MARINA CITY AND LAKE POINT TOWER CHICAGO

 

From 1960 until 1991, Chicago was home to the tallest residential buildings in the world. 1960-1968 MARINA CITY I AND MARINA CITY II:  Marina City is a mixed-use residential-commercial building complex designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg.  The complex consists of two 587-foot 65-story apartment towers, and occupies almost an entire city block on State Street on the north bank of the Chicago River on the Near North Side, directly across from the Loop.  When finished, the two towers were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world. The complex was built as a "city within a city", featuring numerous on-site facilities including a theater, gym, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, stores, restaurants, and, of course, a marina.  1968-1991 LAKE POINT TOWER:  Lake Point Tower is a residential skyscraper located on a promontory of the Lake Michigan waterfront in Chicago, just north of the Chicago River at 505 North Lake Shore Drive. It is the only skyscraper in the city east of Lake Shore Drive.  Lake Point Tower was completed in 1968, is approximately 645 feet tall, and was the tallest apartment building in the world at that time.  Its tall curved three wing 'Y' shape was an inspiration for the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates by Chicago-born architect Adrian Smith.

MARINA CITY I AND II (LEFT) AND LAKE POINT TOWER (RIGHT)

NEEVA TOWERS FKA THE-RENNAISSANCE-MOSCOW TOWERS

 

The Neva Towers, formerly the Renaissance Moscow Towers, is a complex of two skyscrapers located on plots 17 and 18 of the Moscow International Business Center (MIBC) in Moscow, Russia. Tower 1, at 302 991 feet tall with 65 floors, is the ninth-tallest building in Europe. Tower 2, at 1,132 feet tall with 79 floors, is the tallest residential building in Europe and the fourth-tallest building in Europe. The complex was completed in 2020.

NEVA TOWERS

432 PARK AVENUE – NEW YORK CITY

432 Park Avenue is a residential skyscraper at 57th Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, overlooking Central Park. The 1,396-foot-tall tower was developed by CIM Group and Harry B. Macklowe and designed by Rafael Viñoly. A part of Billionaires' Row, 432 Park Avenue has some of the most expensive residences in the city, with the median unit selling for tens of millions of dollars. At the time of its completion in 2015, 432 Park Avenue was the third-tallest building in the United States and the tallest residential building in the world. As of 2023, it is the sixth-tallest building in the United States, the fifth-tallest building in New York City, and the third-tallest residential building in the world.

432 Park Ave. New York, NY

CHISUMLE-DEMCHOK ROAD AKA UMLING LA ROAD

 

In 2017 Chisumle-Demchok Road was constructed in Ladakh, India between Chisumle and Demchok villages passing through Umling Pass in the Himalaya Mountains. As the road ascends to a height of 19,300 feet in the vicinity of Umling Pass, it becomes the world’s highest motorable road.  Of note is that Chisumle-Demchok Road is at an altitude that is higher than the Mount Everest Base Camp.

THE KARAKORAM (KKK) HIGHWAY

The Karakoram Highway, known by its initials KKK is an 810-mile national highway which extends Hasan Abdal in the Punjab province of Pakistan to the Khunjerab Pass in Gilgit-Baltistan, where it crosses into China and becomes China National Highway 314.  The Karakoram Highway is the highest paved international road in the world. It is also the highest border crossing in the world, at an elevation of 16,000 feet. For comparison, Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Western Europe, is 15,780 feet and Mount Whitney, the highest point in the 48 contiguous US states, is 14,468 feet.

THE IRTYSH RIVER

The Irtysh is a river in Russia, China, and Kazakhstan. It is the chief tributary of the Ob, and at a length of 2,640 miles, it is the longest tributary river in the world.  The Irtysh and the Ob River together constitute the world’s seventh longest river system.  From its origins as the Kara-Irtysh (Black Irtysh) in the Mongolian Altay mountains in Xinjiang, China, the Irtysh flows northwest through Lake Zaysan in Kazakhstan, meeting the Ishim and Tobol rivers before merging with the Ob near Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia, Russia.

GOAT CANYON TRESTLE

Goat Canyon Trestle is a wooden trestle in San Diego County, California. At a length of 597–750 feet, it is the world's largest all-wood trestle. Goat Canyon Trestle was built in 1933 as part of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway, after one of the many tunnels through the Carrizo Gorge collapsed. The railway had been called the "impossible railroad" upon its 1919 completion. It ran through Baja California and eastern San Diego County before ending in Imperial Valley. The trestle was made of wood, rather than metal, due to temperature fluctuations in the Carrizo Gorge. By 2008, most rail traffic stopped using the trestle.   To resist Goat Canyon's high winds, it was built with a 14° curve. Additionally, the bridge was built without nails.

TRESTLE AS SEEN FROM THE SOUTHEAST IN 2016