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The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the widest long-span bridge in the world and is the largest steel arch bridge with the top of the bridge standing 134 metres above the harbour. The total weight of the bridge is 52,800 tonnes, and six million hand-driven rivets hold the bridge together.

The 75th anniversary of this iconic bridge was celebrated in March 2007. The bridge was formally opened on 19 March 1932. Amongst those who attended and gave speeches were the State Governor, Sir Philip Game, the Minister for Public Works, and Ennis. The Premier of NSW, Labor politician Jack Lang, was to open the bridge by cutting a ribbon at its southern end. However, just as he was about to do so, a man in military uniform moved forward on horseback and slashed the ribbon with a sword, declaring the bridge to be open "in the name of His Majesty the King and the decent and respectable citizens of New South Wales". He was promptly arrested. The ribbon was hurriedly retied and Lang performed the official opening ceremony. After he did so, there was a 21-gun salute and a RAAF flypast. The intruder was identified as Francis de Groot.

Below are pictures of the bridge from different times of day and weather. See more photos here.

Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour

Beautiful Sydney Harbour

Fog covers the bridge.

Picture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge at night.

Just as majestic at night.

75th birthday celebrations.

Fireworks on and surrounding the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Fireworks surrounding the bridge.

*These pictures used with permission from Damn Funny Pictures.

**This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Sydney Harbour Bridge.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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London Eye

November 23rd 2006 02:40

The British Airways London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, opened in 1999 and is the largest observation wheel in the world (a type of Ferris wheel). It stands 135 metres (443 feet) high and is adjacent to London's County Hall. The Eye is officially the world's most popular tourist attraction, more popular than the Statue of Liberty, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Eiffel Tower. By July 2002 around 8.5 million people had ridden the Eye.

London Eye viewed from Westminster Bridge.

The wheel carries 32 sealed and air conditioned passenger capsules attached to its external circumference. One revolution takes about 30 minutes to complete. The wheel does not usually stop to take on passengers; the rotation rate is so slow that passengers can easily walk on and off the moving capsules at ground level. It is, however, stopped on occasion to allow disabled or elderly passengers time to disembark safely.

Close up of the capsules on top of the wheel.

The rim of the Eye is supported by tie rods and resembles a huge spoked bicycle wheel. The wheel was constructed in sections which were floated up the Thames on barges and assembled lying flat on pontoons. Once the wheel was complete it was raised into an upright position by cranes, being lifted at a rate of 2 degrees per hour until it reached 65 degrees. It was left in that position for a week while engineers prepared for the second phase of the lift. The total weight of steel in the Eye is 1,700 tonnes.

View from a capsule up the top.

Although the Eye is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest observation wheel in the world, it is unlikely to keep that title for long. Plans have been announced to build a 170 m wheel on the Las Vegas Strip, a 185 m wheel dubbed "Giant Wheel" planned to open in 2008 in Berlin and a 200 m wheel in Shanghai.

*This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. It uses material from the Wikipedia article London Eye.

**The first image is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License.

***The second image has been released into the public domain by its author.

****The third image is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2.0.

*****All images originated from the Wikipedia page for London Eye.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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Themed Hotel Rooms

November 7th 2006 00:22

Themed hotels are normally a version of boutique hotels which are furnished in a themed rather than stylish and/or aspirational manner. They are also normally smaller than an average hotel with only 3-100 guest rooms. Of course sometimes only some parts or rooms of an otherwise normal hotel can be themed, and the length designers go to in achieving the desired themes will vary.

Below are some photos of elaborate, original and detailed themed hotel rooms. More pictures here.

*These pictures used with permission from Damn Funny Pictures.

**This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Hotel.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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Shoe Factory

November 1st 2006 01:08

You may not realise it but there are a total of eight parts which make up a shoe.
They are:

Sole - Bottom of a shoe, which gives the shoe its structure.
Insole - Interior bottom of the shoe, which sits directly beneath the foot
Mid-sole - Layer situated between the in-sole and the out-sole, found in some shoes.
Outsole - Layer in direct contact with the ground.
Heel - Projection at the back of a shoe which rests below the heel bone.
Vamp or Upper - Upper part that separates the foot from the air, and helps hold the shoe onto the foot.
Laces - Long piece of string or cord that holds a shoe closed.
Tongue - Flap-like, usually flexible, part that goes underneath the laces.

Shoes also fall into one of the following categories: dress, casual, work, snow, athletic and boots.

The photos taken in a shoe factory below show some of the processes involved in making a shoe. It is quite a long process and more pictures can be seen here.

View inside the factory.

Producing the soles

Mould for the soles

Huge range of various sized foot moulds.

Look at all those sewing machines!

I think this would be the tongue?

*These pictures used with permission from Damn Funny Pictures.

**This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Shoe.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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Millennium Dome - London

October 18th 2006 05:13

The O2, still generally referred to by its former name, the Millennium Dome, is a large dome shaped building on the Greenwich peninsula in south east London.
The name was officially changed when O2 plc purchased the naming rights from the developers.

The Millennium Dome, with the Canary Wharf complex in the background, seen from the River Thames.

The Millennium Dome is the largest single-roofed structure in the world. Externally it appears as a large white marquee with 100 m-high yellow support towers, one for each month of the year, or each hour of the clock face, representing the role played by Greenwich Mean Time. In plan view it is circular, 365 m in diameter — one metre for each day of the year — with scalloped edges. It has become one of the United Kingdom's most recognisable landmarks.

Aerial view of the Millennium Dome.

The dome was constructed in order to hold a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium. This exhibition opened to the public on January 1, 2000 and ran until December 31, 2000; however the project and exhibition was the subject of considerable political controversy and never quite achieved its objectives.

The Millennium Dome 02, seen from the Isle of Dogs.

The Millennium Dome, seen from the Isle of Dogs.

The Millennium Dome is now normally closed. Since the closure of the original exhibition, several possible ways of reusing the building have been proposed and then rejected. The renaming of the dome on May 31, 2005 gave publicity to the Dome's transition into an indoor sporting arena. In this role the plan is to host the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships and the artistic gymnastics and trampolining events of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. The sports area will be complemented by a proposed substantial entertainments complex, the contents of which are still the subject of political decision and some major controversy.

*This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Millennium Dome.

**The first photo has been released into the public domain by its author.

***The second and third photos are licenced under the Creative Commons
Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2.5. All three photos came from the Wikipedia page for Millennium Dome.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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Fire in the Trinity Cathedral, St. Petersburg

September 18th 2006 03:16

The Trinity Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia, is a late example of the Empire style, built between 1828 and 1835 to a design by Vasily Stasov.
The cathedral, which can accommodate up to 3,000 visitors, has only recently begun to be restored to its pre-Revolutionary splendour after years of neglect. In 1990, the Cathedral became a part of the Saint Petersburg World Heritage Site.

[ Click here to read more ]

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

September 4th 2006 01:53

A bridge-tunnel (sometimes called a brunnel) is a water crossing that uses a combination of bridge and tunnel structures.

For water crossings, a tunnel is generally more costly to construct than a bridge. However, navigational considerations at some locations may limit the use of high bridges or drawbridge spans when crossing shipping channels, necessitating the use of a tunnel

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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Magdeburg Water Bridge

August 21st 2006 02:53

A water bridge is a type of bridge which contains a transport canal and so allow barges or boats to cross over obstacles such as roads, rivers or valleys. Locks are often used at each end to raise and lower ships.

The 918-metre Magdeburg Water Bridge, completed in October 2003, connects two important German shipping canals, the Elbe-Havel Canal and the Mittellandkanal, which leads to the country’s industrial Ruhr Valley heartland. Engineers first conceived of joining the two waterways as far back as 1919

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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Flower Dog - Guggenheim Museum

August 10th 2006 05:19

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a modern and contemporary art museum designed by architect Frank Gehry and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain.
The exhibitions in the museum itself change often, but the museum's permanent collection concerns 20th century art, traditional paintings and sculptures are often in a minority compared to installations and electronic forms. Some art enthusiasts feel that the building itself far too often overshadows the museum's collection.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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Ice Palace

July 31st 2006 02:35

An ice palace or ice castle is a castle-like structure made of blocks of ice. These blocks are usually harvested from nearby lakes when they become frozen in winter. The first known ice palace appeared in St. Petersburg, Russia and was the handiwork of Russian empress Anna Ivanovna.
Many ice palaces have been built since. The capital city of Minnesota, St. Paul, has played host to several ice palaces since 1886 as part the city's Winter Carnival. Every year since 1954 the Quebec City Winter Carnival in Quebec City has featured ice palaces or ice castles of various sizes.
Below are pictures of ice palaces from such carnivals

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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World's Tallest Buildings

July 26th 2006 04:31

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat defined four categories in which the "world's tallest building" can be measured:

1. Height to the structural or architectural top (including spires and pinnacles, but not antennas, masts or flagpoles)
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Diamond Ring Hotel - Abu Dhabi

July 25th 2006 05:02

The United Arab Emirates are famous for their innovative buildings and hotels, such as the Burj al-Arab in Dubai. There is another hotel in the planning stages to be built in Abu Dhabi, which has been dubbed the 'Diamond Ring Hotel" in English, or “الدولاب الهوائي" in Arabic. I pasted that into Google Translate and it gave me "Wheel antenna".
Below are some images of what the hotel should look like if it's ever constructed. They seem to have contradicting ideas about whether the hotel will be built on the mainland or on a separate island. They look pretty cool anyway.

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Posted By: Ian - Category: buildings

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