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Megastructures

Season 2008 2008
TV-G

  • 2008-01-09T01:00:00Z on National Geographic
  • 45m
  • 11h 15m (15 episodes)
  • United States
  • English, French, Hungarian
  • Documentary
Take an eye-popping look at the greatest structures and machines ever created as we focus on some of the world's modern-day super-human miracles of construction.

15 episodes

Season Premiere

2008-01-09T01:00:00Z

2008x01 Atom Smasher

Season Premiere

2008x01 Atom Smasher

  • 2008-01-09T01:00:00Z45m

2008-01-10T01:00:00Z

2008x02 South Pole Station

2008x02 South Pole Station

  • 2008-01-10T01:00:00Z45m

Welcome to the South Pole, one of the most isolated places on the planet. For decades, the South Pole has been a haven for astronomy, climatology, and other science fields. Now, nearly 50 years after the first research station was built, a team of mega-builders is daring to construct a 21st century science research facility: the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

2008-05-15T00:00:00Z

2008x03 Shanghai Super Tower

2008x03 Shanghai Super Tower

  • 2008-05-15T00:00:00Z45m

The design and construction of the Shanghai World Financial Centre which, at 101 floors high, will be China's tallest structure.

2008-05-16T00:00:00Z

2008x04 Bridge Breakdown

2008x04 Bridge Breakdown

  • 2008-05-16T00:00:00Z45m

Demolition of the (1927) Carquinez Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area

2008-05-22T00:00:00Z

2008x05 Beijing Water Cube

2008x05 Beijing Water Cube

  • 2008-05-22T00:00:00Z45m

Just in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, workers are feverishly putting the finishing touches on the National Aquatics Centre – the Beijing Water Cube. A stroke of design genius, this Olympic Megastructure is a steel honeycomb-like frame enclosed entirely by a unique skin, modelled after soap bubbles. Using 90 kilometres worth of steel in 22,000 beams following no conventional straight lines, the Beijing Water Cube must be topped with 100,000 square metres of bubbles. Looking for a truly unique covering, the design team focuses on ETFE – a light-weight plastic invented to protect spaceships from cosmic radiation. Among ETFE’s unique properties, dot patterns on its surface can trap solar energy in the winter and reflect solar energy in the summer, keeping the building cool. The Beijing Water Cube is the largest ETFE construction in the world, and because of its honeycomb-like structure, 3,500 ETFE bubbles must be cut individually, and sized. Factor in that the dimensions have been created in Germany and must be translated into a Chinese database and the Beijing Water Cube becomes a bit of a logistical nightmare. Beijing’s Water Cube represents a true morphing of molecular science, architecture and structural engineering.

A specialist demolition team attempt to create the largest artificial reef in the world by sinking the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany. As they battle through thick steel plating and hazardous waste, the workers are aided by marine architects, divers, engineering units and local authorities.

Looks at the technological designs and construction of the huge cruiseliner "Freedom of the Seas".

The North Branch Correctional Institution (NBCI) will house 2,000 violent criminals. Its security measures are much more than technological marvels they are the features that will protect the lives of prison guards and revolutionize rehabilitation programs for inmates.

2008-06-19T00:00:00Z

2008x09 Icelandic Super Dam

2008x09 Icelandic Super Dam

  • 2008-06-19T00:00:00Z45m

This episode looks at the Karahnjukar Hydroelectric Project in Iceland - an audacious engineering feat that includes the building of Europe's highest dam, the drilling of 30-mile-long tunnels and the construction of a gigantic underground power plant.

2010 environmental improvement plan in Beijing, China

2008-09-04T00:00:00Z

2008x11 Impossible Build

2008x11 Impossible Build

  • 2008-09-04T00:00:00Z45m

A historic bridge is being taken down and recycled, but the demolition team faces challenges while doing it.

2008-11-03T01:00:00Z

2008x13 Mega Plane

2008x13 Mega Plane

  • 2008-11-03T01:00:00Z45m

2008-12-21T01:00:00Z

2008x14 Deep Earth Drillers

2008x14 Deep Earth Drillers

  • 2008-12-21T01:00:00Z45m

Mega Green Tech is in search of geothermal power.

2008-12-31T01:00:00Z

2008x15 Dam Busters

2008x15 Dam Busters

  • 2008-12-31T01:00:00Z45m

A team of experts mobilises to demolish, excavate and recycle a 25,000 ton dam built of concrete and steel. The pressure is on: they have just half the time needed to complete the job. Worse yet, their biggest challenge stands behind the old dam – one million cubic yards of boulders, gravel and sand that the river has stacked against it for nearly a century. To remove this blockade, the team gambles on a radical, dangerous plan that's never been tried before: turning the energy of a perfect storm against the debris. If they are not successful, a generation of endangered salmon returning to spawn may be wiped out.

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