Seeking Interesting Sites When Travelling the World? 401
An anonymous reader asks: "Is there anyone besides me who likes to travel and look at engineering projects? When I first read Neal Stephenson's Wired article on his trip around the world to watch an intercontinental fiber cable being built from England to Japan (still available at HotWired) I knew this was what I wanted to do with my vacation days. Space launch sites, high-speed rail lines, container ports, technology museums - I've tried them all. Does Slashdot have suggestions for destinations, or for web sites where people share their experiences."
A Few Ideas (Score:3, Interesting)
Trans-Siberian railroad. Just because.
Lewis and Clark Bridge, St. Charles, MO / Alton, IL. See the Nova special, Superbridge, first. And close to the Gateway Arch, too.
WTC site. Damn, that thing took hits from two jetliners and it stayed up long enough to get most (not all, alas) of the people out?
Sears Tower, Chicago.
Assembly building at KSC.
The list goes on and on.
Total Solar Eclipse (Score:3, Interesting)
It's science, not engineering, but I recommend it just the same. Find a good one here [nasa.gov] or here [nasa.gov]
Re:Why don't you tell us some? (Score:2, Interesting)
If you want to really be amazed by the Leaning Tower of Pisa, read about [discover.com] the measures they've taken to prevent it from totally falling over.
Machu Picchu, Egyptian Pyramids (Score:4, Interesting)
But it is good to see things that were built so well with so little technology that survive today. Attesting to human intelligence and cunning. Give you a real good perspective on the world we live in now.
Much prettier than an IMAX movie, plus you are outside.
I love technology museums but the Great Wall of China would be a good thing to stroll down with my lady(plus you geeks could get some choice hentai).
I guess my point is check out something other than the electronic.
Puto
Malmö bridge (Score:2, Interesting)
Museum of Science in Florence, Italy (Score:2, Interesting)
One particular item of interest: after Galileo died, some of his students managed to scavenge the middle finger of his right hand from the corpse when it was appropriated by the Church of the time. They preserved it, and today the remains of the finger are in a little bell jar in room 6, as I recall. The irony is that the item is arranged such that as near as I could tell, it's facing the Duomo (the major cathedral in Florence) where religious figures of the day... ahem. Let's just say that it's comforting to know that, evermore, Galileo gets to give the finger to the Church.
Boston's Big Dig (Score:3, Interesting)
And I'm going to get to drive on it in a month. ENVY ME!
Largest Building in the World!! (Score:5, Interesting)
The Hoover Dam [usbr.gov] is deceptively MASSIVE.
The Eiffel Tower [tour-eiffel.fr] is a whole lot of iron!
The Leaning Tower of Pisa [duomo.pisa.it] was actually quite terrifying before they put up the railings!! (Think about walking, 10 meters up, on wet, smooth-as-glass marble at like a 15 degree angle)
The Pyramids [pbs.org] are one hell of an engineering feat!
And, although not human engineering, my favorite has to be Uluru [ea.gov.au]. Yeah, it looks like just a big hunk 'o rock, but when you walk all the way around it, it's quite amazing how the hues change with literally every footstep.
Titan Missle Museum, Tucson AZ. (Score:5, Interesting)
The Titan Missile museum is the only one like it in the world -- A cold-war nuclear silo open for public tours. Setting foot on the premises before 1983 would have meant you would be shot on sight.
The rocket is still in the silo, but its been drained of fuel and the warhead disarmed. Its connected to the control room by an enormous underground corridor build out of massively reinforced steel with giant springs the size of Volkswagons to absorb the shock of a nuclear strike.
Back during the cold war, Tucson was #6 on the Soviet Union's list of strike targets due to the fact we have a major air base, and a rather large number of defense contractors. They built the silo like a couple hundred feet underground, anticipating that it would get hit by a nuke, and still function. The operator's chair in the control room is even mounted on springs and rails, to allow the guy to do his job in the event the facility got hit. You can even sit in the chair.
The tour includes the actual control room where launch codes were recieved, and the infamous red button & code book are kept. You can even push it..Doing so before 1983 would have meant a couple million people would die..
The tour also requires you to wear a hard-hat. You'll need it. I hit my head on a friggin support girder.
Cheers,
Bowie
Aerospace nuttiness (Score:4, Interesting)
The Titan Missile Museum (an old missile silo):
http://www.pimaair.org/titan_01.htm
I would love to buy the place and move in, userfriendly.org-style.
It's companion, the Pima Air Museum, has tons of old aircraft including an SR-71 and JFK's Air Force 1. Be sure to hit the hangers:
http://www.pimaair.org/
They're both around Tucson.
The Champlin Fighter Museum has lots of great WWII and WWI stuff:
http://www.champlinfighter.com/ It's east of Phoenix, I think.
Harbours and boats (Score:5, Interesting)
Having been born there has nothing to do with my enthusiasm for the place ;-)
It's a shame (Score:3, Interesting)
UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Score:3, Interesting)
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) [unesco.org] has a list of 730 sites around the world [unesco.org] that they qualify as "World Heritage Sites" - sites that are one of a kind culturally significant locations. Things ranging from The Statue of Liberty [unesco.org] to Ancient Thebes [unesco.org], and lots of others. I'm sure many of the items listed in this slashdot discussion will also show up on the list. (The Great Wall of China [unesco.org] is there too)
I try to visit at least one UNESCO World Heritage site on every trip I take. Many of the sites are fascinating for their architecture as well as their cultural significance.
Prediction (Score:2, Interesting)
Intelligent Farming - Taiwan/Japan (Score:2, Interesting)
Then, I managed a trip to Taiwan, and discovered that they have some amazing ways of farming, and is the most productive place I've ever seen. There was a fair amount of smarts that went into all of that, and I'm sure you'd find something similar elsewhere.
Joshua
baltimore museum on industry (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.charm.net/~bmi/index.html
most everything still runs (giant lathes, printing press, etc), and the tour guides are very knowledgable.
Cape Cod - French Cable Station Museum (Score:2, Interesting)
I visited the French Cable Station Museum in Orleans, Cape Cod. It was really very interesting. This is a small museum in the original building where the first French trans-Atlantic submarine communications cable (laid in 1869) connected to the U.S. They have all of the orginal equipment used to send and receive communications, including one of the earliest (I presume) A to D converters which read to and from paper tape.
There weren't many visitors in the museum, and the elderly gentlemen who volunteered there were extremely friendly and more than willing to give an extensive tour of the place and all the equipment. I'd recommend it if you find yourself in that area. As they might say up there, "It's wicked pissah!"
A quick search did not reveal a website for the museum, but there is a bit about it here [atlantic-cable.com].
The Delta Works (Score:5, Interesting)
If you want to see some spectacular engineering, I suggest visiting the Delta Works in the Netherlands.
The Delta Works are basically a series of projects, culminating in the flood control barrier in the Eastern Scheldt (Oosterscheldedam), to protect the lower areas of the Netherlands against flooding.
The impetus to build them was the great storm of 1953, where a combination of storm and high tides flooded most of the coastal regions, claiming some 1800 lives. A decision was made to improve our already impressive flood defences.
One problem turned up however: the Eastern Scheldt. This arm of the Scheldt delta was unique in terms of its environmental value, and also home to a very lucrative arm of the fishing industry (mussels and oysters). In order to protect both the environment and business, a decision was made to put in a flood barrier instead of a regular dam.
At its time, the Eastern Scheldt flood barrier was the most technologically advanced piece of hydrological engineering in the world, and you'll still be hard pressed to find its equal now.
The official URL [deltawerken.com] returns an error from where I'm sitting, but a Google search on "Delta Works" returns enough English-language sites to give you an idea.
Bonus: most Dutchmen have a fair command of the English language, so getting around should be easy. I am also a native of the area that was hit hardest, so if you need a personal guide, just drop me an e-mail.
MartHow about Hawaii? (Score:4, Interesting)
For big engineering, there is Mauna Kea. Several of the world's largest telescopes, sprouting like mushrooms from the top of an extinct volcano. Cough up a hundred and fifty bucks or so and you get a guided tour of the summit, as well as a ride up from the coast. And parkas--even in August it's bloody cold up there. The sunset from the top is to die for, and you're almost always above the clouds. It's like the surface of the moon--no vegetation, just dust. The guided tours also usually stop on the way down at around 10,000' and set up a smaller scope for some observing and general stargazing. Very cool.
This is science, not engineering, but you really should go snorkelling, or SCUBA diving if you have your papers. There's a lot of interesting life just about anywhere you get into the water.
More biology: the smallest, least settled island at the end of the chain (Kaui) is mostly rain forest. See the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, and hike through the forests. The Bali Ha'i scenes from the movie version of South Pacific were shot here. Very much worth the trip, since Aloha Airlines runs very inexpensive flights between the islands. (Don't forget to take pictures of Hickam AFB when you're flying into or out of Honolulu.)
Exploratorium, San Francisco (Score:2, Interesting)
Also in San Fran, although suspension bridges get kinda old, is the Golden Gate. Lots of fun to walk out and feel it sway underneath you as it literally just hangs there. Plus there's a piece of the cable down by the visitor's center - huge! - amazing. Plus great photo-op of the Bay and the Marin Headlands.
Somebody already pointed out the Stanford Linear Accelerator that runs underneath 280, south of SF.
Things I've loved (Score:2, Interesting)
I lived about 15m below sea level and used to look up at ships travelling
down the nearest canal. You've got to see the Zuiderzee [wikipedia.org]
and the Rhine delta projects.
The Oresund [longman.com.au] bridge between Denmark and Sweden is amazing,
completed a couple of years ago it's 16km (~ 9 miles) long.
Back in 1999 I took the train from Amsterdam to Beijing. I went thru Berlin,
Minsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow, along the trans-Sib [geographia.com] to Irkutsk
then south to Mongolia and into China. It took three weeks in all with a
couple of days stops along the way. The Russian train stays on Moscow
time the whole way thru. I had train lag getting off! It's the Trans
Mongolian rather than the Trans Siberian and it's more interesting
since you get to go thru Mongolia and end up in China.
In China I went to the Great Wall of China, altho' it is impressive I wasn't
blown away by it. I think I'd heard too much about it already. I only
saw one section, if you followed it for thousands of kilometers then you'd
respect the builders a hell of a lot more....
The Cathederal [bawue.de] in Cologne is pretty impressive.
The attention to detail is second to none, even in places no one would
normally look.
and a plug for home, the 5000 year old Megalithic Passage Tomb at
Newgrange [knowth.com] in Ireland is awe inspiring. On the morning of
the shortest day of the year, a shaft of light shines thru an opening
over the entrance and fills the chamber inside. It's humbling to
think that people were making those sort of claculations so long ago...
Wieliczka Salt Mine (Score:1, Interesting)
Pretty phenomenal blending of art and science. Over several hundred years, Polish miners decorated the tunnels of this salt mine, carving numerous sculptures out of solid salt. The real treasure though is an entire cathedral, hewn out of solid salt and rock, located deep underground.
The picture in the link doesn't do it justice.
Three Gorges Dam (Score:1, Interesting)
It's also that monumental a human-rights disaster. I don't know how many workers are buried in the dam (as they are said to be in the Great Wall) but many millions of people have been uprooted from their ancestral lands in service of this ill-conceived development project. (Wait till the dam breakes in an earthquake and drowns three million. And if not that, wait till this 400-mile stagnant lake that replaces the Yangtze fills with industrial waste and sewage.)
Still, it's like a car wreck. You can't help but be fascinated.
Historical/scientific important sights. (Score:3, Interesting)
Find something/person you're interested in and do some research on them. Then maybe visit their old stomping grounds. There's a lot of interesting things in the world.
If anyone else has interest in World War 2 and cryptography, take a trip to London and take the train an hour out to Bletchley Park for the day. It was well worth it for me. VERY cool stuff. `8r) (Oh, and don't point out you're american to the tour guide, or all he'll talk about how great those american chaps are. heh)
NORAD, assuming you have a time machine (Score:1, Interesting)
The entire complex is deep inside Cheyenne Mountain in a cavern they dug out of the rock. There are multiple buildings, each mounted on a huge springs to deal with vibrations from nukes or other similar events. The buildings have flexible connectors like miniature bridges to deal with the variable distances.
There are huge caverns filled with fuel for powering their generators. As they explained on the tour, they disconnect from the local grid any time a storm comes within a certain distance.
At one point you get to see the control room through a glass wall from the adjacent conference room. They had a map showing the Space Shuttle on the displays while we visited. It's nowhere near as large as the main room in WarGames. That was pure Hollywood.
Deutsches Museum (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.deutsches-museum.de/e_index.htm
Old technology, other geek tourist pleasures... (Score:3, Interesting)
There are lots of great European geek sights, but labels are almost all in local languages. Some good ones:
Become an eclipse chaser, see the world (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Engineering feats in the 50 States (Score:1, Interesting)
www.engineeringsights.org [engineeringsights.org]