When we think of buildings that have survived to the modern day, we think of structures such as the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Piza, and the pyramids. But what about structures that are still in use—their original use—to this day?

While most ancient structures have gained a second life as tourist attractions, the humble bridge has often maintained its original use throughout the ages. Due to being built to last, there are many bridges out there that were built hundreds of years before our time and still see daily use. While old bridges often get destroyed in disasters, blown up in wars, or burned down in tragic accidents, the bridges in this list have survived the ages relatively unchanged.

10Pons Fabricius

The Romans built many things that stood the test of time. With their rigid and effective building techniques, a few important constructions built during the Roman era still stand to this day. If you’re in the mood to inspect their handiwork for yourself, simply take a trip to Rome and visit the Pons Fabricius bridge.

The bridge was built by Lucius Fabricius in 62 BC, possibly to replace a wooden bridge that had burned down. You can tell Lucius commanded its construction because he had it written on the bridge in four different spots.

After a flood in 23 BC, two consuls known as Marcus Lollius and Quintus Aemilius Lepidus added adjustments in 21 BC in order to help preserve the bridge, although it’s not stated what the improvements were exactly. It might have been the addition of the small arch on the bridge which serves the purpose of relieving pressure during high waters. That alone probably helped the bridge survive as long as it has.

9Ponte Vecchio

Built in 1345, the Ponte Vecchio can be found in Florence, Italy. It was built to replace a wooden bridge that didn’t stand up too well against floods, and it still remains in its original glory.

The interesting part of Ponte Vecchio (which translates into “Old Bridge”) is that it was built to contain an arcade of shops which is being used even today. The bridge used to be haunted by fishmongers and butchers in the 1400s, whose crafts caused the bridge to contain a foul odor. Given that Florence was becoming the hub of the Renaissance at the time, Grand Duke Ferdinand I had the merchants removed and the sale of fish and meat products on the bridge banned. He ordained that the only people who could sell on the bridge were goldsmiths and silversmiths, which helped develop Florence’s imagery to wealthy foreign visitors.

This bridge wouldn’t have made it to the modern day if it wasn’t for an act of respect performed during wartime. In World War II, as the German soldiers fled Florence, they blew up every bridge they crossed to stall enemy forces. Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge spared—they chose instead to destroy the access to the bridge, rather than the bridge itself.

8Ponte Di Rialto

An Italian bridge was constructed in 1591 to replace a wooden one that had collapsed. It was designed by one Antonio da Ponte, who had some stiff competition to design the bridge, with rivals being Michelangelo and Palladio. Unfortunately, once it was built, it didn’t go down so well with the locals. It received both praise and scorn from critics, who slammed its design for being “top-heavy and ungraceful,” the same attention the Eiffel Tower drew after it was built.

Despite the criticism, the bridge has remained very much intact since it was built. Given it had to have a 7-meter (24 ft) arch to allow galleys below as well as enough strength to hold up the row of shops that spans its center, it had to be structurally sound. It’s so sound, in fact, that cannons were fired from it during riots in 1797.

7Khaju Bridge

Built in 1667 on the foundations of an older bridge, this bridge’s construction was ordered by the late Shah Abbas II. Being a bridge, its main purpose was to allow people to cross the Zayandeh River, but it also has other uses. It acts as a dam and has sluice gates, yet its most interesting use is the social aspect.

While we’re unfamiliar with a bridge being the place to be used for social hangouts, that didn’t stop Shah Abbas II from trying. Along the bridge—and still visible to this day— is an impressive array of paintings and tile work. A pavilion was constructed in the middle so that Shah Abbas II and his courtiers could look over the scenery. These days, the pavilion is a teahouse and art gallery. If that’s not enough, within the pavilion was a stone seat which the Shah Abbas used to look over the river. The seat is still around but very much a remnant of its former glory.

6Shaharah Bridge

Also known as the “Bridge of Sighs” (not the one in Venice), Shaharah Bridge can be found in Yemen. Built in the 17th century, Shaharah Bridge is a path that spans a 200-meter-deep (650 ft) canyon in order to connect two mountains, Jabal al Emir and Jabal al Faish. It was a lot of trouble for the inhabitants of both mountains to visit one another, as it meant climbing down one mountain and scaling another. The bridge was made to better connect the villages on both mountains to save time and effort.

It wasn’t just a hot spot for transportation. Given that it was the only entrance to the town of Shaharah, it had to be fortified to help fend off Turkish invaders. It is said that the locals know how to destroy the bridge at a moment’s notice, isolating the villagers from danger.

These days, Shaharah Bridge is a major tourist attraction, and it still receives its intended use by the locals as a functioning bridge.

5Cendere Bridge

Also known as Severan Bridge, this was built in Turkey during the second century by four Kommagenean cities. Its intent was to honor the Roman emperor Septimius Severus, his wife Julia, and their two sons, Caracalla and Geta. While very old, it also holds the title for the second longest arched bridge built by The Romans.

On each side, there are two columns that were built to represent the members of the emperor’s family—Severus and Julia on one side and Caracalla and Geta on the other. If you go to look at them for yourself, you’ll notice the column that represents Geta is currently missing. This is because Caracalla assassinated Geta due to an ongoing rivalry, with reports saying that Geta was in his mother’s arms at the time. Caracalla went so far as to have Geta’s friends and allies put to death. For a final blow to Geta’s legacy, Caracalla ordained that any mention of Geta’s name should be erased from history, and the column representing Geta was destroyed.

4Anji Bridge

Also known as Zhaozhou Bridge, Anji Bridge is the oldest bridge in China, built in AD 605. You can tell it was designed to last, as its name translates to “Safe Crossing Bridge.” It was engineered to be one of the best in the world. At the time, it was the most technically advanced bridge due to having the largest arc. Long after its construction, the bridge was winning awards; it was praised as the 12th milestone of international civil engineering by the American Society of Civil Engineers and awarded a bronze monument.

Given that it’s still solid enough to cross, it’s obvious that the Anji Bridge, while very ambitious, didn’t cut any corners in its design. In fact, the bridge has stood up to even more than the test of time. It has managed to survive 10 floods, eight wars, and countless earthquakes, while only requiring repair work nine times in its documented lifespan.

3Ponte Sant’Angelo

Ordered to be constructed by Emperor Hadrian in AD 136, Ponte Sant’Angelo (Bridge of the Holy Angel) is one of the most famous bridges in Rome . . . and one of the most beautiful. It was a slightly self-indulgent act of Hadrian, as the goal of the bridge was to connect the whole of Rome to his own mausoleum, the Castel Sant’Angelo (Castle of the Holy Angel). They’re both labeled under the suffix “of the Holy Angel” due to the statue of the archangel Michael on the top of the mausoleum itself. The angel was said to have appeared in 590 BC on top of the same building and miraculously ended the plague in Rome.

One of the more beautiful additions to the bridge happened long after Hadrian was around to see it for himself. In 1668, sculptor Lorenzo Bernini enhanced the bridge by designing 10 angels to adorn its length, two of which he made himself. Each angel holds a symbol that represents the crucifixion of Jesus, such as a crown of thorns or a whip. Even after all these years, both the bridge and the angels still stand, making it a great sightseeing spot.

2Tarr Steps

Found in Exmoor, the Tarr Steps is what’s known as a clapper bridge—a bridge made entirely out of rocks resting atop one another. Given its construction, it’s hard to tell when it was built, although guesses range from 3000 BC to medieval times. The earliest documented description of Tarr Steps was in Tudor times, which means it dates at least to the 1500s.

Tarr Steps has a local legend that states that it was built by the Devil himself, who swore to kill anyone that dared to cross it. When the villagers sent across a cat to test the theory, the cat was vaporized. Then they sent across a vicar (who was probably worried about receiving the same fate as the cat) to meet with the Devil at the halfway point of the bridge. After he and the Devil had an argument, the Devil struck a deal: Anyone could use the bridge, but if the Devil wanted to use the area for sunbathing, the ban would resume. If you want to walk the Tarr Steps yourself, make sure there aren’t any sunbathing demons before you try.

Unfortunately, the Tarr Steps is a slight exception to the trend of bridges that have stayed mostly intact throughout the ages. Given that a pile of rocks doesn’t have the best of foundations, segments have been bowled over by floods through the course of history. For this reason, all the stones have been numbered so they can be recovered and placed back where they belong to keep the authenticity intact. Even though it’s been put back together several times, it’s still technically the same bridge.

1Arkadiko Bridge

The Arkadiko Bridge in Greece is the oldest surviving arch bridge still in use. It’s believed to have been built during the Greek Bronze Age, around 1300–1200 BC, meaning it has gone through a lot to make it to today.

It acted as part of a military road system between the cities Tiryns and Epidauros back in Mycenaean times. It has a wider berth than a normal footbridge, with a road width of around 2.5 meters (8 ft). Historians believe that this additional width was designed so that the bridge could handle chariots. What makes it even more impressive is that it’s made purely from limestone boulders, using no binding agent between the stones to keep the bridge intact. That means the bridge has lasted over three millennia from Mycenaean masonry skills alone and has survived it all.

S.E. Batt is a freelance writer and author. He enjoys a good keyboard, cats, and tea, even though the three of them never blend well together. You can follow his antics over at @Simon_Batt or his fiction website at www.sebatt.com.

The natural world is full of reminders of how inferior we are as a species. Not only do we lack (or rely on technology for) superpowers like night-vision, flight, or any meaningful level of strength, we also fail miserably at the most basic of tasks—like feeding ourselves, raising our young, and disposing of waste. 

Most of us can’t even house ourselves. And those who build “for us” are incapable of doing so cleanly. So hang your economy-enslaved, ecocide-enabling head in shame as we run through ten of the most stunning feats of architectural engineering from elsewhere in the animal kingdom.

10. Bagworm log cabins

Unlike most butterflies and moths, which spin their cocoons out of silk, bagworm moth larvae make use of the resources around them—plant matter, mostly. There are bagworm species all over the world, and many more styles of “bag”, the cocoon for which they are named. Some are more interesting than others, like the feathery nests made of stork’s bill seeds. But for the most part, they all hang like bags.

More interesting are the miniature log (or twig) cabins that gracefully spiral to a tip. A study of 42 such structures in India, built by the bagworm Clania crameri, showed the design was anything but random. The larvae have a style in mind and look for the right sticks to build it—the various lengths required to assemble their spiraling tower. 

It takes them pretty much their whole lives to finish the job, but it’s worth it. The males emerge as fuzzy black moths with transparent wings, while the females “decay into a pile of eggs” to spawn the next generation.

9. Caddisfly submarines

Caddisflies, or sedge flies, are widely distributed around the world. They look like moths with hairy wings, but as larvae they live underwater. It’s at this stage of life that caddisflies are at their most artful, spinning together their submarine cases with silk from the glands around their mouths, along with sand, stones, and plant matter. 

Depending on the species, these homes may be stationary or mobile. Styles are so characteristic of the species that builds them that while adult caddisflies are hard to tell apart, larvae can be identified by their cases. Some are smooth, some are lumpy, and so on.

Only one larvae lives on land, in the leaf litter of the English West Midlands: Enoicyla pusilla, the ‘land caddis’. All others inhabit submarines.

8. Ovenbird adobe abodes

Native to North America, the ovenbird gets its name from the resemblance of its adobe mud nest to a Dutch oven… at least if you squint really hard. Construction takes roughly two weeks, building the walls out from a bowl shape, up, then back in at the top while carefully avoiding collapse. By the end, the ovenbird will have worked 2,000 pellets—ten pounds of mud—into the sphere of its home. They also use plant matter and dung for the structure and line it with grass for comfort.

A circular side opening allows the family in and out while cleverly repelling attackers. Not only is the entrance offset from the branch, but it also has a curving wall inside, three-quarters of the way to the roof, posing a “severe obstacle for predators” (in addition to the concrete-like adobe itself).  

There are actually three types of ovenbird nest, the other two being cavities and domes; but they’re all enclosed, like little houses—unlike the vast majority of other bird homes. Cavity nests are typically established in woodpecker holes, natural cavities, or burrows up to one meter deep (which they may dig themselves, we’re not sure). And dome nests are built with sticks, grass, feathers, and bone, with protection from thorns and barbed wire. Notably, they also use snakeskin.

7. Bowerbird theme parks

Native to Australia and New Guinea, bowerbirds have the surprising distinction of being second only to humans in the adornment of their structures. In fact, their bowers (walls of sticks bent inwards to form arched shelters with cleared ground in front) have even drawn comparisons to Disney World. Just as the upper bricks of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and the buildings of Main Street are smaller than at ground level to make everything look taller, male bowerbirds use forced perspective to make their bowers look smaller (and themselves bigger, according to one theory) to prospective female mates in the air. 

The similarity to Disneyworld doesn’t end there. To attract mates, bowerbirds also fill their yards with plastic tat and mass-produced garbage: marbles, ring pulls, duct tape, bra straps, ribbons, pegs, glass, wrappers, and even syringes (always with the largest items toward the back). One bower was found to have bottle caps arranged in an arc around a plastic doll splayed in the center, “eyes wide and mouth open in a plastic scream.”

They also include plenty of natural materials—feathers, stones, shells, leaves, flowers, beetles’ body parts, and so on. But, interestingly, bowerbirds living close to humans show a preference for our trash because they know its color lasts longer. This is important. The objects selected for display are meticulously color-coordinated. Blue is the favorite of the satin bowerbird, while the great bowerbird likes purple, red, and green. 

6. Sociable weaver apartments

Few birds are so descriptively named as the sociable weaver. These sparrow-sized birds, native to the Kalahari, weave sprawling communal nests “like avian apartment complexes” for a hundred or so families to live in. Each block resembles a haystack in the tree and follows a typical blueprint. Large twigs are used for the roof, while grasses are woven into the four-to-six-inch chambers, or “apartments”, which are then lined with soft furnishings like fluff, cotton, and fur. Entrance tunnels can be as long as 10 inches and lined with spikes of straw to keep predators at bay. Further protection from tree snakes and honey badgers comes from the choice of tree; smooth, tall trunks or even telephone poles are best. But cheetahs, vultures, owls, and eagles often find their way up to the roof of the complex just to enjoy the view. Giraffes and antelopes love them too; the birds’ droppings enrich the soil, resulting in more leaves—for food and shade—on the trees.

The sociable weavers’ sociability even extends to other birds. Building more chambers than they’ll ever use themselves, they welcome other species to the block. The South African pygmy falcon, for example, depends on their hospitality. Other visitors include the pied barbet, ashy tit, familiar chat, red-headed finch, and rosy-faced lovebird. This benefits the colony as a whole; not only do the weavers learn new sources of food from these other birds, but they also get more look-outs for danger.

When the extra rooms are empty, sociable weavers move between them. In the summer, they’ll favor the cooler outer rooms, and in the winter they’ll migrate to the center. Fledglings—reared and nourished by the whole family, including older siblings—often stay in the nest, relocating to different chambers when it’s time to leave their parents. Some weaver nests have been occupied for more than a century. Of course, the building and upkeep of such a complex requires constant coordination, and the birds’ chatter can be heard all around. If it gets too heavy (several tons sometimes), it can break its supporting tree.

5. Agglutinated foraminifera tests

If you’ve heard of agglutinated foraminifera before, give yourself a pat on the back. These single-celled microorganisms live more than six miles (10 kilometers) under the sea. Specifically, they inhabit the Mariana Trench, on what’s known as the Challenger Deep—which, though it sounds like the name of a submarine, is the deepest surveyed part of the seabed. In fact, it lies in the hadal zone (named for the Greek underworld), far beyond the previously thought deepest part of the ocean, the abyssal zone. You get the point, it’s a deeply inhospitable environment. And there’s not a whole lot to build with. Everything down there breaks down into clay, the smallest soil particle—which isn’t much use underwater, let alone 12,400 tons per square meter of it. It’s no good whatsoever for agglutinated foraminifera, which build their shells out of minerals like calcite, silica, and quartz.

In 2010, however, researchers were surprised to find specimens from the Challenger Deep with beautifully formed shells—or tests, as they’re called—of various minerals, including quartz and calcite. These tests are presumed to be formed (or agglutinated) from the sunken, decomposed remains of coccoliths (calcium carbonate-plated algae) and phytoplankton from the sea’s sunny surface. In other words, they build their homes from what’s called ‘marine snow’, the matter that sinks down from above, “rather like manna from heaven.”

As for the shells themselves, they come in different designs. Some are spirals, like tiny snails, while others are tubular with chambers in a row.

4. Prairie dog gigacities

Prairie dogs are squirrels that live on the ground. Instead of burying nuts, they bury themselves. Black-tailed prairie dogs in particular live in sprawling burrows that humans call towns because of their town-like organization and population (many hundreds or more). They also tend to expand into cities, megacities (tens of millions of residents), and even gigacities (hundreds of millions). The largest recorded town, which covered 25,000 square miles (65,000 square kilometers), roughly one-tenth of Texas, had an estimated 400 million residents. Not only is that millions more than the 20 biggest (human) cities combined, but it’s not far short of the same total area. That’s the population (and actual 1:1 area) of Tokyo, Shanghai, Mexico City, Mumbai, Beijing, New York, and upwards of fourteen other world cities living under Texas as prairie dogs. 

Once upon a time, anyway. In the 20th century, humans exterminated 98 percent of all prairie dogs as pests. They’ve recovered slightly since, and their towns are still impressive organizationally. Each has clearly defined entrances (with earth markers), listening posts, toilets, sleeping quarters, and nurseries (located deepest within). Families live together and greet each other with a nuzzle, while young pups play together near their burrows. Like the ideal human city, prairie dog towns are even “multicultural”, with snake, owl, and ferret “immigrants” settling down in surplus tunnels.

3. Termite mega-skyscrapers

In Australia’s Northwest Territory, much of the dry plain landscape is dominated by the mounds of two termites. One is the compass termite, whose nests can reach heights of more than 10 feet and are built narrower along the north-south axis to avoid too much exposure to the sun.

The other is the cathedral termite, whose nests tower above the ground (and any passing mammals) at heights of 15 feet or more. These are the biggest skyscrapers in the world. By far. If the millions of termites inhabiting them were our size, the mounds themselves, scaled up proportionally, would be taller than three Burj Khalifas—and in some cases more than five! 

Both the compass and cathedral termites’ mounds can last for a century, which, remarkably, could also be the lifespan of their queens. Again, scaling up for humans, this means that both queen and tower might last seven millennia—despite being formed from just saliva, sand, and dung.

Inside, everyone has a purpose. Deep inside are the reproductives, the so-called queen and her successors, as well as the king that fertilizes them. Then there are the soldiers, the defenders of the mound. In the case of cathedral termites, these are ‘nasute soldiers’, meaning they have a long nose-tube specially adapted for squirting sticky saliva at invaders. After them, and most numerous of all, are the workers—whose job is to build and maintain the nest, as well as to feed and tend the young and reproductives. They rarely leave the darkness of the city.

2. Ant empires

Sadly, the only way for humans to view the beauty of an ants’ nest is to fill it with plaster, hot wax, or molten metal, killing every last one of its occupants. The resulting cast, though it’ll cost you your soul, can be excavated and studied in detail. In this way, scientists have found a remarkable degree of planning and consistency in ant nest construction—which is all the more remarkable given they build in the dark without a leader or plan, and ants working on one side have no means of communicating with ants on the other (no means obvious to us relatively unevolved apes, that is). 

Really, ants work much like cells in an organism—and these organisms, the colonies, can get pretty big. Nests belonging to the same species in any given area tend to merge together in “vast territorial systems” sometimes numbering hundreds of interacting colonies.

Nest features typically include food storage chambers, brood chambers (for eggs and the young), the queen’s chamber (at the heart), and waste disposal chambers (on the outer edge) for the deposit of dead ants and exoskeletons. These are joined by angled, vertical, or even spiraling shafts, which also provide ventilation. The variable depths and sizes of chambers provide the range of microclimates ant colonies need, particularly specialist species like those that farm fungi. They navigate their nests by chemical “signage”, similar to how they get around outside.

1. Bee 3D printing

Honeybees are more efficient than we could ever be. Like termites and ants, every bee in the hive has a purpose. But it’s for their building work, not their social organization, that they get a place on this list (although the two are related).

Darwin thought it the “most wonderful of all known instincts”, the way bees build their honeycombs with wax from their abdomens. Each consists of geometrically flawless hexagonal cells that fit perfectly into the grid—even while they vary in size to suit either drones or workers. What makes this even more remarkable is that honeycomb is built from different directions simultaneously; bees starting from different sides of the grid-in-progress somehow join up with mathematical precision.

This isn’t robotic behavior, though. Studies have shown a high degree of adaptability during construction, with each bee cleverly adjusting its work to attain that geometrical perfection. They might, for example, use heptagons and pentagons where necessary, or alter the orientation of cells. “A simple robot does not have such a level of adaptability and rate of error recovery,” said entomologist Raghavendra Gadagkar. It is, according to the authors of one landmark study, “a true architectural skill.”

We are living in the age of robotics. The world today is dominated by machinery and technology. There are many who say we should fear the rise of the robots, that they are destined to steal our jobs or even use their weapons against us. But not all robots are threatening and evil. Some of them are just plain weird.

Across the world, scientists are at work developing all kinds of mind-boggling machinery and bizarre AI. In the last few years alone, roboticists have unveiled a sassy android, a shape-shifting submarine, and a device that allows fish and bees to speak to each other. From cuddle machines to worm-powered Lego, here are ten of the weirdest robots ever built.

10 Futuristic Things AI And Robots Are Already Doing

10 Irony Man, The Sassy Robot

Fans of Douglas Adams will no doubt be familiar with Marvin The Paranoid Android, the depressed if slightly conceited robot from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. But, instead of a paranoid android, how about a sassy one? A robot that rolls its eyes from time to time and fires off acerbic comments.

Well, scientists from Ausburg University have created just that, after programming one of their latest robots with a sense of irony. The fittingly-named Irony Man is designed to be less formal and more relatable than a typical AI. Unlike most talking machines, which speak in flat monotonous voices, Irony Man is able to reflect real patterns of human speech. So if someone were to say that “Traffic is frustrating,” Irony Man would retort “I love being stuck here” with a sarcastic emphasis on the word “love”.

But why would anyone want to make a smart-mouthed robot? Irony Man’s creators thought that he would be easier to get along with if he was programmed to speak like a real person. And it seems as if they were right. Students who took part in a trial with Irony Man found him to be more endearing than a standard machine. However there are still concerns over his lack of tact. Irony Man can use sarcasm but is unable to judge if it is appropriate, so he sometimes comes across as a little obnoxious.^[1]

9 Skybot F-850, Russia’s Robot Astronaut

Skybot F-850 is an android astronaut, a fully-automated machine designed by the Russian space agency for life on board the International Space Station (ISS).

Engineers spent five years developing and preparing Skybot for the challenge of going into space. The six foot android is built from sturdy materials to survive the blast into zero-gravity, and is specially programmed to stop it from inadvertently damaging the space centre.

In summer 2019, the mechanized cosmonaut spent two weeks working on board the ISS as a “social companion” to the human crew. During its time in orbit, Skybot was able to converse with its fellow astronauts, answering their queries and keeping them amused with the odd joke. The android was even able to fly itself to the space station, taking command of a Soyuz spacecraft and monitoring its conditions as they entered zero-gravity.

As Alexander Bloshenko, executive director of the Russian space agency, told reporters: “Future generations of such robots will solve tasks that are potentially of special risk for humans, such as extravehicular activities and telemetry operations on solar system bodies.”^[2]

8 Lovot, The Cuddly Robot Who Helps Combat Loneliness

In our modern age, when everyone seems to be moving at a hundred miles a second, loneliness can be a major issue. For those who struggle with companionship, Japanese startup Groove X has designed Lovot – a little furry robot who comforts people in need of a friend.

Lovot is an affable machine, a pint-sized pal that quickly warms to its owner. For those in need of a good hug, its fleecy “skin” is designed to be warm and easy to cuddle, and the robot is always happy for some close personal contact. Over time, Lovot’s emotional bond is said to grow stronger as it starts to learn its owner’s face and comes to meet them when they get back home.

Whether it is healthy to try and cure loneliness with artificial friendship instead of human connection is an interesting question. But, whatever your opinion, Lovot has been selling in Japan for over a year now. And developers say that, with future investment, it might soon be on its way to the US as well.^[3]

7 Robot Translator For Fish And Bees

In 2019, scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne built a machine that allows fish and bees to talk to each other. The researchers created a robot translator that can send messages back and forth between a group of zebrafish and a swarm of honeybees. To really challenge themselves, the scientists decided to conduct their experiment from different countries. The fish were at one location Switzerland. The bees were miles away in neighboring Austria.

The robot translator issued commands to each species then translated their responses into signals for the other group. So the fish might be shown a color or tail movement, which influenced the direction of their swimming. This would then be translated into a vibration or a change in temperature, which caused the bees to move to a different area. The bees’ motion would then be translated into a signal for the fish, and so and so forth. To start with the experiment was absolute bedlam, but after 25 minutes of confusion the animals began to respond to their robotic stimuli.

Although this might sound like an absurd experiment, communicating with animals has many real world applications, like stopping birds from flying over airports or warning bees about pesticides on plants.^[4]

6 Lego Robot With The Brain Of A Worm

Imagine mapping out the entire human brain, taking all of the pulses and electrical signals, and then uploading them into a machine. You could become immortal, in theory, living forever as a digital being. If that sounds like an ethical quagmire then you will be pleased to hear that scientists are a long way from achieving anything that sophisticated. But they have managed to pull off a similar feat using a tiny worm and some Lego.

In 2014, neuro-robotic researchers mapped out the brain of a small ringworm, all 302 neurons, and turned it into a digital simulation. Simulating an entire brain is remarkable in itself, but the scientists decided to feed their virtual brain into a Lego robot. The Lego bot was hardly sophisticated; it had a sound sensor for a nose and two motors to act as its motor cortex. But, with a little tweaking, the virtual worm brain was able to control the robot, driving it around a test station and stopping it from bashing into the walls.

Eventually the researchers hope to be able to simulate not just the brain but an entire worm, building the world’s first digital life form.^[5]

Top 10 Creepy Robots With Good Intentions

5 China’s Robot Traffic Police

In 2019, China began using robots to keep control of its roads. The Handan Public Security Bureau now employs three styles of robot that help their existing officers maintain order. The three robots are similar in design, but they each carry out very different functions.

One type, the road patrol robot, seeks out and documents any criminal behavior on the roads. Its designers have even given it a uniform and hat to look more like a human officer. Another, the accident warning robot, informs nearby drivers that the police are dealing with an incident. The third type is the advice traffic robot, which helps direct drivers at vehicle management stations, whilst also keeping an eye out for security risks.

People in China are no strangers to robot police officers. In 2016, authorities started to use a security robot in Shenzhen Airport, and in 2017 an E-Patrol Sheriff was introduced in Henan.^[6]

4 Julia, The Robot Who Taught Herself To Cook

Leaning to cook is a difficult task. To train as a professional chef takes years of study at culinary school and a huge dedication to learning the craft. But what if there were an easier way? What if, instead of spending years training, you could ask a robot to teach itself to cook and then have it make a meal for you?

Researchers at the University of Maryland are working on exactly that. Unlike most machines, their robot – called Julia – has no need for step by step instructions. Instead she has taught herself to cook by watching videos on YouTube and copying what she sees.

Right now Julia is nowhere near Michelin star level. Her culinary skills are limited to a few basic activities. But even that is an achievement. Tasks that might seem simple for you or me, like pouring a glass of water, are actually quite challenging for a robot.^[7]

3 Robot Fish Powered By Synthetic Blood

It sounds like something out of cheesy sci-fi horror movie: a robotic fish that runs on the power of blood. But in reality a mechanized fish is no villain. In fact it could turn out to be the future of energy-efficient robotics.

Energy storage is one of the main limitations in robotic design. Most devices either run out of power very quickly or lug around heavy batteries which slow them down. In contrast, the robot fish runs on a hydraulic fluid – similar to blood inside a real fish – and receives enough power to swim upstream for 36 hours. Speed, however, is not the robot’s strong point. It trudges along at a mere 1.5 body lengths per minute.

Nonetheless, the robotic fish is a remarkable feat of engineering. As Professor Rob Shepherd, one of the key developers at Cornell University, told journalists: “We want to take as many components in a robot and turn them into the energy system. If you have hydraulic liquids in your robot already, then you can tap into large stores of energy and give robots increased freedom to operate autonomously.”^[8]

2 Rwanda’s Healthcare Robots Fighting Coronavirus

In the Rwandan capital Kigali, robots are leading the fight against coronavirus. The use of mechanized practitioners at treatment centers in Gatenga and Kanyinya means staff spend less time around covid-positive patients, and are therefore less likely to contract the disease themselves.

The mass breakout of coronavirus has forced healthcare experts everywhere to think outside the box for ways to tackle the pandemic. Designed by Zorabots, the five robots are able to keep track of patients’ vital signs, convey video messages and correct people for not wearing their masks properly. One of the androids is currently stationed at Kigali International Airport screening up to 150 people a minute.^[9]

1 Aquanaut, The Shape-Shifting Submarine

The Transformers were one of the most popular franchises of the 1980s, and one of the most terrible film series of the 2000s. Transformers, for anyone who is not aware, are autonomous robots that can transform themselves into motor vehicles. These shape-shifting wonders captured the imaginations of children over the decades, but they always seemed like a remarkable work of fiction, something that could never be created for real. Until recently, that is.

Now scientists at Houston Mechatronics Inc. have developed a real-life Transformer – a semi-humanoid robot that can convert itself into a submarine. They named it Aquanaut. The creators wanted to build a machine that combined the freedom of a long-distance underwater vehicle with the precision of a remotely-operated bot.

Built on a $23 million budget, Aquanaut is mainly designed for use on deep sea oil and gas pipelines. The robot begins its descent in streamlined “submarine mode”, diving steadily through the water until it finds its target. After that, it begins its transformation. The top of the hull lifts up, and a head and two long arms are unfurled for work on the pipeline. As well as its metamorphic abilities, Aquanaut is carrying a range of sophisticated equipment. Its head has been fitted with a 3D sensor, stereo cameras, and a sonar system.^[10]

10 Interesting Facts About The Rise Of Sex Robots

The United States Congress is en route to doing something truly incredible: passing a major bill along bipartisan lines. In mid-August, the U.S. Senate – a body currently split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, and which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation – passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to update the country’s roads, bridges, tunnels and water systems. The House voted to advance the bill, setting it up for final passage.

While I’d settle for not feeling like I’m in an earthquake every time I drive on local highways, America has a long history of breaking ground on groundbreaking infrastructure projects – ones that helped shape the nation. Here are ten, in chronological order.

Related: Top 10 Tremendous Wastes Of Money

10 The Erie Canal (1825)

The most important infrastructure project in New York City’s history was constructed hundreds of miles from New York City.

In the early 1800s, personal travel was slow and commercial freighting even slower. In areas lacking direct water routes, large quantities of goods were hauled by oxcart and other millennia-old methods. The result was a double-edged sword: coastal cities couldn’t easily access the American interior’s vast resources, and would-be western settlers hesitated to sever themselves from major coastal markets.

Seeing this untapped potential, New York State governor DeWitt Clinton fiercely advocated for a 363-mile canal linking the Great Lakes at Buffalo to the Hudson River at Albany. The eight-year, $7 million engineering feat cut through fields, forests, cliffs and swamps, conquering inclines with more than 80 lift locks.

The Erie Canal was completed in 1825. Nearly overnight, shipping costs along the route plunged 90 percent, and travel time was more than halved. Freight boats carried products from Buffalo to Albany then, pulled by tugboats, continued to New York City, which quickly became the country’s preeminent commercial center and quadrupled its population by 1850.

In turn, those long wishing to settle western lands could now do so without sacrificing access to such a critical market. Farmers, loggers, miners and manufacturers flocked not only to western New York State but other points along the Great Lakes like Ohio and Michigan. The Erie Canal almost singlehandedly earned New York its moniker: The Empire State.

9 Transcontinental Railroad (1869)

America’s first steam locomotive premiered in 1830 and, by 1850, 9,000 miles of track existed east of the Missouri River. Rail’s rapid growth made an ongoing network of ancillary canals – marine byways to supplement the Erie Canal’s smashing success – increasingly obsolete.

Connecting the entire continental country by rail would have taken longer were it not for one event: the 1848 discovery of gold in California. The ensuing westward rush allowed California to achieve full statehood by 1850; until then, the westernmost states were Texas, Wisconsin and Iowa. Calls came to connect the sister states with track, toward the dual goal of faster, safer travel to the Pacific coast and the settlement of the vast lands in between established states.

Abraham Lincoln answered that call, greenlighting arguably America’s most significant infrastructure project during what was inarguably its most existential crisis, the Civil War. In 1862, Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, chartering two entities – the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads – to connect the California capital of Sacramento to the then-westernmost rail hub at Omaha, Nebraska.

The two companies raced toward each other. Along the way, they fought off waves of attacks from Native Americans understandably hostile to invaders laying tracks for their “iron horses.” Civil War veterans, Irish immigrants and some 14,000 Chinese completed the 1,912-mile route in seven years; some 1,200 died in the process. Overnight, the 3,000-mile cross-country journey fell from several months to under a week, vastly accelerating America’s westward expansion.

8 The Prison System (1891)

Not all infrastructure is good infrastructure. One out of every 142 Americans is currently incarcerated – the highest per capita prison population in the world, exceeding that of such advanced countries as El Salvador, Turkmenistan and Rwanda. And despite being a distant third in national population – behind two countries, China and India, with over a billion people – America’s prison population of 2.3 million is higher than any other nation. USA! USA!

There are several historical flashpoints for how we got here, but from an infrastructure standpoint 1891 is a significant date. That year, the Three Prisons Act created the Federal Prisons System, opening the first three federal prisons at Leavenworth, Kansas; McNeil Island, Washington; and Atlanta, Georgia.

Today, the American criminal justice system comprises 1,833 state prisons, 110 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,134 local jails, 218 immigration detention facilities, 80 Indian Country jails, and a smattering of military prisons.

The reason, of course, is not that America has more crime than El Salvador – which, in fact, is the world’s most dangerous country. America’s incarceration fixation stems from a variety of factors, including public-private collaborations with monetary incentives to mete out excessive sentences; a cash bail system that leaves poor people accused of low-level crimes locked up for long pre-trial stretches; and the failed decades-long War on Drugs that handcuffed judges with lengthy mandatory sentences even for nonviolent offenders.

7 New York City Subway (1904)

While Boston boasts America’s oldest subway – its underground rail system dates to 1897 – New York City’s is by far the most extensive and mission-critical.

NYC’s subway opened in October 1904. Its inaugural line serviced 28 stations along a nine-mile route, beginning at Lower Manhattan’s City Hall before heading north to Grand Central Station, west to Times Square then north again to Harlem. Soon, service expanded to the city’s newly incorporated boroughs, which until 1898 were standalone entities; the subway reached the Bronx in 1905, Brooklyn in 1908 and Queens in 1915.

While the Erie Canal helped establish New York City as America’s premiere city, the ever-growing underground passenger rail network was vital to maintaining that mantle. As new lines stretched into every corner of the city, a commuter culture took root that made New York something many large cities weren’t: self-contained and eminently livable.

Today, the NYC Subway comprises 25 lines (Boston has a grand total of four) servicing a dizzying 472 stations – the most in the world. Its map has confused many a tourist. The system includes more than 650 miles of track and, each weekday, more than 5.5 million passengers ride its nearly 6,500 subway cars. And unlike most major cities’ subways, NYC’s runs around the clock.

The NYC Subway is, simply, the single most important transportation system in the country – the physical engine powering its economic one.

6 The Los Angeles Aqueduct (1913)

At the turn of the 20th Century, Southern California had exceedingly high hopes… but exceedingly little water. For the arid region to attain anything approaching the stature of northerly rival San Francisco, it needed much more of the most mission-critical resource on Earth.

City officials’ solution was the $23 million Los Angeles Aqueduct. Completed in 1913, the five-year initiative diverted water from the Owens River, leading it along a 233-mile journey southwest. At its busiest, construction employed some 3,900 laborers creating 11 lengthy stretches of canal and half a dozen storage reservoirs. Impressively, the water was funneled using nothing except gravity – and that waterflow generates electricity that helps offset operating costs.

In the decades following the aqueduct’s completion, Los Angeles grew not only in size by territory; in fact, its area grew more than sevenfold, from 61 square miles to 440. This was because the city’s charter required those communities utilizing the aqueduct’s waters to annex themselves into Los Angeles proper.

Bolstered in the 1960s with an expansion to maximize its allocated water volume, today the aqueduct remains a crucial part of LA’s infrastructure, supplying nearly 30% of water needs for the city of four million. Unfortunately, as the area descends even further into drought likely due to climate change, the aqueduct’s continued operation has led to court battles over water share disparities and environmental impacts.

5 The Hoover Dam (1936)

Like the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the Hoover Dam was born of the necessity to first tame the Wild West in order to settle it on a Manifest Destiny-level scale. While best known as a power plant, the massive dam also served to help control regular, devastating flooding along the 1,450-mile Colorado River and, in doing so, diverting its waters to arid areas that, otherwise, would have been unable to support significant population growth.

The thing is, in a word, massive. More than seven stories high and nearly a quarter-mile long, the Hoover Dam required enough concrete to construct a four-foot-wide sidewalk around the ENTIRE WORLD. At its top, the dam is 45 feet thick – equivalent to a four-lane highway; at its base, it is an impenetrable 660 feet thick – nearly double the length of a soccer pitch.

Incredibly, the Hoover Dam was completed in just five years, about the same time ill-defined, questionably-necessary and unquestionably disruptive roadwork has been occurring near my New Jersey home. The dam’s pace, however, came with a price: as many as 138 people died during its construction.

The Hoover Dam’s impact was immense and immediate – an importance exemplified by the fact that, before America entered World War II, a Nazi plot to blow it up was fortunately foiled. The Third Reich’s goal was to cut off crucial electricity to California’s burgeoning airplane manufacturing industry, imperiling America’s ability to defend itself or wage war.

4 Interstate Highway System (1956)

Soon after the first Model T rolled off the assembly line in 1908, it became apparent the car would dominate American culture. In 1916, the Federal Aid Road Act authorized construction of interconnecting local roadways; five years later, a follow-up law expanded the effort to include major thoroughfares. In 1926, the first numbered highways appeared, establishing modern navigation route guidelines.

But the most ambitious and consequential roadway construction commenced when President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, commonly known as the Interstate Highway Act. The goal was standardization and interconnectivity on a national level. A departure from stop-and-go travel, the new highways were controlled-access expressways with no at-grade crossings – abandoning intersections in favor of over- and underpasses.

The initiative was not without controversy. In densely populated areas, some new freeways required demolishing well-established neighborhoods. In New York, the powerful urban planner Robert Moses had designs on a 10-lane highway cutting straight through Lower Manhattan. Fortunately those plans were thwarted.

Another consequence was unforeseen: as convenient roadways sprung up around major urban centers, middle-class Americans – most of whom were white – began an exodus to commuter communities outside city limits. Known as “white flight,” the rise of widescale American suburbia paralleled with downturns in many major cities. Still, the system’s benefits – efficient travel, less congested roads, decreased commercial shipping costs and times – modernized the culture and economy in ways both necessary and inevitable.

3 National Parks Roadways & Recreation Areas (1956)

As interstate highways crisscrossed the country, Americans took to the roads like never before. This newfound geographical freedom coincided with unprecedented leisure time – a result of the post-World War II economic boom that gave labor unions and individual professionals leverage to secure higher wages and vacation time for workers.

Still a decade or so away from affordable commercial airline travel, Americans packed their bags, hopped in their cars and drove. And a hell of a lot of them ventured to America’s proudest treasures: its national parks. By 1955, annual national parks visitation was 56 million – up from just 21 million in 1941.

Unfortunately, the parks simply weren’t ready for them. Overcrowding and scant recreation areas mixed with a dearth of navigable roads within the parks. Accessible areas became littered and polluted while inaccessible areas remained… well, inaccessible.

So in 1956, National Park Service director Colin Wirth proposed a ten-year plan – called “Mission ‘66” after its planned completion date – that invested hundreds of millions of dollars in widescale infrastructure improvements. The effort dramatically increased not only nature-friendly access roads but staffing, maintenance and visitor centers.

In a nation with a less-than-stellar record of protecting pristine wilderness, the US government successfully saved national parklands while helping Americans visit them more enjoyably and sustainably.

2 Nuclear Power Plants (1958)

Surprisingly, the US was actually third to the nuclear power plant game, behind the Soviet Union (1954) and the United Kingdom (1957). However, the US quickly became the world’s foremost generator of nuclear energy, peaking in 2012 with 104 functioning reactors. Today, America’s 96 operational reactors are still the most on Earth and, at nearly 100,000 MW, produces about 20% of the country’s electricity.

Despite reasonable safety concerns including the creation of radioactive waste and, of course, the possibility of a Chernobyl or Three Mile Island-esque meltdown, the proliferation of nuclear power is more important than mere electricity generation. The successful construction and operation of the vast majority of nuclear power plants taught the world a lesson that, in the here and now, is invaluable: that energy can be produced with zero carbon emissions.

As countries across the world try to expand green energy production, the US has a long way to go if it wants to lead a sustainable energy surge necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Currently, America generates only 20% of its energy through renewable resources like hydro, wind and solar.

By comparison, Iceland and Norway generate all of their electricity using renewable energy resources, and nearly 50 other nations generate over 50% of their electricity from renewables. Recently, US President Joe Biden announced plans to drastically increase renewable production, including intentions to generate 40% of the country’s electricity via solar energy by 2035.

1 Vaccine Manufacturing & Distribution (2020)

The effort to develop effective vaccines against a contagious novel virus is among medical science’s finest accomplishments to date. But having an effective vaccine and delivering it are two very different things. And regardless of anyone’s opinions of former President Trump’s overall handling of the coronavirus situation, his Operation Warp Speed was wildly successful.

First and foremost, Operation Warp Speed’s mission was securing sufficient doses of an eventual vaccine. Despite globalists screeching over vaccine “hoarding,” a nation’s government’s first duty is to protect its own people, period.

But past that, the program provided additional funds for two things: US-based vaccine manufacturing and nationwide distribution. Regarding the former, by March 2021 the US had produced more than 100,000,000 vaccine doses – second only to communist China (the source of the disease), whose vaccine, called Sinovac, is comparative garbage.

The US also stood out in its ability to distribute and administer the vaccines. For the two most common vaccines – next-gen concoctions from Pfizer and Moderna called mRNA vaccines – this involved a far-reaching cold chain support and patient administration system. For example, the initial rules for Pfizer’s vaccine necessitated it be kept at -70° C – colder than the South Pole – and, once thawed, used in five days. America’s exemplary medical infrastructure and human resources oversight helped it far outpace other first world countries’ vaccination rates in the weeks and months following initial FDA emergency approval.

With roller coasters coming in at prices well into the octuple digits and the need to purchase large swaths of land that are both located in tourist destinations but not too close to people’s homes to warrant a complaint, building an amusement park can be a costly and complicated endeavor. And these two factors are only a couple among the hundreds of roadblocks that prevent theme parks from popping up just about anywhere.

Despite that fact, however, plans for theme parks are regularly written down and announced. At the Disney parks, the “Imagineers,” or people designing the park, have what is referred to as a “Blue Sky” period where they plan without any budget or restraint in mind. More often than not, other parks across the world sometimes find themselves eternally trapped in this Blue Sky stage. This is a list covering ten incredible-sounding theme parks that never saw the light of day.

10 Space City USA

Much like many of the entries on this list, many an entrepreneur had machinations to dethrone Disneyland as the theme park king. Near Huntsville, toward the northern end of Alabama, Space City USA was planned to be one such usurper. Much like Disneyland, the property would involve multiple themed lands, all tied to the general theme of time travel, and would start construction in 1965.

Guests would wander between the Old South, a Mesozoic Lost World, a futuristic Moon Colony, and the Land of Oz, which stretches the time travel motif a bit. However, the five-million-dollar price tag, coupled with a general sense of mismanagement, would prove to be too high a hurdle for Space City USA. By 1967, the project would be scrapped as the land got sold off in an auction. ^[1]

9 Six Flags Indiana

Despite being one of the most successful amusement park companies, regarding the number of parks currently operating within the chain, the Six Flags corporation nevertheless gets a reputation for being the company that budgets a bit more tightly than Disney World. Nevertheless, the story of Six Flags Indiana is poignant for coming far enough along in the development phase to ship six entire roller coasters to the destination before they gave up.

In 1996, the Six Flags corporation purchased the Old Indiana Fun N Water Park after an accident earlier in the decade pressured the park to close. Six Flags would even bring in four roller coasters that they purchased from the defunct Opryland USA theme park. The roller coasters would never be rebuilt, however. This is speculated to be most likely because Six Flags had a habit of overspending throughout the nineties, and the Indiana site was eventually deemed too poor an investment.^[2]

8 Wonderland Amusement Park

The capital of China itself, Beijing, is where this next failed venture met with its foibles, or more specifically, the Chenzhuang village of Beijing’s suburbs. Wonderland Amusement Park started a small amount of construction in 1998 and wanted to rival Disneyland before the corporation tried to build its own park in China. Wonderland even attempted to build its own castle motif as its centerpiece, and eerie photographs show that the structure was even half-built.

The project was halted due to a lack of funding, though even if more money were to come in, Disney would end up sweeping in and planning a park in Hong Kong in 1999, completely eradicating any hope that Wonderland would meet with success. As a result, the 120-acre piece of land would be left to naught but the urban explorers, filled with incomplete structures and imposing, empty faux castle battlements.^[3]

7 KISS World

In 1973, the NYC hair metal superstar band named KISS was conceived, and by 1977, the group had already put out six different highly successful albums. Naturally, the group’s lead singer, Gene Simmons, wanted to pounce on their success and try out a different business pursuit: the theme park industry. Unlike other entries on this list, the band wanted to operate a touring amusement park, much like a traveling fair, instead of using a static location, and the brainstorming began around 1978.

Named KISS World, the project would never come off the drawing board. This is mostly due to the fact that the band’s popularity began to severely diminish in 1979, as showcased by the decline of their concert tour attendance. The management also came to the conclusion that an amusement park would be too steep a price for a single rock band to tackle alone.^[4]

6 Charlie Daniels Western World and Theme Park

Famous country singer Dolly Parton was able to successfully build a thriving theme park in her hometown of Pigeon Forge, TN, in 1961, where it operates to this day. Enter Charlie Daniels, another prolific country star who vied to build his own amusement park down in Florida. He teamed up with stockbroker Michael Vandiver in hopes of building something that was big enough to rival Disney World itself. Much like KISS World, Charlie Daniels Western World and Theme Park would never break ground.

Just north of Tampa, the community of Saddlebrook was where this amusement park would find itself located. Themed off of the “Wild, Wild West,” Daniels’s original plans threw out a traditional theme park ride selection in favor of attractions such as a rodeo, a 36-hole golf course, and dinner theaters, though a wooden roller coaster was in the works. Though the park was planned to open in 1997, the price, coupled with pressure from Saddlebrook residents, caused this theme park to lose its proverbial quick draw against Disney.^[5]

5 Six Flags Florida

With Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, SeaWorld, and Busch Garden finding great success in the Sunshine State, the Six Flags company also wanted to try its hand in the secure-looking market. Rumors that the underdog theme park chain would open a park in Orlando have circulated since the ’80s. Although outside of a south Florida water park and a wax museum basically in SeaWorld’s backyard, the Six Flags chain never purchased any large-scale property.

Though official statements were never made regarding plans to build a park, the company had hinted at such a project ever since the company built similar parks in Georgia. The company’s modus operandi of purchasing independent parks even made it seem as though they’d purchase the defunct Orlando Boardwalk and Baseball theme park in 2018, though many suspect that the company’s repeated bankruptcies, coupled with a tricky global economic theater, rendered such plans as totally theoretical.^[6]

4 Disney WestCOT

In 2001, Disneyland in Anaheim, California, opened up its second theme park on the property; Disney’s California Adventure. Before planning on theming a location based off of the Golden State, however, the Disney corporation originally drafted plans to co-opt Disney World’s EPCOT over to the west coast. Named WestCOT, the park was going to shy away from the original Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow’s utopian future concept and lean into the celebration of nations found in EPCOT’s World Showcase.

The geodesic dome would be replaced with a larger, golden dome encased in metal, and far more countries would be added to the park’s lineup than its Floridan sibling. High prices were an enormous obstacle, especially after Disney’s other lackluster projects in the ’90s drained the budget, and the enormous park would be a massive thorn in the side of Anaheim city planners. As a compromise, the smaller California Adventure would be built, though it was initially critically panned for appearing very cheap.^[7]

3 Multiple Parks in Dubai

Six Flags attempted to make it big in Dubai. Universal parks tried their luck. Even the Disney corporation itself bandied about the idea. But sadly, these three parks, among others, would never be completed in the UAE’s biggest city. The project that saw the most progress ended up being Universal Studios Dubailand, which ended up purchasing and breaking ground in 2008. Sadly, though, the theme park would endure construction purgatory until it was finally given the sweet release of death in 2016.

The park would feature many of the same attractions as its predecessor in Florida. Also, it would allegedly add enough rides to double the size of the entire Walt Disney World resort, in addition to adding the world’s largest mall. This project, along with the others, was snuffed out by the global recession that started in 2008. Six Flags Dubai didn’t even make it to 2010, though there are talks of the Six Flags chain trying its luck on the Arabian Peninsula once more in Qiddiya.

2 The Battersea

Fans of the British prog rock band Pink Floyd would probably first recognize the massive decommissioned Battersea Power Plant factory complex in West London as the building on the cover of their 1997 album Animals. But music was far from the only form of entertainment planned for the building. In 1987, John Broome, the owner of the Alton Towers amusement park, purchased the building in the hopes of constructing the most ambitious indoor amusement park project of all time.

Plans were in motion for a massive mine train roller coaster, the world’s largest aquarium, and a plethora of flat rides to be built. Despite its many doubters, the Battersea theme park project would actually find itself completely funded. The indoor park would meet with a far different problem, however. The poor structural integrity, asbestos, and other construction problems quelled the more ambitious aspects of the problem. Unlike other entries on this list, however, Battersea would eventually be turned into a more low-key entertainment complex that operates to this day.^[9]

1 Disney America

Disney America is easily the largest blight on Disney’s theme park resume. Those familiar with Disney’s late 20th-century history are already familiar with Michael Eisner, Disney’s CEO at the time, who saw projects such as EuroDisney and the aforementioned California Adventure, go quite catastrophically. First announced in 1993 and located in Haymarket, Virginia, Disney’s America would be the USA’s third Disney destination and perhaps Michael Eisner’s biggest overall failure.

The park’s focus was on American history, as opposed to being themed after the original Disneyland, and would feature lands based on historical periods from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and even a 1940’s state fair. The park’s failure was derived from severe backlash from Virginian residents, especially from Civil War historians who feared that local battlefields would become damaged. Intense anti-Disney lobbying, coupled with the death of important Disney higher-up Frank Wells sealed Disney America’s fate by 1994.^[10]