SEAWISE GIANT

At a length of 1,505 feet, the Seawise Giant, an ultra-large crude carrier (ULCC) supertanker, is the longest ship ever built. Seawise Giant was ordered in 1974 and delivered in 1979 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. at its Oppama shipyard in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan. Seawise Giant possessed the largest deadweight tonnage ever recorded: 564,763 tons. Fully loaded, its displacement was 657,019 tons. The heaviest ship of any kind, and with a laden draft of 81 feet, it was incapable of navigating the English Channel, the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal. Overall, it is generally considered the largest* ship ever built. In 2009, the vessel was sold to Indian ship breakers and beached for scrapping. *Seawise Giant was not the largest by gross tonnage, ranking sixth at 260.941 GT, behind the crane ship Pioneering Spirit and 4 Batillus-class supertankers.

PORTAGE LAKE LIFT BRIDGE

The Portage Lake Lift Bridge (officially the Houghton-Hancock Bridge), connects the cities of Hancock and Houghton, Michigan. It crosses Portage Lake, a portion of the waterway which cuts across the Keweenaw Peninsula with a canal linking the final several miles to Lake Superior to the northwest. The moveable bridge is a lift bridge with the middle section capable of being lifted from its low point of four feet clearance over the water to a clearance of 100 feet to allow boats to pass underneath. The bridge is the world’s heaviest and widest double-decked vertical lift bridge. More than 35,000 tons of concrete and 7,000 tons of steel went into the bridge which replaced a narrow 54-year old swing bridge.

HEAVIEST AND LONGEST (LENGTH) TRAIN

On June 21, 2001, BHP Iron Ore set a new world record for the longest and heaviest freight train. The train traveled from Yandi mine and Port Hedland in Western Australia. The train operated 172 miles with 682 loaded iron ore cars. The train weighed 99,734 tons and measured 4.57 miles in length. The train was run as a test of distributed power, with a combined eight GE AC6000 locomotives in five locations from front to rear of the train.

TROLL A PLATFORM - TALLEST AND HEAVIEST STRUCTURE EVER MOVED

The Troll A platform is an offshore natural gas platform in the Troll gas field off the west coast of Norway The Troll A platform is the tallest and heaviest structure ever moved by mankind. It has a height of 1,549 feet and weighs 683,600 tons. The platform stands on the sea floor 994 feet below the surface of the sea and has an elevator that takes over 9 minutes to travel from the platform above the waves to the sea floor. In 1996, the Troll A platform was towed over 120 miles from the northern part of western Norway to the Troll field, 50 miles west of Bergen. The tow took seven days.

PALACE OF THE PARLIAMENT - BUCHAREST, ROMANIA

The heaviest building in the world is the Palace of the Parliament located in Bucharest, Romania.

The construction of the Palace began in 1984 and should have been completed in only two years. However, it has never been completed. Only 400 rooms and two meeting rooms are finished and used, out of a total of 1,100 rooms. The building has 8 underground levels, the last one being an anti-atomic bunker, linked to the main state institutions by 20 km of catacombs. The bunker is a room with 1.5 m thick concrete walls and cannot be penetrated by radiation.

The building has a developed area of 365,000 square meters, making it the world’s third-largest administrative building, after the Pentagon and Long’ao Building.

The Palace contains 3,500 tons of crystal – 480 chandeliers, 1,409 ceiling lights, 700,000 tons of steel and bronze for monumental doors and windows, 1 million cubed meters of marble and 900,000 cubed meters of wood.

Between 20,000 and 100,000 people worked on the site. It is estimated that 3,000 people died in connection with the construction of the Palace.

The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania

LARGEST HAILSTONE(S) IN THE U.S.

During the late afternoon and early evening hours of 23 July 2010, thunderstorms developed over portions of central South Dakota. Several storms quickly became severe in an environment favorable for supercell thunderstorms.  In particular, one very strong supercell thunderstorm moved southeastward across portions of Stanley, Jones, and Lyman counties.  One of the hardest hit locations was the community of Vivian, South Dakota, where extremely large hail, destructive winds to 80 mph, and a brief tornado were reported.

A record setting hailstone was ultimately discovered in Vivian, measuring 8.0 inches in diameter, 18.625 inches in circumference, and weighing in at an amazing 1.9375 pounds!!  This hailstone broke the previous United States hail size record for diameter (7.0 inches - 22 June 2003 in Aurora, NE) and weight (1.67 pounds - 3 September 1970 in Coffeyvile, KS).  The Aurora, Nebraska hailstone will retain the record for circumference (18.75 inches).

The hailstone's official record dimensions were as of the time personnel from the NWS in Aberdeen first observed and measured it.  The stone did shrink considerably (melting and sublimation) between impact and when it was first measured by NWS personnel due in part to a power outage at the residence of the individual who found the stone.  It should also be noted that many other stones with diameters exceeding 6 inches were also noted during the storm survey!

Diameter of Vivian, SD hailstone being measured.