Measured in Metric

For the final episode of season 2 we’re heading to Moscow on suggestion of a listener to learn about the history of the famously colourful St Basil’s Cathedral.St Basil’s Cathedral is a monument of many colours and many names, with Vivan describing it as “a Disneyland looking castle with colourful vaguely onion shaped domes”, and John describing it as “the Sean ‘Puff Daddy’ Combs” of churches. Located in Moscow’s Red Square along with the Kremlin, St Basil’s Cathedral is actually a combination of 10 churches including what was originally known as the “Trinity Cathedral”The Trinity Church was originally built out of wood in 1555 under direction of Russia’s first Tsar, Ivan IV, also knows as Ivan The Terrible. He would commission the building of a new church after each war he won, and by the end of his rampage the Trinity Church had been enclosed with 7 other churches, at which time he ordered the construction of the wooden Church Of Intersession, followed by orders a year later to replace the original wooden Trinity Church with a stone cathedral.A number of legends surround Ivan IV and the cathedral, such as the cathedral being dedicated to his fourth son, the first who did not die within a year of birth and so was to be his heir, although it is said that living up to his name he later beat this son to death over a disagreement. Other myths or legends include the story a missing ninth church appearing by a miracle when Ivan touched the cathedral during its consecration ceremony in July of 1561, or the story of Ivan IV blinding the architect so that he could never recreate it or build anything so beautiful again. But since Yakovlev is later credited with more architectural work, it’s fairly likely this was just a big authoritarian brag.As with any large scale monument a great deal of maintenance is required for it to stand the test of time. In the case of St Basil’s it was burned down in 1583, rebuilt 10 years later, and burned down once again in 1737 before being restored a second time in 1812. Later in 1812 Napoleon invaded and looted the church and ordered its demolition which was ultimately unsuccessful.Yet another round of restorations were ordered in the early 1900s, but this were interrupted by the First World War and the communist revolution. While Vladimir Lenin quite liked the cathedral and ordered it to become a museum rather than be torn down, Stalin did not hold the same view and wanted it demolished so he could parade tanks through the Red Square. As dictators are known for terrible urban planning decisions, Petr Baranovsky, the man responsible for the surveying the site just prior to demolition, would refuse to complete this work, even threatening suicide to stop Stalin from moving forward. Ultimately he was successful in preventing the destruction of this monument, and by 1990 it was declared a UNESCO world heritage site, and following the fall of the USSR it now operates as both a museum and church, with ongoing restoration work being completed today.—Image GalleryExterior | Interior 1 | Interior 2 | The Kremlin | Elevation/Plan Drawings | History of The Layouts |—Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | InstagramMusic by: John Julius - Bandcamp.comEdited by: Astronomic Audio

This episode we’re back on the road(s) again! Vivian’s been itching to do another roads episode ever since the Via Appia all the way back at the start of season 1, and today we’re not just exploring one road but an entire road system: Norway’s tunnel highways.The decision to take this podcast road trip through Norway started when Vivian was sent a YouTube video of one of Norway’s road systems, a tunnel leading to a roundabout inside the tunnel, with one leg exiting the roundabout into a giant suspension bridge back to yet another underground roundabout, which she describes as a “car disco.” Because of its rocky geography and many fjords, Norway is home to more than 900 road tunnels, included the longest road tunnel in the world measuring a whopping 24.5km long.Back in 2009 Norway was ranked one of the worst countries in the world for road quality, lagging behind Portugal, Croatia, and the famously bankrupt Greece, and far behind other countries with similar economics and geography such as Sweden or Switzerland. One such road was the infamous E39 highway, which runs along the west coast of the country spanning 1,100km, but taking a full 21 hours to drive as a result of 7 separate ferry crossings along the way. In 2017 the decision was made to reinvest a portion of the country’s oil profits back into infrastructure and remove these ferry crossing as part of a scheme that would cost the equivalent of $50,000,000,000CAD, adding a number of bridges and tunnels and cutting the travel time by half through a series of mega projects. Many of these projects involve mind boggling civil engineering feats, such as the Rogfast, which will be longest subsea tunnel in the world once completed, a full 26.7km long and going as deep as 392 metres below sea level, and will include a diamond-style undersea interchange complete with two separate roundabouts. In addition to the challenges of building the road and tunnels themselves, other challenges will include robust ventilation systems, fire safety systems, electrical systems, and even special types of concrete that will self seal cracks under explosive pressure to protect against potential terrorist attacks. The innovations involved in the modernization of the E39 will also include some rare structures like floating bridges, and even never-before built structures such as underwater, floating tunnels, suspended by floating concrete pontoons to allow for boat passage through the fjords. This sort of innovation is exemplary of Norway’s future-facing transportation strategy, and as such it is no surprise that the country has the world’s largest fleet of electric plug-in vehicles, per capita, with more than half of vehicles sold in 2019 being electric. — Image/Video GalleryVallavik tunnel (underground roundabout) | Vallavik Tunnel to Hardanger Bridge video | Hardanger bridge | Trollstigen Road | Rogfast Undersea Junction | Coastal Highway Project Map (courtesy of The Norwegian Public Roads Administration) — Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | InstagramMusic by: John Julius - Bandcamp.comEdited by: Astronomic Audio

From Basilica to Cathedral to Mosque to Museum, this episode’s monument spans across 1,600 years, multiple empires, and centuries upon centuries of dedicated engineers and architects keeping it in proper repair: The Hagia SofiaIn the city that today is known as Istanbul, the first iteration of the Hagia Sofia was built in 360AD, at a time when the city was still known as Byzantium. Constructed out of wood, it was burned to the ground during riots, then rebuilt once again out of wood in 415AD only to be once again burned during riots. Then in 537AD under Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I, and supervised by engineer Anthemius of Tralles the Hagia Sofia was rebuilt out of stone, and has stood to this day.Under the Eastern Roman Empire, each new Emperor would add to, repair or extend the Hagia Sofia, up until the 13th century when the city and the Hagia Sofia itself were looted by the Venetian Crusaders. All the gold and silver were stripped from the building and it would be converted in purpose from a Byzantine Orthodox Basilica to a Roman Catholic Cathedral as the city changed from Byzantium to Constantinople. The now Cathedral would change hands again when Constantinople was conquered by Mehmed II and renamed to Istanbul, this time changing from a Catholic Cathedral to an Islamic Mosque. Under Mehmed II additions would be made such as wooden minarets, it’s famous giant chandelier, and some additional parts to facilitate Islamic prayer traditions. Painting of Jesus and other Christian iconography was covered with plaster rather than removed or destroyed, which allowed for these icons to later be restored prior to the Turkish president secularizing the building in 1934 and turning it into a Museum. History for the monument is still being written, as just this year Turkish President Erdogan has covered it back to a Mosque, with Christian imagery this time concealed behind curtains.Beyond the monument’s changing hands, the Hagia Sofia provides us an opportunity to learn about the Eastern Roman building techniques the allowed for the monument’s iconic and surprisingly thing dome, 6th century fireproofing methodology, and some theorizing around how Pi would have been approximated at this time in history.— Image GalleryMary & Jesus Mosaic | Dome and Pendentives | Interior with crowd | Islamic Symbols and Christian Mosaic side by side | Exterior view of Hagia Sofia | A very young Vivian & John— Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | InstagramMusic by: John Julius - Bandcamp.comEdited by: Astronomic Audio

Just how many black rhinos could Canada into orbit? What exactly is a satellite constellation? What is the Canadian Space Agency doing to help protect Canadians from natural disasters? With the help of special guest Geneviève Houde, Systems Engineer for the CSA, we answer all of these questions in this week’s episode.Nearly all of our episodes so far have focused on civil engineering monuments, and certainly all of them have been securely planted on earth. With this episode taking us off-planet and into orbit we have an opportunity to break down the difference between Civil Engineering and other disciplines needed for projects like the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (or RCM) such as Mechanical Engineering. The short version? If it moves, it’s not civil! So to make sure we’ve got all our facts straight we talked with CSA Systems Engineer about her history with the Canadian Space Agency and how the RCM works.The RCM is project 15 years in the making, and an effort of 300 people from 50 companies across Canada, and 125 suppliers from 7 different provinces. This nationwide project reached earth’s orbit with the help of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in June 2019 and became fully operational in November. The “constellation” in RCM refers to this mission being made up of three separate satellites that circle the globe every 96 minutes, with their orbits evenly spaced to provide near complete coverage of the earth at any time. These satellites are just 3.6m high, barely 1m wide, and just under 2m deep, and weighing 1430kg each, roughly the weight of a black rhino! They orbit the earth at 600km high, twice the distance of the ISS, and their tiny size and massive distance combined makes them naked to the human eye. But this distance is no obstacle for the RCM’s imaging technology, and neither is smoke, rain, clouds, or other atmospheric obstructions. Using Synthetic Aperture RADAR the RCM sends packets of information to earth which reflect back up to the satellites for three main purposes: maritime surveillance, disaster management, and ecosystem monitoring.Surveillance can be a bit of a scary topic, so we take some time to ease John’s conspiracy concerns while also discussing how you can access the RCM’s images yourself, with the help of a resource provided by the CSA.—Geneviève Houde: bio | headshotCanadian Space Agency: website | facebook | twitter | instagram | RADARSAT Constellation Mission Project | how to access RCM images— Image GalleryImage of the RADARSAT Constellation | RCM vibration testing | RCM Illustration Image Credits: Canadian Space AgencyRCM Ready to be launched Image Credit: SpaceX— Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | InstagramMusic by: John Julius - Bandcamp.comEdited by: Astronomic Audio

This episode comes via special request from a listener, and is the first engineering project of its kind on the podcast: The Port of Buenos Aires. Being the first port on the podcast we get the opportunity not just to discover the history of the project itself but also to learn about the complex multidisciplinary field of port engineering. This field requires a wide array of expertise ranging from naval architecture and the hydrodynamics of ships to geotechnical engineering, record keeping, security, navigation, logistics, and much more. Located in the capital of Argentina, the Port of Buenos Aires handles as much as 85% of the cargo shipped into the country today. However getting to this point the project had to work through a great deal of bad luck and unfortunate timing. When Buenos Aires was first established as a port city by the Spanish back in 1580, the water level along the coastline required passengers and goods to be transferred from larger ships to smaller ships and then brought to shore. Nearly 3 centuries later in 1868 the Argentine congress commissioned technical studies to build a more modern port in order to support more modern trade. As with many projects, this was held up by internal politics for a full 3 years, but eventually a pier was built that stretched out into the water so smaller ships could dock there, a method that is still seen around the world particularly in tourist destinations. In 1884 the design of a major 4 dock complex would be started by Sir John Hawkshaw, the former president of the UK’s Institute of Civil Engineers. The first of these 4 docks would be completed in 1888 and just two years later Argentina would be hit by The Panic, a financial crisis resulting from a London bank facing bankruptcy as a result of taking on risk on poor investments in Argentina. While ultimately Argentina was able to recover from The Panic it would severely delay the construction of the port, stretching out the completion of the project to 1897.The turn of the 20th century was sa time of rapid advancement and quick progress, which unfortuantely meant the port would quickly be obsolete for servicing new larger ships and it had completely reached capacity by 1907. Plans for new docks would be approved in 1911 but these plans were also severely delayed, this time by the first World War. These expansions were finally completed fifteen years later in 1926, and those expansions are largely how the port remains today. — Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | InstagramMusic by: John Julius - Bandcamp.comEdited by: Astronomic Audio

For our first monument on the African continent we examine the The Great Zimbabwe. This Iron Age city in southern Africa lies mostly in ruins today, but at the height of its power between the 11th and 15th century housed as many as 20,000 people. We’ll discuss what we know about this site today, and how colonialism stands in the way of a more complete picture of its history.The ruins of The Great Zimbabwe extend over an enormous 80 hectares or 800,000 km², dwarfing the size of modern cities such as Toronto at only 630 km². This massive settlement was a major trade centre for crops, animals, gold, as well as minerals, with ample evidence of their trade routes extending as far as China. It is estimated that over 3 centuries more than 40% of the world’s mined gold came from this area, which is supported by the more than 4000 gold mines and 500 copper mines surrounding the site, in addition to the roughly 2000 goldsmiths, potters, weavers, blacksmiths, and stonemasons living in the area.The layout and construction of The Great Zimbabwe exhibits an impressive level of architectural planning, and the settlement even had its own drainage system that is largely still functional today, centuries later. It is made up of 3 main zones, the hill complex being the oldest dating back to the 9th century, which was used as the spiritual and religious centre of the city up until the 13th century. The surrounding zone, known as the great enclosure is the most iconic part of the city featuring a huge circular wall made up of cut granite blocks a whopping 5m thick and as much as 11m high. This wall is made up of as many as 900,000 professionally sliced individual blocks held together without any mortar, just sheer gravity and precision. The conical tower at the centre of the great enclosure is constructed with the same high precision methods, and the outer wall is decorated with soapstone sculptures of a bird that is also featured on Zimbabwe’s flag. The final zone, known as the valley complex, was made up largely of living spaces and could be considered the suburbs of the city. This area was home to the thousands of artisans and the trade centres that sustained the city.By the end of the 15th century the city was largely abandoned, possibly because of soil destruction leading to the supporting agriculture no longer being upkeep. The reasons for this city being abandoned may be lost to time as a result of rampant plundering of the site during the 19th and 20th century by Europeans. For over a century these colonists were in denial about the city being built by the African people, and in addition to attributing the construction to Biblical myths there was active destruction of evidence at the site. These efforts at obstruction of history continued right up until 1979 and included the Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia issuing official guidebooks showing images of Africans bowing down to foreigners who had supposedly built The Great Zimbabwe. This came to an end in 1980 when the country gained independence from Britain and was renamed to Zimbabwe in honour of the site. The ruins were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986 and while the general consensus now is that it was built by the ancestors of the Shona people, much of the history is still unknown, having either destroyed or plundered, or not yet uncovered.— Image GallerySite | Narrow curved passageway | Conical tower | Entrance | Soapstone Birds — Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | InstagramMusic by: John Julius - Bandcamp.comEdited by: Astronomic Audio

In honour of International Women in Engineering Day on June 23rd we’re breaking the usual format to share a panel-style interview featuring current and former colleagues of Vivian, Pippa Higgins and Arianne Cowx.Throughout this episode John interviews Vivian, Arianne, and Pippa, looking for insights from their personal experiences within the engineering industry. Throughout this discussion we explore concepts including workplace diversity, being bullied by clients or having their credentials questioned, the importance of role models, mentors and allies, and the work that each of them are most proud to have put their stamp on.— Vivian Yu is a Professional Civil Engineer and Project Manager with Mott MacDonald, specializing in transit infrastructure. Vivian has experience working across Canada from Western Canada to Ontario, and globally in the US and Australia as well.Vivian Yu: linkedin | photo - Vivian on top of tracks she designed | photo - Willis Way Grand River Transit station | photo - University of Waterloo Grand River Transit station— Pippa Higgins is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Senior Design Manager at Mott MacDonald with over 20 years of experience with design, construction, and management of large multidisciplinary projects. She is currently on the Women in Transportation Seminar (WTS) mentoring program and is an active promoter of women in engineering.Pippa Higgins: linkedin | photo - Orion Building, Birmingham, UK— Arianne Cowx is a Professional Civil Engineer and Project Engineer with Parsons. Her experience has primarily been in the transit and transportation realm, ranging from heavy rail projects to major highway construction.Arianne Cowx: linkedin | photo - QEW Welland River Bridge | video - Dougall Pedestrian Underpass and Multi-Use Trail— Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | InstagramMusic by: John Julius - Bandcamp.comEdited by: Astronomic Audio

Spanning over 20,000km and connecting eras of China’s history across more than two millennia, this episode we discuss an engineering monument visible from low earth orbit, The Great Wall of China.In the west we typically learn that the wall was built to protect northern China from Mongolian invaders but the true story is a bit more complicated. The history of the Great Wall dates all the way back to the 7th century BCE, before the unification of China. At the time the region that makes up modern day China was home to a number of civilizations who built a number of walls to protect themselves from each other, and many of these smaller walls would later be joined under the rule of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, in the 3rd century BCE.This first iteration of the unified Great Wall was built to protect China’s capital at the time, Xi’an, as well as the silk road trade route, although most of this wall does not exist today. Nearly a century later during the Ming dynasty (the period of time made famous by the movie “Mulan”) there was a need for a much more robust wall as conflicts with Mongolia had evolved into a war between the two countries. We typically discuss the budget of the projects on the podcast, but due to a lack of written records from the time beyond songs and poetry and due to the fact that the wall was built, re-built, and maintained over the course of many centuries it is impossible to accurately estimate the cost in a monetary sense. Some researchers estimate it may have taken roughly 90,000 man-hours to construct, although this estimate may not be too accurate given the constant repairs and fortifications made to the wall.After Mongolia ceased to be a military threat to China many parts of the wall were taken down to be used for building materials for cities and villages, and some other parts simply eroded away. Many other sections of the wall still stand today and are maintained as tourist attractions. The Great Wall has been declared one of the 7 wonders of the modern world by UNESCO, is generally the only human made structure to be included in the topography of maps, and is often said to be visible from the moon. However, NASA has confirmed this is not the case, although it is visible from orbit.— Image GalleryThe Great Wall | Great Wall map | Great Wall from Space (NOT visible from the moon confirms NASA) | Great Wall through the desert | Rammed earth section | In the snow— Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | InstagramMusic by: John Julius - Bandcamp.comEdited by: Astronomic Audio

The topic for this episode comes straight out of our figurative backyard - The CN Tower! This iconic Canadian landmark was the world’s tallest building from its opening in 1976 right up until 2007 and today we find out how and why this concrete and steel behemoth was built.Originally built and owned by CN Rail, the CN tower was initially built to house UHF and VHF transmitters as Toronto’s skyline became more crowed in the 1960s and existing TV and radio transmitters had become more and more obstructed. Construction began in 1973 at a cost of $63 million CAD at the time (the equivalent of $350 million CAD today), with a return on CN’s investment only 15 years later, just 4 years prior to ownership being transferred to Canada Lands in 1995.John has a bit of an axe to grind about including the 104m of steel antenna in the height of the tower rather than capping the measurement with the 450m of concrete shaft, claiming that this is the equivalent of measuring a hat in a person’s height. However, most people’s hats aren’t responsible for providing television and radio signals for a major Canadian city for close to 5 decades so we should potentially make an exception. This enormous antenna was originally the primary purpose for building the tower but today while still operational it broadcasts just 16 channels with the broadcasting making up less than 1% of the tower’s revenue, as it is now primarily a tourist destination with more than 2 million visitors during a normal year.Being constructed prior to computational modelling meant an enormous number of manual calculations, and designed drafted by hand with pens, ink and slide rules. With a capacity to withstand wind speeds of up to 418km per hour and earthquakes up to 8.5 on the Richter Scale, the CN tower made use of a number of impressive construction techniques such as pre- and post-tensioned cables and also contains copper cables running the entire height of the tower.Declared one of the modern 7 wonders of the world by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1995, the CN Tower is truly an icon of Canada and the city affectionally known as “the 6ix”, Toronto. — Image GalleryThe CN Tower as seen from Front St | A towering night time view | John repping all things Toronto | CN Tower, Toronto’s rail lines, and the top of Rogers Centre | Aerial view of the CN Tower, Rogers Centre, and the Toronto Harbour | A view of the CN Tower and Toronto skyline from Lake Ontario — Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | InstagramMusic by: John Julius - Bandcamp.comEdited by: Astronomic Audio

Building a hospital is no easy endeavour, requiring intense coordination, collaboration, and planning. Building a hospital in just 10 days is a feat all of its own, and this episode we discuss the Huoshenshan Hospital, which was built in just 10 days in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as the Leishenshan Hospital which was built in just 12 days. The Huoshenshan hospital is make-shift 1000-bed hospital in China’s Wuhan region, and was constructed specifically to treat patients suffering from COVID19. Staffed by 1,400 medical staff sourced through China’s armed forces, the 2,500 m2 hospital is located on the outskirts of Wuhan city, and was constructed out of pre-fabricated modules that were assembled before arriving on site at a total cost of $1 Billion RMB (~$143 Million USD). The hospital was a redesign of the Xiaotangshan hospital which was built during 2003’s SARS outbreak, and which was built in an even more impressive 7 days and treated roughly a seventh of all SARS patients in the country before being decommissioned in June of 2003. Hospitals in general are the site of a number of impressive scientific and engineering innovations, and in addition to our analysis of the Huoshenshan and Leishenshan hospitals we review some of the techniques used in hospitals around the world to control of everything from humans to the air itself. One such innovation is Negative Pressure airflow, a system that has hospital rooms under positive pressure and hallways under negative pressure, which helps to stop the mixing of contaminates and prevent airflow between two spaces when doors opens. In the cases of labs or ultra contagious rooms for patients with infectious diseases such as SARS or COVID19 the rooms are negatively pressurized as well as outfitted with HEPA filters to help keep ventilation systems free of contagions. We also discuss the retrofitting of public buildings such as sports stadiums and convention centres, how these spaces are assessed to determine whether they can meet international infection control and treatment standards, as well as the process of determining a balance of cost, time, and outcome when making such decisions in different countries and political systems around the world. — Image Gallery Leishenshan hospital | Construction | Isolation ward | Rendering of hospital layout | Hospital prefab — Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | Instagram Music by: John Julius - Bandcamp.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio

Do you think you'd be able to escape from Alcatraz? This episode we discuss the 36 men who tried (including a few who might have succeeded), as well as the construction and history of this infamous prison. The island of Alcatraz is known by many as “The Rock” and for good reason. Before being the site of the infamous US federal penitentiary from 1934 to 1963 this 9 hectare island was used as a US military prison as far back as 1861 and as a military fort beginning in the early 1800s. Through its entire history nothing has ever been able to grow and no freshwater has ever been found, even when digging wells dozens of metres Ito the stone ground, meaning that for over 150 years any supplies needed had to be shipped in by boat. When the first prisoners were held on Alcatraz the island was still primarily a fortification holding only up to 30 prisoners at a time, up until 1899 when this skyrocketed to 400 including military prisoners from the US Civil War, the US’s involvement in Southeast Asia, and the Mexican Border Wars. Over the next decade military prison infrastructure would be built until a permanent prison building was constructed in 1910. This however was not the Alcatraz we think of today, being a relatively low security prison built out of wood with frequent escape attempts. But by 1913 the image of a military prison so close to the vibrant commercial and residential areas of San Fransisco was a bad look, with many feeling it gave the idea that such a large military prison suggested that the US military included a high number of misbehaving officers. Many ideas were floated for what to do with this island, including suggestions to use it for a west-coast equivalent of the Statue of Liberty, but ultimately in 1933 it was transferred to the Department Of Justice for use as a federal prison. A lot of work would need to be accomplished to ensure the safety of the residents of nearby San Fransisco. This mostly wooden prison would be rebuilt with hacksaw proof steel bars and grates on every cell, door, and window, and all the wood construction would be replaced with concrete. Guard towers would be built with visibility of prisoners throughout the facility and equipped with tear gas and mounted guns, and Alcatraz would be outfitted with new technology such as mechanical locking systems, making it one of the first instances of using a control panel rather than individual locks and keys to open and close each cell. On top of these impressive security measures the location of the island itself would be a massive deterrent for escape attempts. A whole 2km off the coast of California the water surrounding the island was extremely cold, had a tide that would pull potential escapees back into the ocean, and if that weren’t enough the water was also home to great white sharks. This however did not stop 36 prisoners from participating in a total of 14 escape attempts, including one final attempt in 1962 when 3 prisoners successfully made it off the island in rafts they’d built out of raincoats. While they are presumed to have drowned their bodies were never found, which in addition to the millions of dollars needed in repairs would contribute to the final closing of the prison in 1963. — Image Gallery Alcatraz Island 1934 | Alcatraz Aerial | Cell | Escape attempt paper mache heads | Al Capone | Cell block — Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | Instagram Music by: John Julius - Bandcamp.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio

We spent most of our between-seasons break in Australia, so naturally the subject of our first episode of the season should be too! This engineering monument is the world’s widest and heaviest arch bridge and the world’s 7th longest spanning, it’s on the Australian National Heritage List and the New South Wales Heritage Register: the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This iconic bridge connecting Sydney’s Central Business District with the north shore is affectionally known as “The Coathanger” and “The Iron Lung” and has been helping residents of Sydney cross the Sydney harbour since its construction in 1932. Prior to the construction of this bridge the only route across the harbour was by ferry, and by 1927 the use of these ferries had peaked at 47 million passengers annually, which was quickly more than halved when the bridge was constructed. Although the ferry still operates today the bridge is the primary mode of transportation, with its 6 lanes of traffic plus tramlines and bike paths transporting more than 150,000 vehicles, 2004 trains, and 1,650 bicycles every single day. The bridge was originally proposed by English born architect Francis Greenway in 1815, but official planning would not begin until nearly a century later in 1914 when John Bradfield was appointed Chief Engineer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Metropolitan Railway Construction. Bradfield’s plans were heavily inspired by the Hell’s Gate Bridge in New York City and follows a similar design, right down to the four massive pylons situated on the ends of the bridge that exist solely as engineering placebos to help the public feel more comfortable using the arch bridge. After the Australian government passed the Sydney Harbour Bridge Act in 1922 bids for this project were opened up globally garnering 20 proposals from 6 different firms, ultimately being awarded to English firm Dorman Long & Company. Construction cost for this project was one of the lowest we’ve ever looked at on the podcast, just $6.25 Million AUD or roughly $13.5 Million AUD today which is pretty cheap as far as bridges go! Whether this was a good deal or not this bridge had a more than 50 year long montage taking until 1988 to be paid off via the $3 AUD toll for crossing the bridge, which is today used to fund the future Sydney Harbour Tunnel project. Despite the relatively low cost of constructing the bridge annual maintenance currently costs approximately $5 Million AUD. “You can see it from every corner of the city, creeping into frame from the oddest angles like an uncle trying to get into every snapshot" - Bill Bryson — Image Gallery Bridge construction diagram | Vivian on site | The infamous credit plaque | Bridge side view | Bridge side view with Sydney Opera House | Bridge construction photo | Bridge overhead photo | One of four “placebo” pylons | 1988 plaque awarded by American Society of Civill Engineers | Keystone replica — Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | Instagram Music by: John Julius - Bandcamp.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio

Coming next Friday April 17: Measured in Metric Season 2! Beginning next week we'll be taking you on a tour around the world while everyone is stuck at home, starting with Australia's Sydney Harbour Bridge. Check out our instagram @MeasuredInMetric to find out more. Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | Instagram Music by: John Julius - Bandcamp.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio

In our Season 1 finale we conclude our two part episode on the Brooklyn Bridge, and later in the episode we speak with Unit Managing Director with Mott McDonald, Chris Mealing, about his history as a bridge Engineer and how he sleeps at night! In part one of our Brookyn Bridge double feature we discussed some people who were a little crazy, and a little cool, but mostly both: The Roeblings. This family of Engineers were largely responsible for the design and construction of the bridge, which would be the first to span the East River. In part one we extensively discussed John and his son Washington Roebling, but only just touched on our first female Engineer of the podcast: Washington’s wife Emily Roebling. Despite the fact that Emily was not officially recognized as an Engineer at the time Emily completely took over the project after her husband fell ill with decompression sickness from an accident in the caissons. Emily managed contractors and construction officials over technical details while also managing the board of directors and the mayor of New York over commercial management of the project, and would be the first woman to address the American Society of Civil Engineers. After the completion of the bridge Emily would also go on to obtain a degree in Law from NYU. We also get into some greater detail on the construction of the caissons and the technical specs behind the bridge including the many redundancies built into the design. John Roebling had famously said that even if the cables snapped the bridge would not fall, which would prove to be particularly important when some of the materials would turn out to be counterfeit due to contractor negligence and lead to cables snapping in the 1980s. Later we speak with Chris Mealing, Unit Managing Director for Mott MacDonald. Chris began his career as a bridge engineer. We talk about the projects Chris is most proud of and how the scope and complexity of engineering projects have changed as the tools available to Engineers have become much more advanced: “We can brute force stuff today that would’ve had to have been done elegantly 30 or 40 years ago” Image Gallery: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

This week we’re discussing a topic that keeps Vivan up at night: bridges. In the first half of this two episode topic we’ll be learning about the world’s first steel wire suspension bridge, the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge is a tale of three engineers, John Roebling, his son Washington Roebling, and his son’s wife Emily Warren Roebling. Prior to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge from 1869 through 1883 there was no crossing from Brooklyn to Manhattan and all commuting was done by ferry. The local government would enter into a partnership similar to what we call a P3 today (Public Private Project), wherein a private entity would build the bridge, the government would own the bridge, and revenue from a toll booth on the bridge would be split between the private entity and the government. John Roebling was selected as the chief engineer for the project because of his prior bridge work and his company’s revolutionary iron and steel rope, and the strength of these materials would make the 1.8km long bridge possible. Unlike many of our engineering heroes in the 1800s John Roebling was not self-trained, and despite his impressive track record and strong materials his plans for the bridge would be met with great skepticism. To put the minds of concerned engineers at ease Roebling would host a page turn, essentially locking 7 skeptical engineers and industry professionals in a room and reviewing every page of the plans until they were satisfied, not unlike what Vivian does today! Ultimately the industry was satisfied but getting the local government on board with his plans would take more convincing and a group would be organized to tour four of his previous bridges. Ultimately they were convinced of the viability of his plans and construction would begin shortly afterwards. While surveying areas where the bridge would meet with the road system John Roebling would have his foot crushed by a ferry. This stubbornly tough engineer would agree to having his toes amputated but insisted upon having the procedure completed without anesthetic. As a believer in hydrotherapy he would attempt to treat the surgical wound by pouring water on his feet day and night, but ultimately he would succumb to infection and die just 28 days later. Upon his death his son Washington Roebling would be assigned to take over the project and despite being only 32 years old at the time he was enormously respected for being not only technically competent and great with details, but also much humbler than his father. Washington Roebling and his wife Emily Warren Roebling had previously been sent to Europe to research the use of pressurized caissons as a method for building bridge foundations underwater. These workshop-diving-bell hybrids would be the cause of many deaths during the construction of the bridge, primarily as a result of decompression sickness which had not yet been discovered. Washington Roebling himself would suffer a grave accident as the result of the caissons and decompression sickness when a fire broken out in one of the caissons in 1870 and he would go down into the caisson himself to help fight the fire and direct the firefighting efforts. He would experience some aches and pains coming back out and would head back down the next day with the fire still burning. The result of his repeated long trips would be crippling decompression sickness that left him bed ridden for the remaining 13 years of his life. At this point his wife Emily Warren Roebling would step up to become what we would today call the Field Engineer. She would become the eyes and ears of her husband, and was involved in every step of the construction, including working with the local government to justify the overrun of the original $5M budget and the request of an additional $8M to complete the project. The first female engineer of our podcast would be honoured at the unveiling of the bridge: “The bridge was an everlasting monument to the sacrificing devotion of a woman and her capacity for that higher education from which she has been so long and too long been disbarred” Next episode in our season finale we’ll be speaking with an actual bridge engineer about the science of how it was constructed and how we construct bridges today. Image Gallery: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

We’ve tackled sewage and drainage before in our London Sewers episode, and today we explore the enormous lengths the city of Chicago has taken to address their water and sewage systems, and how their approach has evolved over more than 150 years. While Chicago has been a city since 1837, the hugely populated city constructed in low lying wetlands had no central drainage system until 1855 when Chicago’s Chief Sewage Engineer and former Chief Engineer for Boston’s Water Commission, Ellis Sylvester Chesbrough, proposed a sewage system strongly inspired by the plans for the London Interceptor Sewers, a massive undertaking that would be the first of its kind in North America. The plan would involve routing wastewater into the Chicago River so it could be diluted before reaching Lake Michigan, the source of Chicago’s water supply. The process of constructing this drainage system would involve building pipes on top of the existing wooden-slat style roads, burying these pipes, and building new roads on top. To accommodate for this the majority of buildings in the city would be raised 2-3m, and initiative known at the time as “pulling Chicago out of the mud.” Some buildings that were deemed too challenging to raise would be simply relocated to other areas of the city. In 1861 the Board of Sewers and Board of Waters were incorporated into a single entity, the Board of Public Works, and Chesborough’s decision to drain Chicago’s sewage into their water supply would now be his responsibility to fix. To help increase the dilution level of the water, 3km of pipes would be laid underneath the lake to extend the intake to a more diluted area of the lake, but as we’ve already learned dilution may go a long way, but it won’t stop diseases like cholera. After Chesborough’s death in 1886 Rudolph Hering would be assigned to investigate Chicago’s wastewater problem and would conclude a year later that they would need to stop using Lake Michigan as both their sewer and water source. This recommendation would be followed by a number of incremental solutions, from diverting the flow of water away from Lake Michigan into the Illinois River, lowering the level of the lake by 15cm and majorly affecting surrounding areas in the late 1800s, to eventually constructing the first sewage treatment plant in 1920. Image Gallery: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

In this special episode our topic is a little less about engineering and a little more about urban planning. We take a journey back in time to the now demolished Kowloon Walled City, a dense settlement occupying a small portion of British-controlled Hong Kong. The small territory remained officially under China’s control, but Britain’s control of the island of Hong Kong left China with little influence, and the abandoned administrative centre would grow organically into a free anarchist state. There are typically two trains of thought within urban planning: an approach heavy on government intervention, laden with zoning laws, regulation and what we might think of as red tape, compared with an approach of communities that grow organically to serve the needs of the community as and when needed. The Kowloon Walled City was a living example of the second train of thought pushed to the extreme. The 2.6 hectare city was extremely dense, housing up to 50,000 people at its peak with a population density roughly the equivalent of 1 - 2 million people per square kilometre, orders of magnitude higher than the famously crowded Manhattan at 27,000 people per square kilometre, or the 41,000 in the world’s current densest city: Manila. The density was in no small part due to one of the only building restrictions in the city, a 14-storey height limit so planes could safely fly above the city and land in Hong Kong’s former airport just a short 800 metres south of the city. Despite the limit some photographs depict planes having to nearly navigate around buildings on descent. The city contained not just residential, but also commercial and industrial space including restaurants, schools, and unlicensed doctors and dentists. Absolutely no space was unused leaving absolutely no green space and children playing on rooftops. Buildings were built so close together that even during broad daylight the alleyways were dark and wet from the many air conditioners in the levels above, and many of the buildings leaned against each other. After Britain had taken control of Hong Kong back from Japan following the second world war thousands of immigrants from China began moving into Kowloon, leading to a total of 2,000 residents by 1947 essentially squatting in the city. At first Britain had attempted to drive the squatters out but gave up and adopted a “hands-off” policy to Kowloon by just 1948. This policy meant a lack of police presence and basic utilities such as power and water, in part to discourage habitation in the city. The lack of power led to most residents using kerosine lamps and stoves resulting in massive fires and huge losses of life. China Light & Power would then be responsible for supplying power to the city, but demand for power consistently exceeded the supply, power theft was very common, and the implementation of the utility was anything but safe. By 1984 both the Britsh and the Chinese had completely lost any control over the city with crime and lawlessness spilling out into the rest of Hong Kong, leading to its demolition being announced in 1987. The remaining 35,000 residents would be compensated by the government so they might relocate into Hong Kong, however this compensation was only the equivalent today of a meagre $16,00, hardly enough to go far in historically expensive Hong Kong. The demolition would be completed in 1993, just a few years before Britain would cede control of Hong Kong to China in 1997. John leaves us with the understatement of the 20th century: “So, not impressed with the British" Image Gallery: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

This episode we examine the Los Angeles aqueducts, which moves water over the Mojave desert and into Los Angeles by gravity alone, and supplied water for a population of 2 million people for over 20 years. The project is often referred to as the greatest engineering achievement since the Panama Canal, despite the fact that the project includes the construction of the St Francis Dam, which is widely considered the worst American civil engineering disaster of the 20th century. The very first time the dam was filled to capacity it would experience a catastrophic failure, resulting in countless deaths and eventually the establishment of the Board of Civil Engineers being founded in 1929 and the end of the self-trained engineer. The need for the aqueduct was framed as life or death for Los Angeles, when in reality the water they would redirect to LA would also be enough to supply the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. In the 1920s the Waterson brothers would organize a group of farmers to rebel against the construction of the aqueduct and destruction of their livelihoods in what we now know as the California water wars. Today the Owens Lake is completely dried up, little more than a salt and alkali flats. The construction of the gargantuan 375km long aqueduct required a great deal of infrastructure to be built just to support construction, and as such was built in sections as the construction of roads and power lines caught up to accommodate construction. Transporting the materials alone was a massive challenge, and led to the creating of the Caterpillar, a tank-like piece of machinery at the time, and today one of the world’s largest construction equipment companies. Image Gallery: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Today’s episode is all about Vivian’s engineering speciality: Railroads. We examine the unbelievable process of constructing Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railroad, which is not just an engineering monument, but a monument to making do without appropriate resources and the challenges that follow corner-cutting. The construction of the first phase of the railroad began in 1891 under the direction of Emperor Alexander III, and the 9,289km long line from Moscow to Vladivostok crosses at least 7 timezones, 12 regions, 5 territories, 2 republics and 1 autonomous region of Russia, and cost 1.5 billion gold rubles at the time, roughly the equivalent of $20 billion USD in 2015. The railroad was built almost entirely by soldiers and prisoners, and the 90,000 men employed in the construction did so through sheer willpower, without having the appropriate resources available to themselves. In 1974 a portion of the railroad was rebuilt to reroute further away from China. The new leg of the railroad would be built much farther north on ground that was almost entirely made up of permafrost. With only 90 frost free days each year and winter temperatures of -60C this would present unique challenges, including the unexpected consequence of building on top of permafrost: thawing. To date this section of the railroad has cost more to maintain than the entirety of it’s construction, roughly $14 billion, and the construction would not be completed until 2003, nearly 30 years after construction began. Despite the enormous challenges in constructing and maintaining the railroad, it continues to handle 50% of Russia’s imports and exports, and the 15 day long end to end journey can also be taken by passengers, and the Circum-Baikal line is especially popular with tourists. While today it is considered the most scenic portion of the railroad hugging the coastline of a beautiful lake, this lake created enormous challenges during the original construction of the line. Originally without a plan for how to safely go around the lake, they would use a system of ferries to move train cars across the lake, and for 5 years using icebreakers to carry the train when the lake froze. In the winter of 1903-1904 the freezing was so extensive they simply laid tracks on the ice and hauled the train cars by horse. Their solution today is much more elegant and includes 14km of retaining wall, 200 bridges, 6 stone viaducts, and 39 tunnels that together total roughly 9km. Image Gallery: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

This episode we discuss the highly controversial Three Gorges Dam built on the Yangtze River. Completed in 2012, it is the world’s largest and most expensive hydroelectric dam and the second most expensive project ever undertaken other than the International Space Station. The dam spans 2.3km, nearly 5 times the distance of the Hoover Dam, and cost approximately $30 billion USD over the 17 years it took to construct. The project was first suggested by China’s first President in 1919 and was officially approved in 1992 for the purpose of controlling flooding along the river, generating power, improving navigation along the river, and generating tourism. The approval finally took place after a lengthy 8 year environmental study, and ss John points out, “if your environmental assessment takes 8 years in a dictatorship, there’s a lot to assess.” And while many of the dams goals have been achieved, reducing flooding in the region from once a decade to once a century, and generating 84.7 billion kilowatt hours of energy every year (or the equivalent of 50 million tonnes of coal) it has been shrouded in controversry and had irreversible impact on the people, wildlife, and historic sites in the region. To date 1.3 million people have been displaced by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, 1,300 excavated and 8,000 unexcavated archeological sites have been flooded and completely lost, and numerous species have been driven to the brink of extinction including the Chinese aligator, the Yangtze River dolphin, the Yangtze soft-shell turtle, and leading to the complete extinction of the Chinese pufferfish. The Three Gorges Dam and its upstream 12.4 trillion litre reservoir have led to a significant reduction in the speed of the river, and as we learned in Episode 2 - The London Sewers, slow moving rivers lead to a great deal of pollution, and even the massive power generation of this dam only accounts for 1.7% of China’s energy demands. Image Gallery: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

This episode we attempt to uncover the mystery behind Stonehenge, the 5000 year old monument that has had archeologists and ancient alien theorists alike scratching their heads for ages. If you’ve been living under a sarsen stone and have never heard of Stonehenge, superfan John has you covered: “They’re big rocks, it’s just like, they’re big, they’re really big.” Every episode we attempt to answer the Who, What, Why, and How behind an engineering monument, but this time we’ve found that about as challenging as moving 40 tonne stones without rope or wheels. This mysterious monument was constructed in three phases across 400 years, beginning in 3000 BCE, right around the time of the cutting edge technologies of stone tools, pottery, and growing a crop in the same place very year. The first phase wasn’t much more than a ditch and a heel stone, and took an estimated 11,000 man hours, or 460 man days to construct. Stonehenge phase two included the erection of timber posts, typical to many of the wooden henges in the area, and took an estimated 15,000 man days or 41 man years. Stonehenge as we recognize it today wasn’t constructed until another 200 years later, and took an estimated 1.75 million man hours, or 200 man years to complete. Just how this was achieved without rope, wheels, or written language is still generally a mystery today, but Vivian and John attempt to sift through many of the theories we have today, but as it turns out few of them hold water. John guides us through a few conspiracy theories, including the wild idea that Stonehenge was constructed by an ancient race of giants known as the Nephilim under the command of the wizard Merlin. Vivian steers us back a little closer to reality with what she refers to as the “carved balls” theory, which was tested in 2010 by archeology graduate students in the UK, and revealed that a 4 tonne stone could fairly easily be moved by only 6 or 7 people. Why the monument was created continues to elude us today, in large part because of the strictly oral traditions of those who built it. We discuss some of the more popular ideas for the monument’s purpose, such as a clock or calendar, a place of healing, or even as a neolithic music hall. Despite the mystery of why this four century long engineering project happened, it has captivated the imaginations of millions of people for thousands of years. Image Gallery: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

This episode we discuss Japan’s Kansai Airport, in an episode of firsts: the first airport on reclaimed land, the first time building a mega project on top of holocene clay, our first vertical infrastructure episode, and our first "what went wrong" episode. After the building of Narita airport through re-appropriation of lands and the violent protests that followed, Japan was faced with an unprecedented challenge in constructing the Kansai airport. The airport is the first of it’s kind, built on a man-made island 3.7km from the mainland in Osaka Bay, and in many ways is an example of what can go wrong when planning for best case outcomes, with it’s initial $14 billion price tag growing by an additional $6 billion since the airport opened in 1995. The soil in Osaka Bay is mostly submerged holocene clay, which presents unique challenges compared to building on soil, particularly around the ground settling after construction since you can’t accurately test the ground condition without disturbing and in turn changing it. After initially estimating a total of 5-10m of settlement the island has in fact sunk 13m as of 2016 and continues to sink at a rate of 50cm every year, with no idea when the settlement will end! In 2018 the Kansai airport was struct by Typhoon Jebi, leading to what Vivian calls a “swiss cheese disaster.” Despite the many systems dedicated to disaster mitigation, each a proverbial slice of cheese, and on September 4 2018 the holes in each of these slices lined up. The first slice of our disaster sandwich occurred when a boat was blown into the nearly 4km bridge connecting the airport to the mainland, stranding approximately 8,000 passengers and staff at the airport while also severing their access to water and electricity, as well as communication lines with the mainland. Normally the airport’s emergency generators would power on, but they had been flooded and half the generators failed to start, and yet another slice lined up as the pumps built to clear the generator room in the event of a flood could not start up with power lines severed. So, while the Kansai airport broke new ground in construction methods and land use, it also stands as a reminder to why it’s best to hope for the best, but plan for the worst. Image Gallery: 1 | 2 | 3 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

All roads lead to Rome, and this week we’ll be exploring the first road that led to Rome, The Via Appia. This 563km long early highway would put Rome on the map and pave the way for the Roman Empire. The Via Appia, also known as The Appian Way, was first constructed between 312 and 264 BCE as a response to the first Samnite War leading to the decimation of Capua, who had offered themselves up to Rome in exchange for protection. Unfortunately that offer of protection was moot, with Capua being too great a distance away. The Roman censor Appius Cladius would leverage his influence and power over Rome’s treasury to secure the 259 million Sestertius required to construct the highway. While highly controversial at the time, 174 million Sestertius would be transported to Rome on the road annually, paying for itself in just a year and a half. Romans famously built their roads without curves, and without modern surveying methods the Romans would need to employ some impressive mathematics to plan this gargantuan undertaking, which John describes as “basic trigonometry played out on a frustratingly large scale.” Much has changed in how we plan roads, but surprisingly little has changed in how we build the roads themselves since the Via Appia was first constructed over 2000 years ago. While the highway in its original form no longer exists, having been disassembled and its materials repurposed after the fall of Rome, a small portion still exists today as a tourist destination. Image Gallery: 1 | 2 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Our second episode focuses on something most of us never think about until something goes wrong: sewers. In specific, we’ll be learning about the construction of London’s Interceptor Sewers, and the 318 million bricks that went into this monument. Sanitation in 1850s Victorian era London was a little different than our standards today. Despite the widespread use of the Victorian equivalent to a modern bathroom, the water closet, indoor plumbing as we know it today was still many years away and the vast majority of waste and sewage was going straight into the River Thames. A cholera outbreak in 1853 that killed roughly 15,000 people, the eventual fermentation of the river in 1858 known as The Great Stink, and a relocation of Parliament within smelling distance would finally lead to the hiring of Sir Joseph William Bazalgette to rectify the problem. Bazalgette’s work would revolutionize sewers and create many of the standards we continue to use toady, including innovations such as egg-shaped sewer pipes and the use of Portland cement, which is still the most commonly used variety of cement today. As with modern engineering projects waste was a huge topic of discussion, but not in the way you’d expect. Unlike our modern concerns of waste and inefficiency contributing to environmental impact, the primary concern was wasting the sewage that could have instead been collected and sold as fertilizer in rural areas. As a true monument to future proofing, the work completed by Bazalgette would last over 100 years, with a project beginning in 2007 to finally expand the capacity of the sewers. Today the biggest risk to sewers in London and across the world are fat bergs, congealed masses of materials such as wet wipes and cooking grease, or as John puts it, “all the stuff we get told not to flush down the toilet but we do anyway because you press flush, they go!” Image Gallery: 1 | 2 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

This episode we discover the history of the Panama Canal, an engineering monument more than a century in the making, a corridor for over 200 million metric tonnes of cargo every year, and a great place for boats. The ten hour journey through the Panama Canal made by over 13,000 ships each year was first conceptualized all the way back in 1534 by Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V, wanting a way to get ships through the Americas in hopes of an advantage over Portugal. This idea was floated next when Scotland attempted a trade colony in the 1690s, resulting in a massive financial failure that contributed to Scotland joining England to become Great Britain. In 1855 the Panama Railroad was established to facilitate shipping from one ocean to the other, and by 1881 France had contracted Ferdinand de Lesseps to build the Panama Canal, fresh off his successful building of the Suez Canal. De Lesseps made the grave error of not visiting Panama during the rainy season, the first of many errors that contributed to massive workforce fatalities, with at times more than 200 workers dying each month. Even after recruiting Gustav Eifel for additional help, the company created to build the canal was bankrupt by 1889, having spent $287 million USD, the equivalent of $7.8 billion USD today. In 1908 John Findley Wallace was appointed as chief engineer to right the ship, but lasted only a year before leaving the project. Enter the hero of our story, John Frank Stevens, a self-educated engineer with a history as a train engineer who, seeing the errors of his predecessors, prioritized the well-being of the workers, ultimately leading to the successful construction of this engineering mega project. “The digging is the least thing of all” Image Gallery: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio Contact us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram