The Seven Wonders of
The Modern World
5. The Channel Tunnel, The English Channel
For centuries, the English Channel separating Great Britain from
the rest of Europe has served as a near impregnable barrier to would-be
invaders, protecting England’s sovereignty while keeping the nation culturally
and socially distinct from its neighbors. The $15 billion Channel Tunnel
(informally called the “Chunnel”), which began operations in 1994, provides
the first land link between England and continental Europe. The Chunnel is 31
miles long; 23 miles of this distance is underwater. At present, it consists of
three interconnected tubes; one rail tunnel in each direction and a service
tube. For facts about the Chunnel, a diagrams, and information about traveling
Europe by rail, see the Eurostar
page. Obviously, the only way to experience the Chunnel is to take a train
through it, so you’ll have to find some other activities to fill your time in
two of the most culturally and historically rich nations in the world.
6. The North Sea Protection Works, Netherlands
For many, the image out of the Dutch fight against the North
Sea rests in the figure of a young boy valiantly saving his town by using a
finger to plug a hole in the dike. But this familiar hero is a fictional one, a
creation of American author Mary Mapes Dodge in her book, Hans Brinker. In
reality, heroism falls on all the Dutch, who for more than a millenium have been
wresting precious agricultural lands from the sea and fighting to hold on to
them. Their greatest achievement-a colossal fun in the dike-if the vast and one
dress project known as that
Netherlands North Sea protection works. Because much of the Netherlands lies
below sea level, normal tides would daily inundate about half the country if
previous generations of industrious Dutch had not raised dikes and dams. Severe
storms often cause tidal waters to crash into the dikes and inundate rivers and
estuaries. Although all of the coastal areas are threatened, two particularly
vulnerable ones are the large tidal inlet formerly known as the Zuider Zee and
the delta created by the Rhine and Meuse rivers in the southwestern corner of
the country.
Dutch engineers purse propose that the Zuider Zee be dammed
and drained in the 19th century, but the government was reluctant to tackle such
an immense project. Then, in 1916, a furious storm hit the northern provinces.
The difficulties of wartime agricultural production were compounded, and the way
was paved for the damming of the Zuider Zee.The dam enclosing the Zuider Zee was
built in two sections using traditional materials. Beginning in 1923, workers
laid boulder clay in parallel layers and filled the space in between with sand,
stones, and handmade, mattresses fashioned from brushwood. To curtail erosion,
larger mattresses ballasted with chains and stones were sunk in the estuaries
channels. Dredges, cranes, tugboats, and barges were engaged in the erection of
the main dam, 300 feet wide at sea level and 25 feet high at the level of its
causeway. As the tide turned on the final day of construction, fill tumbled into
the dam's last gap, transforming the inlet into a freshwater lake, renamed the
Ijsselmeer. The finished dam contains sluices for draining excess water and
locks for maintaining shipping.
After the damming came the draining. In all, more than a half
million acres of polders, or reclaimed farmland, emerged from the bottom of the
former Zuider Zee. Young Dutch farmers clamoring for the right to settle the new
polder lands, because farms on new, unobstructed land were far more suitable for
modern, mechanized farming methods than traditional farms in older areas.In
1953, the "storm of the century" howled across the North Sea and into
the Netherlands, testing the strength of the Zuider Zee enclosure. It held, with
damage to the causeway heavy in places. The country's unprotected southwestern
provinces felt the full brunt of the storm, with water surging over seawalls and
up the delta's wide waterways. More than 1,800 people lost their lives, and
livestock numbering in the hundreds of thousands perished. The country then
realized that the long-intended plan to safeguard the southwestern delta, the
Delta Plan or Delta Project, must be mobilized.
The plan would undergo a many incarnations. The last one
involved a damming four estuaries in the middle of the delta while leaving open
channels to Rotterdam in the north and Antwerp, Belgium, in the south. A
two-mile-long surge barrier in the Oosterschelde estuaries was the most complex
and sophisticated piece of the project.Originally, the Oosterschelde was to be a
closed barrier. But lobbying by fishermen and conservationists resulted in the
switch to a movable barrier. To facilitate construction, engineers fashioned
islands on three sandbars in the estuaries and constructed work harbors,
material yards, and work sites there. A dam connected two of the islands,
effectively creating three channels in the estuaries, each to receive a section
of the surge barrier.
The movable barrier consists of 65 concrete piers weighing
18,000 tons apiece. The piers support 300- to 500-ton steel gates and their
hydraulic machinery, as well as a roadway above and load-bearing beams below.
Constructed on the work islands, the piers and their mechanisms had to be lifted
into precise positions in the estuary. But the type of equipment needed for such
gargantuan and specialized tasks did not exist anywhere in the world; it had to
be invented. The Oosterschelde barrier also honored traditional methods. As part
of the measures taken to stabilize the sea floor, mattresses were laid under
each pier to prevent erosion. They were not the hand-built weaving of trees and
brush used to close the Zuider Zee, however. Instead, they were high-tech
sandwiches of sand and gravel between space-age fabric covers. The Oosterschelde
project finished in 1986. Since then, the Dutch have taken additional measures,
including the completion in 1997 of the barrier that protects the port of
Rotterdam. "In terms of magnitude," an American trade journal wrote,
the North Sea project "approaches of the Great Wall of China. In terms of
complexity and technical sophistication, it approaches the lunar shot. It is
unique, expensive, and quite unlike any other civil engineering project to be
found on this planet."
7. The Golden Gate Bridge, San
Francisco
The Golden Gate Bridge links San Francisco with Marin County
in absolute splendor. The bridge is one of the architectural marvels of the
Twentieth Century and a testament to human strife, as it was constructed during
the years of the Great Depression. For years, the Golden Gate Bridge held the
title as the longest suspension bridge in the world. Before its completion in
1937, the bridge was considered impossible to build, due to persistently foggy
weather, 60-mile-per-hour winds, and strong ocean currents, which whipped
through a deep canyon below. In fact, the bridge is commonly known as the
"Bridge that couldn't be built." Despite these unforgiving natural
elements, the bridge was constructed in a little more than four years. The total
cost was $35 million (447,227,000 in today's money). The total length of the
bridge spans 1.2 miles. Eleven men lost their lives during the construction of
the bridge.
Even
today, the massive spans of the bridge are often shrouded in fog. The bridge
sways 27 feet to withstand winds of up to 100 miles per hour. International
Orange was the color chosen for the bridge because it blended well with the
bridge's natural surroundings. The two great cables extending from the bridge
contain 80,000 miles of steel wire, which is enough to circle the equator three
times. The concrete poured to cement the bridge into the stormy waters below
could have also been used to pave a five-foot wide sidewalk from New York to San
Francisco. Because of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco is one of the
premier skyline cities in the nation. It was a triumphant day in the history of
the city when the bridge was completed on May 27, 1937. Over 200,000 people
celebrated the grand opening of the Golden Gate Bridge by walking its length.
The following day, a dedication ceremony was held to officially christen what
would become the architectural trademark of the city. The regular flow of
vehicular traffic began the next day.
Efforts to begin the construction on the bridge began as early as 1928. The
process would entail the efforts of six counties in Northern California. In
1928, the counties formed a Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District. In 1930,
the voters appropriated a $35 million bond issue to finance the building of the
bridge. For many years following, Joseph Baerman Strauss, a distinguished
engineer, dreamed of raising a span across the Golden Gate. It was in response
to his vision that people first started saying that the bridge could not be
built. But, amazingly enough, Strauss held fast to his vision, and a span was
eventually raised across the Golden Gate Bridge. The actual work on the bridge
began on January 5, 1933. It was completed four-and-one-half years later. The
result astounded the fiercest of Strauss's critics. To this day, the bridge is
admired for its magnitude and beauty.
The bridge is nothing short of a powerful force meant to combat nature. The
often mighty winds from the Pacific Ocean are sustained by a mid span swing of
27 feet. The two towers of the bridge rise an impressive 746 feet, which is 191
feet taller than the Washington Monument. The pier of the bridge is only 1,215
feet from the shore, the distance between the two towers that support the
cables, which in turn, support the floor of the bridge is 4,200 feet. These two
cables are the largest bridge cables ever made at a little over 361 feet in
diameter.
Today, pedestrians and bicyclists are still allowed to cross the bridge on
pathways with breathtaking views of the city, Alcatraz, and the Marin Headlands.
The bridge toll for vehicles is $3 when entering San Francisco. The first exit
of the Marin side of the bridge is Visa Point, which provides a magnificent view
of the San Francisco skyline. But, the best way to view the bridge is to walk
across. This usually takes about an hour.
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