Man-Made Wonders

More than 1.2 million cubic yards of earth and rock were excavated in order to build the World Trade Center. The excavated material was placed in the Hudson River to create 23.5 acres of new land deeded to the     City of New York. This landfill area is now Battery Park City.

Built in 1970 - 1972, The two 110 story World Trade Center twin towers were the tallest buildings in America. measuring 1350 feet tall.

More than 200,000 tons of steel — far more than the amount required for the construction of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge — was used in the World Trade Center's construction.

The 425,000 cubic yards of concrete used in building the World Trade Center is enough to build a five-foot wide sidewalk from New York City to Washington, D.C.

At peak periods of construction, some 3,500 workers were on the World Trade Center site daily.

There were 43,600 windows in the Twin Towers with over 600,000 square feet of glass window area cleaned by automatic window washing machines traveling on stainless steel tracks.

With 60,000 tons of cooling capacity, the World Trade Center's refrigeration plant was the largest in the world.

The 360-foot television mast atop One World Trade Center supported 10 main television antennas, numerous auxiliary antennas and a master FM antenna. Transmissions from the mast began in June, 1980. Ten television stations in the metropolitan area, including all the major networks, broadcast from the mast. In addition, six stations broadcasted high-definition, digital television from the World Trade Center.

The Tower's sky lobby elevator systems separated express from local runs. There were 239 elevators and 71 escalators in the four buildings operated by the Port Authority at the complex. The sky lobby express elevators were capable of carrying 55 people, a 10,000 pound capacity. Express elevators could travel at speeds of up to 27 feet per second.

Until the World Trade Center was built in 1970, the Empire State Building was New York's tallest building. Since the destruction of the Trade Center on 9/11/2001, The Empire State Building is once again New York's tallest building.

More than 80,000 miles of steel wire was used to build the Golden Gate Bridge. If these strands were laid end to end, they would encircle the equator three times.

The concrete used to make the Golden Gate Bridge’s piers and anchorages would be sufficient to pave a five-foot wide road from San Francisco to New York.

The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington contains enough concrete to build a wall 4 feet high, 4 inches thick, twice around the world!

The amount of uranium in the A-Bomb was only about the size of a baseball.

The maximum takeoff weight of a 747 Passenger jet is 875,000 lbs. This includes six million parts. Three million of which are fasteners. One and a half million of which are rivets

A top fuel dragster's engine produces 6000+ horsepower. In one minute the engine can consume 15 gallons of fuel...the same amount it takes to fill up the average sized gas tank in a regular street car.

Just one cylinder in a top fuel dragster's engine produces more horsepower than the whole engine of a NASCAR stock car engine.

In the 4 seconds that it takes the top fuel dragster to reach the finish line, each cylinder in the engine will have traveled up and down over 1,333 times.

Each cylinder in the engine of the average car cruising down the freeway is moving up and down over 83 times per second.

The sale of automobiles constitutes a $640,000,000,000 (that's 640 billion) industry in the United States. If parts and service are added---a trillion dollar industry---the largest.

The base of the Great Pyramid of Egypt is large enough to cover 10 football fields.

If you were to stay in a different room every night at the MGM Hotel in Las Vegas, it would take you 12 years to stay in every room the hotel has. (that's approximately 4380 rooms)

The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

The American dollar bill is the most successful product ever manufactured. It is the most revered and accepted currency in the world.

It costs the U.S. Treasury about a nickel to print a bill, which it sells for face value. That's a profit of 95 cents for a $1 bill, $95.00 for a $100, and so forth.

The Taliban militia (who don't agree with America on much) used to present foreigners crossing into Afghanistan a list of "prohibited items," including U.S. books and tapes. But the instructions said American dollars were OK: "New bills only."

On an average weekday, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing's 24 rotary presses use 45 tons of paper and 18 tons of ink to produce 37 million bills worth $696 million.

The total face value of currency in circulation is $595 billion, 17 times more than in 1965.

A dollar bill buys what a nickel did in 1910.

The paper on which the dollar bill is printed is still made by Crane & Co. of Dalton, Mass., a town with the motto "The Buck Starts Here." 

The dollar bill is still 75% cotton and 25% linen.

The average dollar bill physically wears out within 18 months of circulation.