They say: “Bigger is better”. Not sure
who THEY are, but it seems since the dawn of civilization, people have dreamed big.
And built big too. From the Great Pyramid to the Great Wall, there's been no limit to
humanity's architectural aspirations. Engineers of today are no different. So let’s go around
the world to see their most ambitious (and bizarre) projects! 1. To start with, there’s Dubai’s floating
underwater train. Engineers in the UAE have proposed a high-speed rail connecting the
city of Dubai to Mumbai, India, crossing 1,200 miles underwater in only 2 hours. That’s
about the distance from New York to Kansas City – almost half the continental US – and
the FLIGHT takes 2½ hours! The high-speed train would travel through a submerged tube
floating just below the surface. Instead of anchoring it on the seafloor, the tunnel will
hang from a series of enormous buoys! Hey like they always say: bouys will be bouys! 2. Also from the city whose name seems to
mean “Hey look at me!” the Dubai Creek Tower has been under construction since 2016.
Designed to resemble both a minaret and a lily blossom, once complete (in 2021 if all
goes according to plan), the tower will feature offices, restaurants, rotating viewing platforms,
and beautiful sky gardens inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The tower will
serve as the centerpiece of a new community called Dubai Creek Harbor, which will house
up to 470,000 people. 3. Meanwhile, green energy is the future,
but wind farms can take up a lot of space. Solution? Put ‘em in the ocean, of course!
Ocean Wind is a planned offshore wind farm located 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic
City, New Jersey. Once completed in 2024, the massive farm of 850-ft turbines will generate
over 1,000 megawatts of electricity, nearly twice as much as an average coal power plant
and enough to power over half a million homes! 4. Resembling a giant corkscrew, the Chicago
Spire would’ve been the tallest building in the western hemisphere, dominating the
Chicago skyline 2,000 ft above street level. Its shape was inspired by smoke rising from
a campfire, and it offered a unique architectural challenge. The twisting walls would’ve made
the building vulnerable to the high winds Chicago’s known for. Funding dried up in
2008, with nothing but a large hole to show for all the planning. 5. Designed by the same architect who brought
us the Burj Khalifa, the world's current tallest building jutting half a mile into the sky,
the Jeddah Tower was originally planned to double that! But the futuristic spire was
scaled back due to practical concerns like wind and weight. It’s supposed to be completed
in 2020, and once that happens, it’ll dethrone the Burj Khalifa and stand an impressive 3,280
ft. 6. And reaching even further is the Sky Mile
Tower. The name says it all! So apparent there’s nothing else for me to say. Alright, if you
insist: Twice the height of the Burj Khalifa, Sky Mile will rise from an artificial island
in Tokyo bay. The island will function as a sea wall, protecting the city from rising
ocean levels. The tower will also provide clean water from a desalinization plant in
the lower levels. 7. It’s been called one of the most ambitious
construction plans since the Pyramid of Khufu. Behold the UAE’s proposed Dynamic Tower.
Each floor is shaped like a giant fidget spinner and would be able to rotate independently.
The building would also produce its own power thanks to a combination of solar panels and
wind turbines. 8. The strait of Gibraltar is so narrow that
Spain and Morocco are practically touching. Hello! It's not surprising that many engineers
have dreamed of building a superbridge across it. Plenty of designs have been presented
over the years, with the most eye-catching resembling a cross between the Golden Gate
and Brooklyn Bridges. This towering structure would span 8.7 miles from shore to shore.
Just the space between each supporting tower would be twice as long as the Golden Gate
Bridge! 9. Freedom Ship has been a decades-old concept
for a floating city capable of housing 80,000 people. At 4,500 ft long, the ship would be
almost 4 times the length of the world's largest cruise ship, the Symphony of the Seas. Its
25 floors would tower over anything else on the ocean. This moving city would contain
a nearly self-sufficient society with hospitals, schools, and a runway for commercial aircraft.
Hmm, think you could live on a ship like that? 10. 11. From the sea to the clouds, the Sky City
1000 offers a solution to Japan's equally sky-high housing prices. Resembling 14 bowls
stacked on top of each other, it was the first seriously considered concept for a self-contained
vertical city, a concept known as Arcology. Designed to house more than 35,000 people,
the 3,300-ft building would feature its own schools, theaters, and even outdoor parks
in the gaps between each terrace. 12. A similar project to deal with the lack
of space in the overcrowded city, Tokyo’s proposed Shimizu 2004 Mega-City Pyramid is
designed to house up to 1 million people. This enormous pyramid would be the largest
building in history, covering a little over 3 square miles of what's now Tokyo Bay. That’s
2½ times the size of Central Park! The 2004 in its name refers to a planned height of
2,004 meters, or about 6,600 ft. Do you think these massive skyscrapers will
a normal thing of the future? Maybe we’ll have flying cars so you can park right next
to your 400th-floor apartment! Let me know your thoughts down in the comments. Now, let’s
look at some even more epic projects! 13. The tallest construction project ever
seriously considered, the Dubai City Tower draws inspiration from the shape of the Eiffel
Tower. It would triple the height of the Burj Khalifa, and stand 5 times taller than the
Empire State building! Just imagine looking up at such a huge construction! The pointed
shape would help offset the impact of wind and disperse the tower’s weight over a wider
area. Instead of an elevator, the proposed building comes equipped with a high-speed
train to move people between floors. You know I think it was Shakespeare who named this
town, or Hamlet to be precise. “Dubai or not Dubai. That is the question.” Really. 14. Atlantropa was an insanely ambitious plan
to partially drain the Mediterranean Sea. The proposal called for massive hydroelectric
dams to be built in several places like the Dardanelles Channel and Strait of Gibraltar.
It would’ve lowered the sea level by up to 660 ft, the entire height of the Seattle
Space Needle, plus some! The plan also called for the Nile and Congo rivers to be redirected
to irrigate the Sahara Desert. For obvious reasons, the idea didn’t stick for long. 15. And now a project so unbelievable, it's
impossible. It’s a building…hanging in the sky…from an asteroid. Specifically,
it's meant to hang suspended by cables from an asteroid that would FIRST need to be towed
into our planet’s orbit! You could even parachute off the top floors and down to Earth!
Don't get me wrong – as a science fiction concept, it gets an A+! But something tells
me we won’t be seeing many hanging skyscrapers any time soon. On second thought, never say
never! Hey, if you learned something new today, then
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