My favourite man made object

[mike nickeas]

Mt Arecibo is my favourite man made object, I like the idea of chipping away at a hilltop to make a radio telescope dish....only man could do thid, what is your favourite man made object and why?

[entropy]

Good thread.

I like the Lunokhod.

[dalem]

Ron Paul.

Hah hah! I kid.

I'm a huge fan of carving things into the landscape, so I'm gonna go with the Crazy Horse monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

It's nowhere near done, but when it is it will be Argonathian in size. And for mountain carving, bigger is better.


-dale

[crooks]

Millau Viaduct, was there in August - Say what you like about the French, they know how to build stuff:






It was most impressive, the tallest free-standing bridge in the world.

[crooks]

And from an Artistic point of view, special mention to The Spire of Dublin:

[dave lukins]

Crooks that Bridge is something else..WOW. Is that Spire in O'Connell St.?

[crooks]

Crooks that Bridge is something else..WOW. Is that Spire in O'Connell St.?

Yeah straight down the centre - there was almost a bloody uprising over the traffic upheaval the construction caused :)) - it got there in the end though, and it's a very nice touch to a very nice street imho.

It makes me miss home though, I lived very close to it .

The Viaduct was unreal, a mammoth construction, but it cost 7.50 to go through (French pollbooth tax is rubbish) :)!

[astralis]

crooks,

well, well- washington monument vs the spire- will the phallic competition never cease?

[crooks]

crooks,

well, well- washington monument vs the spire- will the phallic competition never cease?

All built by men, so of course not, but I think we both lose compared to Torre Agbar in Barcelona ;):







I was sure it was a joke when I saw it - It's the headquarters of the Water Company, oddly.

489 metres, it leaves us both feeling impotent :P !

[dalem]

Millau Viaduct, was there in August - Say what you like about the French, they know how to build stuff:

Sure, when the guy in charge is speaking German. :)

-dale

[dalem]

crooks,

well, well- washington monument vs the spire- will the phallic competition never cease?

You want phallic? How about the memorial to the U.S. Army Rangers who scaled Pont du Hoc on D-Day?



As I recall it's about 15 ft high. Each "slab" near the base bears an inscription, one English, one French.



That sculptor simply was not fooling around. :)

-dale

[Tarek Morgen]

Sure, when the guy in charge is speaking German. :)

-dale

Actually this one was designed by a French and a English guy together (Virlogeux and Norman Foster). Maybe they gave their order in German though..

[Parihaka]

Well, there are a lot of them and no doubt I'll list more when they come to mind but for my mind there is no contest for first place. As far as I know there is only the one public photo of it, and outside of a few interested parties the general public could not name it. It is of course the Aquarius.


One of the first true spacecraft, she never fulfilled her mission. Instead she did something she was in no way designed to do: took three men safely through the vacuum of space around the moon and returned them safe to earth, sacrificing the last of her power to reanimate the lifeless Odyssey. She reentered at much the same time as Odyssey and of course without a heat shield burnt up, somewhere over Fiji.
She was IMO the finest ship ever to fly.

[dave lukins]

Captain Kirk and Spock wouldn't agree with you :))

[crooks]

Sure, when the guy in charge is speaking German. :)

-dale

Hmmmm, t'was a Frenchman who was in charge of construction and making it work, while an Englishman designed it - pretty much like the Channel Tunnel, Except in this case a huge success :) (it cuts two hours off the trip to Paris, over the old route, it's down towards the med).

When you actually see it it defies belief, it's truly amazing.