- [Narrator] It's human
nature to push the limits of what's possible, and nowhere
is that seen more clearly than in the world of
construction and engineering. Mesmerizing, manmade
structures and creations come in all sorts of shapes,
but if you're anything like me, you know it's size that's everything. Whether it's sky high
statues, enormous engines, or even supersized ships,
join me as we discover some of the largest things
of their kind ever made. (bright music) - Whoa. - [Narrator] Soaring statue. The Statue of Liberty may
be the most recognizable and most visited statue in the world, but surprisingly it's not the biggest. You see in the state of
Gujarat in Western India stands a statue almost three
times the size of Lady Liberty, the Statue of Unity as it's known as dedicated
to Vallabhbhai Patel, the first deputy prime
minister of independent India. Patel was responsible for merging the 562 states of the country to create the Republic
of India, a mammoth task, but nothing compared to creating this humongous homage to him. In all, over 3000 workers in 250 engineers spent a backbreaking
40 months constructing the great man's likeness
out of a steel frame and bronze cladding, but it
was all worth it in the end. By the time they'd
finished, the mega monument was officially recognized as
the world's tallest statue, but how tall is it exactly? I mean, judging by how
small the workers look compared to the feet alone, you can tell this thing is gigantic. In all it measures close to 600 feet high and including the base, the
entire structure reaches a jaw dropping 790 feet. For context, the world's
second largest statue, this Spring Temple Buddha is
over a hundred feet smaller than this bronze beast. Unsurprisingly, a huge amount of material goes into making something so sizable. In total 70,000 tons of cement
and 25,000 tons of steel went into building the structure. For comparison, that's well
over double the concrete and 200 times the amount of steel that went into building
the Statue of Liberty, but size isn't the only thing
this wonder has to offer. Within the bust of Patel is a
450 foot high observation deck along with a museum
dedicated to the man himself. Heck, the statue can even be
lit up by laser projections. Forget the Statue of Liberty, Gujarat the place to go to see the tallest and coolest statue in the world, Bigger than Ben. If like me, punctuality isn't your forte, then I have the perfect solution to aid your time keeping troubles. There's just one small, tiny,
slightly inconvenient catch. You're gonna have to move
to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Why exactly? Well, because here you'll find the Makkah Clock Royal Tower, the largest clock tower in the world. Yep. Here you have no excuse
for losing track of time. The Makkah Clock Royal Tower's actually part of the Abraj Al Bait. A complex of not one, not two, but seven skyscraper hotels, with the elevated clock
tower being the tallest and most impressive of them all. How tall? I hear you ask. An insane 1,972 feet tall to be exact. That makes the Makkah Clock Royal Tower over double the height of Tokyo's NTT Docomo Yoyogi building, home of the world's next
tallest clock tower. So tall is this timekeeper that it's almost seven times the height of London's famous Big Ben. Yeah, considering the drop, I wouldn't sit on the ledge if I were you. You might be wondering how
anyone can make out the time from such a distance. Well, alongside its height, this super structure also holds the record for the world's largest clock face with a diameter of 187 feet and hands that are 55 and 72 feet long, each of the four faces can
be seen from a staggering 16 miles away. Wanna check the time at
night too? No problem. 2 million green and white
LEDs ensure the faces are always visible. Now that's one Makkah clock. Sorry, mega clock. (air swooshing) Sky high slide. While it's not quite as tall as the Makkah Clock Royal Tower, the Orbit Tower holds a
sizable record of its own. Back in 2012, it was built to commemorate the London Olympic Games
made of 35,000 bolts and enough steel to make
265 double-decker buses. This spiraling structure juts
374 feet into the skyline. Pretty big, but I've seen bigger, although it's not the structure itself that's earned at a spot in this video. You see, for four years
following the games, the Orbit Tower didn't do
much more than remain empty on East London skyline, but
that all changed in 2016 when the structure was
repurposed as a slide. This isn't any old playground
style slide though. At 584 feet long and 250 feet tall, this became the world's longest
and tallest tunnel slide. I don't know about you,
but I'm not hell bent on the idea of swirling down a slide that's twice as long as
Christ the Redeemer is tall. The swirling slide loops its way through the orbit tower 12
times taking anyone brave enough through daring drops in a
devilish corkscrew formation. Oh, and that's while you soar downwards at 15 miles per hour, even at that speed, rider must slide down for a
stomach turning 40 seconds before they hit the bottom. Now, whatever you may think of it, constructing this super
spiral didn't come cheap. Repurposing the structure costs some three and a half million pounds, roughly four and a half million dollars. Still, I don't care how much
this thing costs to create, there's no way in hell
you'll ever catch me slipping down the world's tallest slide. (air swooshing) Towering turbine. From far away wind turbines
dotted on hillsides are standing out at sea
constantly spinning away, don't seem all that huge,
but if you had to guess, how tall would you say these things are? Well surprising as it sounds, the average wind turbine
is some 280 feet tall, making them close to the height
of the Statue of Liberty. Pretty intimidating, right? And yet it's nothing compared
to one particular wind turbine in Osterild Denmark. Reaching a neck breaking 919 feet, the Vestas V236 is the
world's tallest wind turbine. For reference, this
giant is almost as tall as New York City's Chrysler building. The hub of this thing alone is so huge that several people can
stand quite comfortably inside the circular blade ports and the blades of this thing
each measure 380 foot long, so just one of them is longer than a standard football field. Yeah, that's one whopping wind turbine. In case you didn't know, wind turbines operate from wind energy, which turns the blades around a rotor. The rotor then spends a
generator to create electricity. Unsurprisingly, being such a mega machine, the Vestas V236 can
produce a lot of energy, roughly 80 gigawatt hours
of electricity per year. That's more than 13 times the amount of an average sized wind turbine. I guess you can say I am a
big fan of the Vestas V236. You know what else I'm a big fan of? My amazing YouTube channel. Oh, and modesty, clearly. If you're a fan too, be
sure to hit those like and subscribe buttons down below. That way you'll never miss
one of my videos ever again. All done? Great. Let's see what colossal
creation we've got up next. Massive Mountain Monument. When it comes to mountain
monuments, a lot of people, mainly Americans, presume
Mount Rushmore takes the title for largest sculpture
ever carved into the rock, but just 17 miles down the
road from the huge heads of American president's,
Jefferson, Roosevelt, Washington, and Lincoln is an
even bigger mountain carving. In the Black Hills in South
Dakota is Crazy Horse Memorial. The monument is dedicated
to surprise, surprise, Crazy Horse, a revered
Native American war leader from the 19th century. Currently only the face of
Crazy Horse is complete, but at a staggering 87 feet high, it's almost 30 feet higher than each of the president
heads on Mount Rushmore. Impressive right? But the magnitude of this
mountain marvel doesn't end there. You see, the project isn't yet finished. Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski
began working on the carving back in 1948 and worked alone for years to mold the mountain. That was until 1982 when
sadly, he passed away. Since then, his family has taken over and in 1998 they finally
completed Crazy Horse's head. However, those workings on
the memorial have discovered cracks in the underlying rocks, forcing them to deviate
from the original plan. Still, it'll be worth the wait. When the carving's finally finished, the monument will display Crazy
Horse riding atop a stallion with his arm pointing forward. In total, the sculpture's final form is set to be 563 feet
high and 641 feet long. For reference, it'll be taller
than the Washington Monument and almost 10 times the height of the faces carved into Mount Rushmore. Yep, there's neigh way
you can afford to miss out on seeing the colossal
Crazy Horse Memorial when it's finally finished. (air swooshing) Super stallion. In the cooler climates
of Falkirk Scotland, ya won't come across the
Crazy Horse Memorial, but you will find a crazy horse Memorial, well, two to be exact. The Kelpies, as they're known, are the world's largest horse sculptures. So just how long are the
faces of these horses? They each measure around 98 feet high and weigh a whopping 330 tons. That makes the Kelpies
around 20 times the height and 600 times the weight
of an average adult horse. Man, those are some stocky stallions. The sculptures were completed in 2013 and took just three
months to be constructed. That sounds especially
quick considering the horses are made up of a whopping
30,000 individual pieces designed to fit together
like a giant jigsaw, including 990 stainless steel panels. It may seem strange to have
a couple of horse heads poking out from the ground, especially when they set Scotland
back over 5 million pounds or roughly $6 million, but the
construction of the Kelpies is for a good reason. These soaring structures paid
tribute to the important role Clydesdale horses played in
pulling barges of iron ore and coal from Falkirk to the
bustling industrial hearts of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Man, if I knew pulling
barges would earn me a massive monument, might've
quit YouTube years ago. (air swooshing) A bridge too far. In China's eastern province of Jiangsu, there is a feet of
engineering that's so big, you literally can't see all of it at once. Lemme do some math here. If the furthest distance to the horizon that the human eye can see is 3.1 miles, thanks to the curvature of the earth, that means at any given time, you can only see about 3%
of the entire structure and to make things even
crazier, it's a bridge. It's the Danyang-Kunshan
Grand Bridge to be precise. Although it's technically a viaduct, running parallel to the Yangtze river, it stretches from Danyang
to Kunshan in eastern China. Its function is to transport commuters along the Beijing Shanghai
High-speed railway, one of the busiest railways in the world used by over 210 million
passengers every single year. Calling this bridge large would
be an understatement though. In total, the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge is a gigantic 102 miles long. However, only five and
a half miles of this crosses the water. Still it maintains an average
height of a hundred feet along the entire length of it and was a mammoth
undertaking to construct. It took four years more than 10,000 people and resources that reached a bank breaking eight and a half billion
dollars to complete. Yeah, billion with a B. That is enough to build the
world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa more
than five times over, but this isn't just the biggest or most expensive bridge in the world, it's also the most badass. Thanks to its super sturdy foundations, this crossing is capable
of withstanding typhoons, magnitude eight earthquakes
and even a direct hit from a 300,000 ton naval vessel. Man, they were not playing around when they built this bridge. (air swooshing) Whopping wall. China may have a record breaking bridge, but it's more famous for its walls. The Great Wall of China to be specific, obviously being a great wall, this thing is famous for
being ludicrously long, but not everyone is aware of
just how mindbogglingly massive it really is. The Ming Great Wall, that is
the best preserved section contains an artificial wall that extends for some 3,889 miles. That's a thousand miles longer than the entire width of the USA, but what many people don't
know is that the Great Wall is actually made up of multiple walls which have a combined total
length of some 13,000 miles, that makes it 30 times longer than the Israeli West Bank barrier, the second longest wall in the world. If for whatever reason you
were to walk every section of the Great Wall, it'd
take a grueling 5,300 hours or 220 days. I just hope you pack some water. Clearly building such an
awesome feat of engineering doesn't happen overnight. The beginning of the Great Wall
of China can be traced back to the fourth century BC,
when individual kingdoms were looking to protect
themselves from each other, and so created a series of
walls fending off enemies approaching from different directions. However, much of the grade
wall that still exists today was constructed during the Ming Dynasty, between the 14th and 17th centuries. So many of these separate
and formidable fortifications were built up over a
2000 year time period. Due to the wide timescale of the assembly, its price tag is hard
to accurately estimate. The same can't be said for
the human cost however. It's believed as many as
400,000 workers passed away during the walls construction. There are even rumors
that many of the deceased are buried within the walls itself. So not only would it take half a year to walk the length of this thing, you'd also be treading on what could be the world's longest burial ground. (air swooshing) The real big bird. Now, China ain't the only country that's been hell bent on creating more than one supersized structure. As it looks like India wasn't satisfied with just the statue of unity. You see in the forests of
Kerala in Southern India lies something so huge that
onlookers have to double take. In the Jatayu Nature Park, you'll find a stupendously
sized sculpture of an eagle. Yep, you heard that right. Rising up from the ground
is this 200 foot long, 150 foot wide and 70
foot tall big bird bust. For some perspective on
just how big this thing is, check out the scary size of its talons compared to one of the
construction workers. Work on this massive concrete-made
monument took six years, which may seem like a long time, but this thing ain't just a sculpture. Within the interior of Jatayu
is a museum, a 6D theater, and even an observation deck
located in the bird's eyes. Great and grand is the
sculpture of Jatayu sounds, there's one question. Why? According to Hindu legend,
Jatayu the eagle witnessed the Princess Sita being kidnapped by the demon King Ravana. When Jatayu tried to stop Ravana, he chopped off one of the bird's wings. Although defeated the fearless foul was able to inform Lord
Rama about Sita's abduction and where Ravana had taken her. Now you know this sculpture isn't only the biggest bird statue in the world, it also represents the legend of Jatayu and tributes the safety
and honor of women. Fair to say, this formidable foul figure is a real winger. (air swooshing) Tunnel Vision. The Swiss Alps are a place
of pristine natural beauty, but between the monumental
mountains and green valleys, you'll find a manmade structure that's the largest of its kind. Here, take a look. Can you spot it? No. Well, that's because
it's inside the mountain. This is the site where the
world's longest railway tunnel has been constructed. Officially known as the
Gotthard Base Tunnel, this railway tunnel extends
some 35 miles through the Alps, increasing transport
through the Alpine barrier. Such a stretch makes this underpass the world's longest railway
tunnel by almost two miles. Construction on this
big boy began in 1999, taking 2,500 workers of punishing 17 years to finally complete. It may seem like an age,
but creating a tunnel that's not only huge, but also cuts through a literal mountain, required a herculean effort. The Gotthard Base Tunnel
was primarily constructed with four massive tunnel boring machines. Four of these 1400 foot long machines chiseled away at the mountain. The machines were locked
on place with gripper pads before hydraulic arms pushed
a 30 foot diameter cutter head into the rock. Not only was the work hard and long, but it was also dangerous. The unpredictable quality of the rock and extreme temperatures, reaching up to 115 degrees fahrenheit made boring the tunnel out
difficult to say the least. Fortunately, in 2016, the
world's longest railway tunnel was finally complete. By the time it finished,
this $12 billion project had excavated over 31 million
tons of rock from the Alps. For context, that's
over 60 times the weight of the previously mentioned Burj Khalifa. It goes without saying, the construction of the
Gotthard Base Tunnel was groundbreaking work, or
should I say mountain breaking. (air swooshing) Marine Monster. Anything that's got giant in
its name is usually a sign that it's pretty fricking big. The giant squid, red
giants, Andre the Giant, and that's certainly the
case with this next beast. Introducing the Seawise Giant. Originally built in 1979,
this crude oil tanker underwent a two year makeover to become the largest ship in the world, but just how giant was this ship? Well, in total, the sea wise giant stretched over 1500
feet from bow to stern. Meaning if it was positioned upright, it would've been taller than
the Empire State Building. The Seawise giant was
extended to the point that it became the lengthiest
ship to ever grace the seas, eclipsing the super long
Battilus class supertankers by almost 150 feet. To demonstrate how monumental
this fast vessel was, it's rudder alone weighed at 230 tons, equivalent to around 40
adult African elephants. Unsurprisingly, this thing
could carry some weight. 620,000 tons of it to be exact. This meant a whopping 4.1
million barrels of crude oil could be kept on board. A crude oil tanker that
went by the similar name of Sea Giant was also a true colossus, but big issue looks even this vessel was around 150 feet shorter
and carried 60,000 tons less than the Seawise giant, but
the supersize of this ship didn't make it indestructible. In 1988 during the Iran-Iraq war, while carrying Iranian oil, the vessel was bombarded by Iraqi forces. Fire and destruction
spread through the ship and it sank in the shallow
waters off the Iranian coast, but old Seawise wasn't finished there. After the war ended, a
Norwegian consortium retrieved, repaired and renamed the
ship, calling her Happy Giant, but the cheerful times wouldn't last. By the 21st century, the ship was too large for its own good. She wasn't a practical vessel
for transporting oil anymore, and the economic burden
of powering such a ship meant the gargantuan
tanker operated at a loss. In 2010, the ship was sent for scrapping in a true sea wise giant
style, even the dismantling job displayed the ship's sheer size. Astonishingly, it took
18,000 workers a whole year to scrap the vessel and with that, went the world's
largest ship. (sniffles) Where are my tissues? (coughs) I mean, what rank do we have up next? (air swooshing) Enormous engine. Engines power some of the
world's most vital machines and I'm not talking about your car. Think bigger, much bigger. Think ships like super
tankers and cruise ships. They don't run on a bunch of
regular sized car engines. Instead, they require
massive engines like this. This is a MAN 48/60 engine. Once the largest diesel
engine produced in America. At their biggest, they
weigh close to 240 tons, making them roughly 1200 times heavier than a standard diesel car engine and while that is pretty big, it ain't the biggest engine out there, stretching to 1300 feet long, the Emma Maersk is a large container ship that's close to rivaling
the Seawise giant for size and powering the Emma Maersk is the Wartsila-Sulzer
RT-flex96c, quite a mouthful. This mammoth size mechanism goes down as the largest diesel
engine on the planet, standing at 44 feet tall and 90 feet long. This engine is larger than
a four story building. On top of that, it weighs
in at over 2,500 tons, making it 10 times heavier
than the MAN 48/60. The question is, how do diesel engines like these power ships? Well, the diesel engines burn
fuel in a combustion chamber. This burning process
creates high pressure, pushing the cylinders inside the engine. The movement of these cylinders
and the pistons inside them is converted into rotary motion, which turns the ship's propeller, moving it forward in the water. Fortunately for the RT-flex96c, it's not only the largest
diesel engine in the world, but also the most powerful. The enormous engine gives its ships an impressive power output
of 107,000 horsepower, but just how impressive is that? Well, compared to the
world's current most powerful unmodified production
car, the Lotus Evija, the RT-flex96c has over
50 times more horsepower. Yeah, my Ford focus isn't
looking so beastly now, is it? (air swooshes) Awesome aircraft. When it comes to crowning
the biggest aircraft you might think of planes with big wings, jets with big engines,
helicopters with big blades, but what the world's largest aircraft has is actually a big butt. Say hello to the Airlander 10, aka, the Kim Kardashian
of the aircraft world. In all seriousness, this
airship shouldn't be the butt of any jokes as it's a piece of engineering excellence. Stretching to some 302 feet long, the AirLander 10 created
by British company Hybrid Air Vehicles is
well over the length of three adult blue whales,
even the Antonov An-225, the heaviest and most
powerful plane ever built is 25 feet shorter than the
astronomical AirLander 10, yet Hybrid Air Vehicles
weren't satisfied with that. In 2020, updates were made
to expand the air vehicle by an extra 5%, making it a
monstrous 320 feet long beast. On top of its long
length, the AirLander 10 has 2100 square feet of internal space, which is over double the amount in standard commercial
aircraft like the Boeing 737. The question is, how can an air vehicle with such a bulky build stay air bound? Well, The Airlander 10
is a hybrid aircraft. This means it derives 40% of its lift through aerodynamics like an airplane, and the remainder from the
buoyant lift from helium found in the hull, like standard airships. The lifting gas offsets
the weight of the aircraft, meaning less energy is
required to keep it aloft. So even when carrying
in an 11 ton payload, this big boy can fly for five whole days. Who knew something so
big could be so talented? Right, Kim? (air swooshes) Mammoth machine. If you were to guess what
the largest land vehicle in the world is, you might think of some sort of massive dump truck
or maybe a towering tractor, but it turns out the actual answer is a bucket wheel excavator. Despite the chainsaw like wheel, the only thing this thing
cuts through is the earth. As bucket wheel excavators this large usually make a part of a
continuous mining system. As the wheel at the front
of the machine turns, the large buckets attached to
it rotate and scoop up earth before dropping it onto a conveyor belt, which is then transferred
onto dump trucks to be removed and one of the biggest bucket
wheel excavators of them all is the Bagger 288. When built by German
company Krupp, back in 1978, this behemoth became the
heaviest vehicle in the world. In all it weighed in at
a staggering 13,500 tons. On top of that, this bad
boy measured 720 feet long and reached 315 feet tall. For comparison, that's
about 20 times as long and 30 times as tall as
a standard school bus. I mean, the blade of this thing alone has a diameter of 70 feet. Sounds pretty terrifying, right? But what if I told you the Bagger 288 had a bigger badder brother? Well, German company Takraf
created the Bagger 293 in 1995, weighing in at an unreal 16,000 tons, the Bagger 293 is close
to double the weight of the Eiffel Tower, plus this
thing reaches 740 feet long and is 320 feet tall, slightly
edging out its older sibling for top spot as the world's
biggest land vehicle. Given its super size, it's not a shock that this thing could do
its fair share of digging. The Bagger 293 is capable of moving close to 250,000 tons of soil every day, equivalent to the work of 40,000 miners. Man, what a mega machine. Considering the outrageous
size of this thing, getting a glimpse of
the Bagger 293 in person should be on everyone's bucket list. (chuckles) Okay, I'll see myself out. And that rounds up some
of the largest things of their kind ever made. So how small do you feel
right now? Just kidding. Which was your favorite? Let me know down in the comments below and thanks for watching. (chilled music)
