Cleaning a glass bridge 4,000 feet in the air

See the world's longest glass-bottom bridge in China

China's Huangchuan Three Gorges Scenic Area sports the world's longest glass-bottom bridge, spanning over 1,700 feet. Designed by the Architectural Design & Research Institute of Zhejiang University, it stands 660 feet above the Lianjiang River. The bridge features bright red towers, an 29-foot-wide deck with three layers of thick glass, and can support 500 people. The bridge surpassed the previous record-holder, a 1,600-foot bridge in Hebei province.

See technicians use rappelling gear to make wind turbine repairs from 35+ stories up

Although drones are used to conduct initial reviews from the ground, mechanical engineers trained in turbine maintenance face extreme risks during close inspections more than 150 meters off the ground.

One Falls daredevil once made breakfast while tightrope walking over the gorge

In 1859, tightrope walker Jean François “The Great Blondin” stunned crowds by cooking and serving an omelet mid-walk across the Niagara Gorge.

Watch the annual three-day revamp of the Q'eswachaka bridge

Rebuilt every year since the Inca empire, this bridge still is used today by locals who want to traverse the 120-foot-wide gorge that runs beneath it. This three-minute video shows just how much effort goes into its restoration.

Learn more about Niagara’s death-defying daredevils

This podcast from the Niagara Falls Daredevil Museum explores 19th‑ and early 20th‑century Niagara daredevils—like tightrope walker Charles Blondin, barrel-stunter Annie Edson Taylor, and Sam Patch—detailing their feats, dangers, and public spectacle.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Reflections from Ben Giles, history's greatest stain remover

Starting out as a freelance window cleaner, the British cleaning legend started taking on jobs cleaning out people's garages and shacks. He soon realized people would pay top-dollar to have their worst messes cleaned up by someone else.

Da Vinci’s ingenious self-supporting bridge

Without using glue or nails, the brilliant polymath Leonardo Da Vinci was able to construct a sturdy bridge of wood logs. This video unpacks the genius civil engineering behind this concept and offers a visual demonstration of how it worked. See how Da Vinci accomplished this feat without using permanent parts, and how his bridge got even stronger as weight and force was added.

An architect ranks the best bridges in the world

Architext Ezra Groskin builds bridges and argues that the best bridges do more than allow traffic. They should, he believes, encourage human interaction and lingering to ultimately become a destination of their own. Explore ten stunning designs that connect communities, from New York to Switzerland.

Engineers shut off Niagara's American Falls for six months in 1969

In June 1969, the US Army Corps of Engineers diverted the Niagara River to halt flow over the American Falls. The dry riverbed allowed geologists to study erosion and remove dangerous rock buildup.

Glass can be endlessly recycled without losing quality

Sand from specialized mines is thoroughly cleaned and melted at more than 1,600 degrees Celsius before being poured onto liquid tin and evenly spread out to form glass sheets. Some factories are designed to reprocess 100% of glass scraps created when cutting glass with diamond-tipped blades or lasers.

Before Alex Honnold completed his free solo climb of Taipei 101, 'French Spider-Man' scaled the building

Alain Robert completed his climb of the massive skyscraper in 2004, 22 years before Honnold. The crucial difference, though, was that Robert used safety ropes for his ascent. Honnold, on the other hand, completed it "free solo," meaning he climbed the building without any equipment beyond some shoes and a pouch of chalk for his hands.

Explore a gallery of lightning photography taken from the Grand Canyon

In this series, award-winning photographer Adam Schallau accompanies each image with expert advice on how to capture the phenomenon successfully. Initially requiring the shutter to remain open for extended periods, today's technology includes a device called a lightning trigger, which senses incoming lightning and automatically manages the shutter.

The last Inca grass suspension bridge in Peru

High in the Peruvian Andes, the aging Q’eswachaka bridge sags precariously over the Apurímac River. It has been built and rebuilt continuously for five centuries. Read more about it here.

A $7.5M renovation aimed to protect Fallingwater from climate-related damage

The exhaustive plan took over three years to reach the finish line. The majority of the expenses went toward hiring skilled laborers to address issues such as water damage in the unique location.

Who cleans the London Underground at night?

The London Underground, also known as the Tube, services millions of people every day. After the transit system closes each evening, a crew of workers known as “fluffers” gather to clean the underground tunnels. This article sheds light on these unnoticed cleaners, covering the difficulties of their jobs and the bizarre things they’ve encountered, from ghosts to nesting pigeons.

How the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge is one of America's most iconic structures and is considered to be an engineering marvel. Built in 1930's, before the advent of modern construction technology, the structure was considered impossible by contemporary standards.

Driving the 99 bends up China's Tianmen Mountain Big Gate

A huge rock gate sits atop a mountain in China's northwestern province of Hunan, where visitors climb 999 stairs to crest the natural wonder. For years, tourists used a cable car to reach the top, but a thrilling, curvy road was built in recent decades to allow for better access—and has become an attraction in itself.

At Disney World, glass bottles and jars are pulverized into the smooth gravel and sand used in greenhouses that grow the flowers for the parks and resorts.

Watch what it’s like to spend a day on the International Space Station

Microgravity makes personal care more complex on the International Space Station, where stray, floating materials must be captured to prevent them from entering vents and clogging filtration vents. No-rinse shampoo, water pouches, and other strategies help minimize obstructions.

Engineering tall structures requires managing wind, earthquakes, and other destabilizing factors

Reinforced concrete, energy dampers, braced frames, flexible structures, and aerodynamic decks were among the methods implemented when building structures such as the Shanghai Tower, the Texas Super Skyscraper, and the South Rangitīkei Viaduct.

Teen climber survives a 500-foot fall on Mount Hood

The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said rescue teams are working to reach the teen, who sustained a leg injury in the fall. He is at an elevation of about 10,500 feet.

The 52-mile marvel of engineering inside Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park is home to over one million acres of natural beauty, but it also includes 52 miles of a manmade miracle in Going-to-the-Sun Road, which takes drivers on a majestic tour through some of the park's most breathtaking views. This brief history and photo gallery allows you to gain an appreciation for the incredible engineering behind the road’s construction.

How disgorgement works while making sparkling wine

After riddling, winemakers still need to dispose of collected sediment in wines. While this was once done by hand, the modern method of freezing the bottle's neck and removing the now-solid sediment is ubiquitous. In this short video, an enologist (wine expert) from California’s Halter Ranch vineyards explains each step of the mechanical disgorgement process, complete with footage from their production line.

20 of the world's most iconic big rock wall climbs

Big wall climbs are tall rock faces that require climbers to "pitch" multiple times during the ascent—that is, reuse a rope. They also often portaledge, or sleep, at least once during the climb. Topping the list is California's El Capitan.

Space trash could be cleaned up using a giant inflatable bag

California-based TransAstra has developed and tested a device called Capture Bag, intended to catch anything from small rocks to house-sized boulders. The company claims its system could also be adapted for asteroid capture and mining.

The ghost-hunting industry helps maintain historical buildings

There’s no shortage of spirit-obsessed customers in America, with an estimate that ghost-themed tours generate about $300M annually in the country.

Ingenuity and advanced engineering have allowed trains to overcome extreme landscapes

The Jungfrau Railway utilizes electric trains powered by hydroelectric energy to ascend the Swiss Alps, while Poland's Elbląg Canal hauls ships along cable-powered tracks driven by waterwheels. Germany's Wuppertal monorail navigates bends as it glides over a river valley, and New Mexico's Holloman High-Speed Test Track can achieve speeds of Mach 8.6 for rocket sleds.

A look at how fish less than two inches long climb up 50-foot waterfalls

Shellears use tiny hooks on their front pectoral fins to grip rock like Velcro and take many pauses to recover energy between bursts of movement. Their pectoral girdle—an arch of bone—supports the muscle system needed for the roughly ten-hour climb.

Watch a YouTuber solve a Rubik's Cube while in free fall

He broke a world record, completing the task in the sky in just 23.333 seconds.

What it takes to guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Sentinels who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Virginia, must do so around the clock, year-round, no matter the weather. They're also a select few: Only 735 have been permitted to serve since 1958. This documentary explores the history of the role and the strict requirements it takes to fill it.

An interactive trek up Mount Everest

At just over 29,000 feet, Mount Everest is the highest summit on Earth and the premiere destination for serious climbers. The imposing peak has also claimed at least 322 lives over the past century, or between four and five victims per year. This...

Italian banker catches 3-year-old girl falling from a fifth-floor balcony

In Turin, Italy, in August of 2023, a man walking to the bakery with his girlfriend became a hero when he saw a 3-year-old girl climbing out of a fifth-floor window. This article collects social media posts around the incident and explains what...

A Manhattan building doomed to collapse was saved in secret

After completing the Citicorp Center, its engineer realized that cost-cutting measures to use bolted instead of welded joints made the building vulnerable to collapse under quartering winds. For three months, crews worked in secret at night to reinforce the building under Project Serene.

You can take a boat ride directly into the mist of Niagara Falls

The Maid of the Mist takes passengers on a thrilling boat ride to the very base of Horseshoe Falls—surrounding them with roaring water and thick mist.

Colleagues carried a quadriplegic coworker down nearly 70 flights of stairs to safety on 9/11.

In 2009, accidentally drilling into magma provided time capsules of volcanic glass

While drilling for geothermal energy in Iceland's Krafla Geothermal Field, magma encountered at a depth of 2,100 meters quickly formed glass upon making contact with drilling fluid. By trapping dissolved gases, volatile chemicals, and the physical characteristics of magma before cooling, the glass acts as a time capsule of ancient volcanic activity and magmatic conditions.

One man in Arizona works to defend Earth from catastrophic space rocks

David Rankin, an observer and operations engineer at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, spends his days scanning for solar system objects that could collide with our planet. The job requires employees to work long shifts to help prevent asteroids from destroying our planet.

One graffiti artist turned a train tunnel into his gallery

Chris Pape, also known as Freedom, began exploring a tunnel under Manhattan's Riverside Park when he was a kid. As he grew more involved with graffiti, he turned its walls into a massive art project, one that reflected both the history of graffiti and the people who made the tunnel their home.

Where does your glass come from?

Glass is created from silica sand, soda ash, and limestone. The more transparent you want your glass to be, the higher the purity you need from your silica—a rarity. Colorless, low-iron glass featured in skyscraper windows and Apple's cube-shaped showrooms has increased demand for such pure silica.

View a gallery of whimsical transmission tower designs from around the world

Despite their importance to the functioning of the electric grid, these structures are often considered aesthetically unpleasant. To remedy this, some have been transformed into art installations featuring stained glass and colorful lighting, or built with whimsical designs, such as clown faces or giant bodies.

'Breather holes' in airplane windows help manage cabin pressure

Airplane windows have three layers of acrylic: the super durable outside layer, the inner pane which acts like a "scratch" surface, and the middle pane with the tiny hole. This bleed hole allows pressurized cabin air to be borne by the strong outer pane while preventing the inner pane from breaking.

Travel the 363-mile Erie Canal, the waterway that cut freight costs by 90% and opened the American frontier.

The construction of LIGO needed to compensate for Earth's curvature

Across the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) arms, the height of Earth's surface falls by almost a meter, preventing the lasers traveling within the arms from meeting the mirror at the end of each. Concrete slabs built beneath the arms help keep them level and provide structural support against seismic vibrations.

The US Army Corps of Engineers once stopped water from flowing into Niagara Falls to prevent long-term erosion.

Unlike hot air balloons lifted for hours by heating air, NASA's scientific balloons use helium to lift payloads of up to 3,600 kilograms (8,000 pounds) for up to six weeks at a time.

The 50 best (and highest paying) jobs in America

Here are the 50 Best Jobs in America, according to Glassdoor. Where does your job fall? This report ranks jobs according to each job’s Glassdoor Job Score, determined by combining three factors: number of job openings, salary, and overall job satisfaction rating.

Hubble overcame early optical failure and became a critical scientific instrument

The flaw in Hubble's mirror was smaller than the width of a human hair, but fixing it required a space mission as complex as a Hollywood rescue story—with astronauts installing corrective optics like contact lenses for a giant eye in the sky.

The squeegee kids of Baltimore

For decades in Baltimore, youth looking to earn some money have waited at high-traffic intersections to offer quick windshield washes for a fee. While some drivers find it encouraging, a positive way to spend time, others get annoyed, resentful, or...

Roughly 25,000 workers died building the canal

For each mile of canal that was built, 500 workers lost their lives. The threats came from multiple fronts: mudslides, floods, earthquakes and disease-carrying mosquitoes. Workplace accidents became so common that artificial limb manufacturers competed for contracts with the canal builders.