The story of Egypt’s pyramids is one of innovation and mysterious rituals. Backbreaking work and palace intrigue. Legends of the Pharaohs s2e2: Curse of the Pyramids
In the scorching heat of the Egyptian desert a stone mountain rises 100 metres from the sand. This is the Red Pyramid of Dahshur. Over 1.7 million cubic metres of stone. It’s the first flat-sided true pyramid in Egypt: the work of a powerful pharaoh called Snefru … Snefru built not one but three record-breaking pyramids. ibid.
All over the country Snefru recruited civil servants to enforce palace orders. Snefru would need to recruit manpower from the lower ranks, paving the way for a new social class to emerge. ibid.
On a remote stretch of the Somerset coast an army of 5,000 engineers and workers is embarking on the largest construction project in Europe. Their challenge: to build the UK’s first new nuclear power station for three decades: Hinkley Point C. The new power station costing more than £22 billion will have two of the most advanced nuclear reactors in the world. And generate enough electricity to power an average of six million homes. Building a nuclear power station is the pinnacle of modern engineering. Building Britain’s Biggest Nuclear Power Station I, BBC 2021
At its heart will set two uranium-fuelled nuclear reactors; they will generate 3.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to provide 7% of the UK’s power … Hinkley Point C should generate electricity for sixty years. ibid.
It’s just before Christmas 2019 and the team is more than three years into Hinkley Point C’s ten-year build. The first stage – to lay the station’s mammoth concrete foundations – is complete. Now the team is gearing up to work on the next phase – constructing the station’s storm-proof flood defence system, and the buildings that will house the critical core of the plant. Building Britain’s Biggest Nuclear Power Station II
Since this deal was signed, the cost of these fixed-price agreements for other low-carbon sources of electricity such as wind and solar have fallen sharply, with some recent contracts fixed at around half the cost of Hinkley’s. ibid.
Magnificent temples, monumental dams, and lofty spires that reach out and touch the sky. Why do we build? Is it just because we need roofs over our heads or is there another more profound reason? The UnXplained with William Shatner s2e3: Extraordinary Engineering, History 2022
A massive golden boulder dangling from a cliff. A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer built by the ancients. And giant messages to the gods that are only visible from the sky … How are ancient people with limited technology able to build such incredible wonders. The UnXplained with William Shatner s3e20: Wonders of the Ancient World
Britain’s iconic bridges spanning our most dramatic landscapes that not only linked our island but made it great. These are the bridges that are known around the world built by visionaries like Stephenson and Brunel. Rob Bell, Britain’s Greatest Bridges I: The Forth Rail Bridge, Channel 5 2016
The Forth Bridge: a mile and a half long, three hundred and sixty-one feet high, and more than a hundred and twenty years old, weighing over fifty-thousand tons and sitting on six hundred and forty thousand cubic feet of granite, it dominates the skyline. ibid.
Design: Sir John Fowler & Sir Benjamin Baker, 1890. ibid.
A gruelling eight years and cost many lives. ibid.
Tower Bridge: Horace Jones & John Wolfe Barry, 1894. Rob Bell, Britain’s Greatest Bridges II: Tower Bridge
In the heart of London there is a unique monument; Tower Bridge. The most famous bridge in the world and a true British icon, completed in 1894, almost 65 metres high and spanning 268 metres across the River Thames. ibid.
Clifton Suspension Bridge: Isambard Kingdom Brunel, William Henry Barlow, John Hawkshaw, 1864. Rob Bell, Britain’s Greatest Bridges III: Clifton Suspension Bridge
1,500 tons of wrought iron, 75 metres high, stretching gracefully for over 200 metres across the dramatic Avon Gorge in Somerset, the Clifton Suspension Bridge is nothing short of an engineering masterpiece. ibid.
The Britannia Bridge: Robert Stephenson 1850: There’s one bridge that not only changed Britain, it changed the world, and it’s a bridge you may never have heard of … This game-changing wrought-iron bridge had a span of over 460 metres and weighed more than 4,500 tons. Rob Bell, Britain’s Greatest Bridges IV: Menai Strait
Much of the original bridge was lost to a devastating fire. ibid.
The box girder: it was this innovation pioneered on the Britannia bridge that helped up to build the huge cargo ships that criss-cross the world’s oceans. ibid.
The Tyne Bridge: Mott, Hay and Anderson, 1928. Rob Bell, Britain’s Greatest Bridges V: Tyne Bridge
80,000 tons of solid steel and granite that dominate the skyline … All the weight of the bridge being passed along the arch down to the ground. ibid.
An extraordinary structure that is somewhat forgotten. It’s a record breaking structure that changed engineering for ever … This is the Humber Bridge. Its length from end to end is more than two kilometres. Britain’s Greatest Bridges VI: Humber Bridge
1981: It was the biggest suspension bridge on the planet. ibid.
He gave us the most spectacular bridges, the longest tunnels, incredible ships, and the greatest railways. I’m on a journey around Britain to tell the story of perhaps our greatest engineer of all time – Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He was a charismatic character who pushed the boundaries of engineering to the absolute limit. In the middle of the nineteenth century Brunel was at the forefront of an industrial explosion that changed the world. Rob Bell, Brunel: The Man Who Built Britain, Channel 5 2017
A man whose obsession with his phenomenal engineering project eventually killed him. ibid.
One of the greatest ever feats of engineering – this tunnel under the Thames. ibid.
‘What a life – the life of a dreamer – I am always building castles in the air.’ ibid. Brunel
The Great Western Railway: what would then be the longest railway in the world. ibid.
Maidenhead bridge: the widest brick arches anywhere on Earth. ibid.
Box Hill: The longest tunnel in the world … In the blasting of Box Tunnel, Brunel’s men went through a ton of candles and a ton of gunpowder every single week. ibid.
1835: The largest ship ever built at the time: SS Great Western. ibid.
In 1838 the maiden voyage of Brunel’s first ship the SS Great Western had emphatically demonstrated the power of steam over sail. Rob Bell, Brunel: The Man Who Built Britain II
Even bigger and even bolder … the SS Great Britain … 322 feet long and 51 feet wide … a hull made completely of iron … propeller technology was the future. ibid.
He now set about building a brand-new route out of Bristol deep into Devon and Cornwall … The pipeline was ripped up and conventional tracks were laid: it was a financial disaster. ibid.
The SS Great Eastern was set to be a monster, a giant of vessel six times the size of the Great Britain. ibid.
The construction of the [Tamar] bridge was hugely complex and the biggest challenge of them was erecting the central pier right in the middle of the river Tamar. ibid.
Brunel had a serious disease of the kidneys. ibid.
He gave us the most spectacular bridges. The longest tunnels. Incredible ships. And the greatest railways. I’m on a journey around Britain to tell the story of perhaps our greatest engineer of all time – Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He was a charismatic character who pushed the boundaries of engineering to the absolute limit. Rob Bell, Brunel’s Britain s1e1: Master of Bridges, Channel 5 2018
An engineering genius who transformed Britain during the explosive years of the industrial revolution. ibid.
This tunnel under the River Thames is where Isambard Kingdom Brunel cut his engineering teeth. ibid.
The tunnelling shield is still the basic principle that is used on all modern tunnelling projects. ibid.
Construction of his Clifton Suspension Bridge finally began on 27th August 1831. But it was project fraught with problems. ibid.
He would soon get the chance to build his own railway … The longest railway in the world. It was a project that would obsess him. ibid.
His much wider track here is called broad-gauge. ibid.
In 1835 he came up with an idea that foresaw the largest ship ever built at the time: the SS Great Western: 236 feet long, over 1,300 tonnes in weight, mainly built from oak. ibid.