eiffel Tower and weighed over 50 000 tons its construction of the jacket alone would take a significant two and a half years but once completed the Colossal structure then embarked on an Epic Journey it was transported in one piece an impressive 332 nautical miles to its designated location to accomplish that feat Engineers constructed an enormous 853 foot long barge which was the largest of its kind at the time this gigantic barge would serve as the vessel for Bullwinkle's voyage across the sea the entire project from construction to installation spanned well over five years requiring a budget that exceeded 500 million dollars in the 1980s number eight radioactive waste back in 2022 a spokesperson for ansto would confirm that a container of nuclear waste was safely transported to Lucas Heights in southern Sydney the container was being transported from a port south of Sydney and is now being stored at anso until a national radioactive waste Management Facility becomes operational anso's group executive for nuclear operations and nuclear medicine would explain that countries are required under International treaties to take responsibility for the disposal of the nuclear waste that they produce when asked about the potential risk if the waste were to enter the environment she assured the media that there was no credible risk of such an incident a group of bystanders witnessed the arrival of the nuclear waste ship at the Port the ship was carrying reprocessed radioactive waste and stood out with its bright blue color a comprehensive police operation would be conducted to ensure the safe docking of the ship police jet skis helicopters and boats all accompanied The Vessel into the port while police officers line the port Banks after the ship had arrived roads were closed all along the route that the waste would be driven it was then contained in molten glass canisters and steel casks moved during an overnight police operation to anstow's interim waste storage facility in Lucas Heights now moving nuclear waste is one of the trickiest things to transport obviously because there are many rules and regulations and protocols that all have to be followed to the masses of laws both Federal and international that govern how and when it can be done this is probably a good thing because if it were to go wrong it could be really rather serious indeed now wouldn't it number seven levitated mass transport in 2012 Michael Heiser created a Monumental public art sculpture called levitated mass at the Resnick North Lawn of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this impressive installation featured a massive Boulder sculpture that weighed 340 tons positioned above a 456-foot pathway designed for panoramic 360 degree viewing that's a whole lot of numbers the nature cost and sheer scale of this artwork would spark discussions within the public art community and its remarkable 106 mile Journey from a valley in Riverside County would Garner extensive media coverage the artwork consists of a towering 21 and a half foot Boulder that is securely positioned on the walls of a lengthy 456-foot concrete trench this trench surrounded by over two acres of densely packed decomposed Granite ensures stability and the boulders fasten the two shelves that are attached to the inner walls of the trench the trench then descends from ground level reaching a depth of 15 feet below the center of the stone this unique design allows visitors to stand directly beneath the massive Boulder creating an immersive experience with the art but the transport of such a huge Boulder to this location was what really caused the stir in fact it became utterly ridiculous originally scheduled for transport in August of 2011. the journey would encounter permit difficulties which led to multiple delays then finally in February of 2012 it would depart from the Quarry to facilitate its transport a custom-built transporter that measured 295 feet in length would be equipped with 196 Wheels all courtesy of Emmert International due to the transporter's size the boulder could only be moved at night reaching a maximum speed of approximately 7 miles per hour and despite the relatively short distance of less than 60 miles between where it began and ended a lengthy 106 mile route had to be chosen spanning 22 cities across four counties that was in order to avoid busy roads and weight restricted overpasses trees had to be cleared cars were towed and and traffic lights were removed to accommodate the transporter's passage and throughout the 11 days that it took large crowds would gather to witness The Boulders movement and its stops during the day spontaneous block parties and even a marriage proposal would occur at resting points eventually at around 4 30 a.m on March the 10th of 2012 the transporter arrived attracting an estimated crowd of over a thousand eager Spectators who were awaiting the installation's arrival it's all utter Madness for a great big giant rock number six the Toronto elephants transporting elephants is a tricky business who knew in 2013 three older elephants were scheduled to be moved from the Toronto Zoo to the paws sanctuary in California that's a long journey for anyone to take especially a great big old elephant so it took a lot of planning and a huge operation to transport the precious cargo trainers had dedicated over a year to diligently preparing the elephants for the move ensuring their comfort inside of the transport crates when the journey then began regular updates on their well-being were provided by the team who was responsible for their care and they reported that the animals were consuming sufficient hay water and getting ample rest the handlers took measures to ensure their comfort including installing panels on the transport trailers to keep them warm accompanied by skilled handlers and veterinarians the elephants traveled under their Care One expert would mention that these were the most calm elephants that she had ever worked with during that trip the team made several stops along the way to provide the elephants with rest and food and water and the Convoy was equipped with 54 bales of hay the whole exciting event would be documented and then turned into a documentary so that all of us could enjoy the Thrills of the slow and steady elephant transport for all of Time Lucky Old us number five NASA's crawler transporter all of the stuff that Nasa uses to launch things into space is extremely big and excessively cumbersome and this presents more than a couple of issues when it comes to Transportation the crawler transporter also known as the missile crawler transporter facility is a super cool tracked vehicle that Nasa uses to move spacecraft from the Vehicle Assembly Building to launch complex 39 they started out their career in the Apollo Sky lab and Apollo soyuz programs where they transported those massive Saturn IB and Saturn V Rockets later on they became the go-to Transporters for the space shuttles from 1989 to 2011 and these monster sized machines carry the vehicles on mobile launcher platforms and make their way back to the pad to bring the platform back to the Vehicle Assembly Building they were designed and built by the Marion Power Shovel company with some help from Rockwell International costing a whopping 14 million dollars each in today's money that's 128 and a half million dollars when they were first built they held the title of the largest self-powered land vehicle on the planet however that rain would end in 2013 when the ultra heavy XGC 88 000 crawler crane came into the picture these remarkable machines have even earned a spot in the National register of historic places so the next time you see a spacecraft being moved on television remember the incredible crawler Transporters that make it all possible because they are the true Giants of the land vehicle world number four the Fairmount Hotel sometimes the historic building happens to be standing around in a super inconvenient spot clogging up a whole load of prime real estate what an inconsiderable piece of History ruining things for the profiteering wealth hoarders of America but what do you do if a pesky building with some boring old cultural value is getting in the way of the almighty dollar well usually you just knock it down I mean it's an out of date Unique Piece of architecture right what we really need is 500 identical condos instead but fortunately America is as crazy as it is destructive and there happen to be a second solution the building can simply be moved that's right they can pick it up and move it to a different location altogether one such building was the Fairmount Hotel in San Antonio Texas the building was a 75 year old three-story Brit built hotel that weighed a ridiculously heavy 3.2 million pounds and some bright spark figured the best thing to do with it was pick it up and pop it onto some wheels and then move it about six blocks to hang out with a bunch of other old historic buildings it took complex maneuver to lift it off its foundation and then using a total of 36 specially designed dollies which have hydraulic lifts and eight sets of Wheels like the type that are typically used for mining they then managed to move the hotel down the street the trickiest bit was turning the corner though it made it and has gone down in history as the heaviest building to ever be moved in such a way number three GE turbine back in 2017 a remarkable event unfolded in New York as a colossal General Electric turbine made its way through the state this massive turbine weighed a staggering 187 tons and was being transported from ge's plant to a power plant near Scranton Pennsylvania the New York State Police responsible for overseeing the transport would provide updates on the Monumental Journey the transportation of the turbine would Garner attention due to its sheer size and weight measuring an astonishing 345 feet in length and 20 feet in width the turbine posed a unique challenge for road travel its journey through Central New York affected traffic as it followed a carefully planned route passing through Cortland County Tompkins County and Lansing despite a brief delay a truck carrying the turbine eventually arrived in Ithaca prompting road closures and alternative routes motorists were advised to exercise caution and remain alert as the Colossal transport maneuvered through the streets disrupting everyone's regular traffic patterns it took an entire host of people with the planning skills of Martha Stewart at a presidential banquet to get this massive machine from one place to the next and the logistics would have boggled the brains of even the most experienced UPS driver number two moving a submarine in 2004 a fascinating operation took place to move the historic German submarine U-505 This World War II submarine now a museum exhibit was relocated from its long time home at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago to a new exhibit space within the museum moving it was a complex and meticulous process the submarine weighed around 700 tons measuring 252 feet in length and had to be carefully lifted from its display area and then transported across the Museum's grounds to accomplish all of this a team of experts utilized a system of hydraulic jacks steel beams and dollies to raise and support the massive vessel once raised it was carefully guided along a specially constructed track to the new location the move would require precise coordination as any miscalculation could have caused significant damages to the historic summary ultimately the operation would be a success and the U-505 found its new home in a dedicated exhibit space where it continues to Captivate visitors with its wartime history and Engineering Marvels number one the orphan gray whale back in 1997 a desperately unwell three-day-old gray whale calf would be discovered in the waters off the coast of Marina Del Rey in California this whale was an orphan and had become dehydrated hypoglycemic and was discovered in a comatose state it didn't look good but Sea World San Diego Then stepped in to rescue the baby and nurse it back to health the whale would be taken to Sea World where she began a long road to rehabilitation in the care of Specialists and after 15 months she gained almost 20 thousand pounds and would be restored to help this was the moment that it would be decided to return the mammal to the ocean one thing is moving a 1500 pound baby when it's a matter of life and death but it's quite a different thing to move a 20 000 pound grown whale safely back to the sea that takes a whole lot of careful logistical support these incredible images showed the links that the Sea World staff had to go to to make it happen but they did it and the story of this gray whale's Rehabilitation remains one of the greatest success stories to this day that's a really if Now isn't it thanks for hanging out with me on this cumbersome but epic journey which of these crazy transport operations was the most insane and have you ever seen anything weird being moved around as always let me know all about it in the comments section down below check out the other cool things that are showing up on the screen and I'll see you next time

Channel: The Fancy Banana

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Keywords: top 10, epic transport operations, how huge megastructures are made, how oil rigs are made, how spaceships are made, how rockets are transported, ocean, most, epic, transport, operations, most epic, most epic transport operations, in the world, transport company, in history, incredible, caught on tape, caught on camera, unbelievable, unexplained, videos, new, telescopic mirrors, mammoet spmt, sea platform troll a, baoding mountain, incredible videos, never seen, transportation

Id: KD9gAboKN8U

Length: 29min 36sec (1776 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 04 2023