MegaStructures
Specials
200337 episodes
Episode 1
World's Biggest Tent
Jun 6, 20031h
With its vibrant diversity of attractions and facilities and the ground-breaking design that creates maximum visual impact, Singapore's Marina Bay Sands development is bound to become a timeless landmark. Seldom before have so many challenges been encountered by engineers and builders. As the complex involves hotel towers, a museum, casino, waterfront promenade, theatres and a skypark - all being worked on simultaneously, it is one of the largest and most complex construction sites that engineers ever had to deal with.
Episode 2
Machines of War: Tanks
Mar 8, 20061h
NGC steps into the world of garbage in California's Puente Hills landfill, America's biggest landfill, to uncover the inner-workings at LA's filthiest suburb.
Episode 3
World Island Wonder
Air date not announced1h
Dubai is on a mission: to become to top tourist destination on the planet. This Emirate has almost tripled its coast line, by building a palm-shaped city at sea. Now Dubai plans to put itself firmly on the map by recreating the world, three hundred man-made islands constructed out in the Arabian gulf. It’s the biggest reclamation project ever undertaken. The world can only be built of natural elements they demand by the shape. But it must define nature’s most destructive force: the sea. Engineers will battle against time and nature to create this man-made wonder visible from space. But will this creation of this mega structure push Dubai to the limit?
Episode 4
Super Pipeline
Air date not announced1h
We look at one of the gas industry’s riskiest projects ever undertaken. By 2008, Britain will be connected to Norway via a 1,200 km super pipeline. It’s composed of over one million tonnes of steel and equating to a 1/3 of the world’s combined pipeline production company. Yet all of the work must be completed by robots working 3 km under the North Sea against harsh underwater currents, sub-zero temperatures and abysmal wind and wave conditions.
Episode 5
Hawaii Super Ferry
Air date not announced1h
A team of workers in Alabama is creating the largest aluminium vessel of its kind for the waves of Hawaii. This 'super ferry' will hold shops, restaurants and 300 cars.
Episode 6
South Africa Stadiums
Jun 6, 20031h
Take an eye-popping look at the greatest structures and machines ever created as we focus on some of the world's modern-day miracles of construction. Go behind the terraces to see how World Cup football fever has transformed South Africa's infrastructure and resulted in the creation of some truly stunning stadiums. In The Golden Train meet the 10,000 plus staff who worked on 65 separate sites to develop Africa's first high-speed railway network in time for the 2010 World Cup. South Africa Stadiums witnesses the challenges faced by construction teams as they battled against a very bad rainy season and stormy conditions to produce new stadiums in Soccer City and Cape Town. Read more at http://www.tv-links.eu/documentaries/National-Geographic--Megastructures---South-Africa-Stadiums_30917/#hYjCM6aleT3P1JFC.99
Episode 7
China's Ultimate Port (Yangshan Deep Ocean Port)
Air date not announced1h
In 2002, Chinese engineers and workers tackled one of the biggest construction projects on earth, the Yangshan Deep Water Port. Thirty km out to sea, with 20 km of quay and fifty berths, Yangshan is destined to become the biggest deepwater port ever built. Linked to China by the world’s second-longest ocean bridge, Yangshan’s deep water allows the world’s biggest container ships to come calling. Its massive cranes, cutting-edge control system, and focused personnel are already shattering records for loading and unloading gigantic container ships and it’s not even finished being built.
Episode 8
747 Breakdown
Air date not announced1h
World's Largest Casino follows the construction of the world's biggest casino and its second biggest building. It's being sited in Macau, in Southern China, which is being groomed to be Asia's capital of gambling. The Venetian is to be built by the Sands Corporation of Las Vegas, and is to feature a giant hotel with 3000 suites, a 15,000 seat arena, a theatre, event halls, 350 shops along indoor canals hundreds of metres long, an outdoor lagoon for gondola rides, and above all, a huge casino floor the size of eight football pitches. We follow the reclamation of land between two islands for this project, and watch it fly up in record time due to special working methods being devised – from on-site factories, to having prefabricated parts trucked in from China. We see how the ambitious designs are brought to reality, despite the pressures and an environment that's very different from America, both in terms of climate and culture. We go in-depth into the amazing concern for detail in the outfitting and decoration which will turn a giant concrete conglomeration of structures into a place designed to entice people to stay as long as possible. Andwe meet the people responsible for putting the project together, and see how they co-operate to get the resort open on time. But will the public come to visit this US$2.4bn megastructure? There's no guarantee...
Episode 9
747 Breakdown
Air date not announced1h
For years, when a jumbo jet reached the end of its 30-year lifespan, it'd end up in a scrap yard, or rotting at the end of a runway. But at the Evergreen Air Center in Marana, Arizona, planes past their prime are recycled instead. We'll witness each step.
Episode 10
Money Factory
Air date not announced1h
One hundred billion dollars in bullion. Monster money-making machines, impenetrable subterranean vaults. An army of protectors. All supporting the world's most powerful economy. Explore the heart of "In God We Trust," the elaborate systems of design and protection at the US Treasury premier currency manufacturer and her sister operation, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Join us as we unlock the secrets inside the steel vaults.
Episode 11
China's Ultimate Port (Yangshan Deep Ocean Port)
Air date not announced1h
The Piacenza bridge, 40 miles south of Milan. This steel and concrete bridge3 has connected the cities of Piacenza and Lodi, spanning a remarkable 3,300 feet across the Po River. But in 2009, a dangerous flood causes the Po's water level to rise more than 20 feet. On April 30th, disaster strikes: The northern end of the bridge collapses, taking with it four vehicles. The bridge has now become the latest challenge for a team of Italian deconstruction experts. With a radical plan, state of the art machinery, and a recycling mandate of 90%, Despe Demolizioni Speciali will have just 90 days to break this bridge12 down to make room for a new one.
Episode 12
World's Biggest Casino
Air date not announced1h
Go inside the construction of China's three ultimate bridges: the Lupu, the world's longest arch bridge; the Runyang, the country's largest suspension bridge; and the Sutong, soon to be the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world.
Episode 13
Constantinople Rescue
Air date not announced1h
It is one of the most ambitious construction projects of modern times: building the world’s deepest submarine tunnel beneath one of the busiest shipping lanes on the planet, just 12 miles north of one of the most active fault lines today.
Episode 14
Sun Engine (Man Made Sun)
Air date not announced1h
The world of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), an evolving technology to harness the sun's rays on a massive scale to power entire communities.
Episode 15
Mega Breakdown: Italian Bridge
Air date not announced1h
In the intense glare of the Texas sun, a team of demolition experts attempt to cut down and recycle the Navy's "first and finest fast attack oiler," the U.S.S. Savannah AOR-4. This tough tanker ran fuel between the ships of the fleet for over 20 years. But now, she's making her final voyage to ESCO Marine, a sprawling scrap yard in the Southern most tip of Texas. Here, she'll be stripped down, gutted out and recycled. But the "Savy Sue" comes with an awful lot of challenges for ESCO owner Richard Jaross and his team. Asbestos, PCBs, and a decade of neglect make this once proud tanker one big mess.
Episode 16
Impossible Bridges: China
Air date not announced1h
Go inside the construction of China's three ultimate bridges: the Lupu, the world's longest arch bridge; the Runyang, the country's largest suspension bridge; and the Sutong, soon to be the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world.
Episode 17
Deep Earth Drillers
Air date not announced1h
Behind the scenes of geothermal power complexes in California and Iceland, and a look at how scientists hope to expand its use by digging deeper into the Earth's crust.
Episode 18
Mega Breakdown: Navy Tanker
Air date not announced1h
Episode 19
Smart Tunnel
Jun 3, 20121h
National Geographic Megastructures: Mega Breakdown - Yankee Stadium: Home to the New York Yankees for more than eight decades, host to 37 World Series and a Mecca for baseball fans worldwide: they don't come much more iconic than Yankee Stadium. Taking care to preserve as much valuable memorabilia as possible, the salvage crews set about dismantling the Bronx-based baseball shrine piece by piece.
Episode 20
Deep Earth Drillers
Dec 20, 20081h
Behind the scenes of geothermal power complexes in California and Iceland, and a look at how scientists hope to expand its use by digging deeper into the Earth's crust.
Episode 21
Dubai Mega Mall
Air date not announced1h
Central to Dubai’s reputation as a leisure capital is: the Dubai Mall. With an indoor aquarium, ice rink, roller coaster and 1,200 shops, it must be completed by a nearly impossible deadline.
Episode 22
Mega Breakdown: Yankee Stadium
Air date not announced1h
For over 12 years, more than 2500 people have been working at temperatures above 40 degrees centigrade, on a project that’s intended to become a national icon. The construction of the Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is destined to be the biggest mosque in the United Arab Emirates. The construction is a huge multi-national undertaking bringing together designers, features, materials and suppliers from nearly every corner of the globe: Italy, Germany, Morocco, India, Turkey, Iran, China, Greece and the UAE. The final result is nothing short of spectacular, not only in sheer size, but also in architectural and creative beauty; this is not just a mega structure but an artistic statement on a massive scale.
Episode 23
World's Biggest Shredder
Jan 20, 20131h
This metal-chomping monster takes up the floor space of an entire factory and it can reduce the equivalent of 450 cars an hour to little more than pulp.
Episode 24
Building Green Beijing
Air date not announced1h
Engineers discuss the construction of the Bahrain World Trade Centre's two 50-storey, sail-shaped skyscrapers and the ambitious plan to power the buildings using wind turbines.
Episode 25
Dubai Mega Mall
Air date not announced1h
Hoover Dam is regarded as an engineering masterpiece and an American icon. But what if it did not exist today? How would engineers build it today? In this one-hour program, we ask a team of engineers what they would do the same, and what they would do differently...as we re-invent Hoover Dam.
Episode 26
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
Air date not announced1h
Megastructures: Deep Sea Drillers follows an attempt to tap some of the most inaccessible natural gas on the planet, in which five high-tech mega vessels will complete a 1,800 square mile gas network, over a mile and a half below the ocean’s surface. At the heart of the project is the enormous gas-processing platform, the Independence Hub. If successful the system will produce enough gas to supply nearly 5 million households in the US.
Episode 27
World's Biggest Shredder
Jan 20, 20131h
This metal-chomping monster takes up the floor space of an entire factory and it can reduce the equivalent of 450 cars an hour to little more than pulp.
Episode 28
Reinventing the Hoover Dam
Air date not announced1h
Hoover Dam is regarded as an engineering masterpiece and an American icon. But what if it did not exist today? How would engineers build it today? In this one-hour program, we ask a team of engineers what they would do the same, and what they would do differently...as we re-invent Hoover Dam.
Episode 29
Mega Breakdown: Speed
Air date not announced1h
It's one of the flattest places in North America, a giant expanse of salt so vast you can see the curvature of the earth. Each year thousands of hot-rudders make the pilgrimage to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah with one mission in mind
Episode 30
Deep Sea Drillers
Jan 20, 20131h
The F-4 Phantom has flown in Air Force squadrons from the United States, Europe and Asia. Its speed, agility, and firepower make it one of the most accurate and lethal fighter jets in the world.
Episode 31
Earthquake Glasshouse
Air date not announced1h
Built in the middle of the desert, the new Meydan racecourse will define raceday luxury. But will it be finished in time for the Dubai World Cup?
Episode 32
Extreme Railway
Air date not announced1h
This is the story of the battle to build a railway across one of the most extreme environments on Earth. To lay down over a thousand kilometres of track in a remote wilderness. To drive 7 tunnels and to raise 675 bridges all at an altitude where even a simple breath is nearly impossible to come by. 140,000 workers and 2000 medics struggled for 5 years to conquer this hostile environment to complete. the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the highest, most extreme railway in the world!
Episode 33
Mega Breakdown: Speed
Air date not announced1h
It's one of the flattest places in North America, a giant expanse of salt so vast you can see the curvature of the earth. Each year thousands of hot-rudders make the pilgrimage to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah with one mission in mind
Episode 34
Mega Breakdown: Phantom Jet
Air date not announced1h
The F-4 Phantom has flown in Air Force squadrons from the United States, Europe and Asia. Its speed, agility, and firepower make it one of the most accurate and lethal fighter jets in the world.
Episode 35
The Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi
Jan 28, 20111h
Episode 36
Dubai's 5-Star Racecourse
May 10, 20121h
Built in the middle of the desert, the new Meydan racecourse will define raceday luxury. But will it be finished in time for the Dubai World Cup?
Episode 41
World Record Cruise Ship
Nov 18, 20101h
Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, one of the world's largest cruise ships, which features 16 decks and can accommodate 5400 passengers.