Seeking Interesting Sites When Travelling the World?

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."

Comments

Society for Industrial Archeology

[sphealey]

You might want to take a look at the Society for Industrial Archeology. They sponser conferences and tours that do exactly this, as well as publishing several neat newsletters and journals.

sPh

SIA !

[Lt Razak]

I would check out SIA

A group of us used to do the same thing you mentioned, and we've been to their conferences and tours. One of our friends subscribed to all their newsletters and journals, and passed them around. The ads in there alone will point you to other organizations just like it. It's amazing.

I smiled while reading your description of awe-inspiring marvels of the world. I must say that being able to run a 5K race on the Great Wall of China was most amazing experience I've ever had.

Largest Building in the World!!

[spoonist]

The Boeing Everett Factory (where they build the 747, 767, and 777) is absolutely awe-inspiring.

The Hoover Dam is deceptively MASSIVE.

The Eiffel Tower is a whole lot of iron!

The Leaning Tower of Pisa 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 are one hell of an engineering feat!

And, although not human engineering, my favorite has to be Uluru. 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.

[Bowie J. Poag]

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.. :) Basically, the whole installation is exactly as it was the day it was made inactive by the SALT-II treaty. Its a fuckin *scary* place to visit, because you realize our own country has thousands of these things. And its huge -- The tour lasts about an hour, to cover the entire facility from control room to silo. All the Titan missles were backfilled with concrete, except for this one.

The tour also requires you to wear a hard-hat. You'll need it. I hit my head on a friggin support girder. :) Admission is pretty cheap, only like $6 or so. The drive there is beautiful, as is the case with most of the Southwest.

Cheers,
Bowie

Harbours and boats

[_Spirit]

Check out Rotterdam. Do a tour of the harbor by boat, I have done it a couple of times and it's very cool. You can see all kinds of boats, from tiny merchant ships to full size oil tankers. You might see oil platforms, all kinds of factories and the flood barrier that can close of the waterways in case of, well, floods. I think there are also some tours of the container terminals and oil refineries. A good place to start might be Industrial Tourism Rotterdam or Tourist Office Rotterdam.

Having been born there has nothing to do with my enthusiasm for the place ;-)

The Delta Works

[mvdwege]

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 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.

Mart