170 Fun Facts About Construction

The Great Pyramid of Giza was the world's tallest human-made structure for roughly how long?

It was built for Pharaoh Khufu around 2600 BC from an estimated 2.3 million blocks and originally stood 146.6 metres tall.

Roughly how many large stone blocks were quarried to build the Great Pyramid?

Together they weigh about six million tonnes; white limestone casing came by boat from Tura.

The Empire State Building was structurally completed how many days after construction began?

Al Smith drove the final rivet, made of solid gold, and the building opened on May 1, 1931.

According to official accounts, how many workers died building the Empire State Building?

More than 3,500 people worked on it at its peak, including many Mohawk ironworkers from Kahnawake near Montreal.

The Burj Khalifa in Dubai stands how tall to its roof, including the spire?

Its design is based on the Hymenocallis desert flower, and its concrete pours used a specially built super-high-pressure pump.

Which Chicago firm designed the Burj Khalifa, having earlier designed the Sears Tower?

Adrian Smith was chief architect and Bill Baker the structural engineer; Samsung C&T of South Korea was the main contractor.

Hoover Dam sits in the Black Canyon of which river?

Built between 1931 and 1936 by the Six Companies consortium, it impounds Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona line and was finished two years early.

Under the Roosevelt administration, Hoover Dam was officially known by what name until 1947?

Congress had called it Hoover Dam during construction and reinstated the name after the war.

Workers saved by the movable safety net under the Golden Gate Bridge formed a group with what name?

Chief engineer Joseph Strauss's net saved nineteen men, though eleven still died, ten of them when a scaffold tore through it in February 1937.

What did the US Navy suggest for the Golden Gate Bridge before Irving Morrow chose International Orange?

The Navy wanted the stripes so passing ships could see it; the bridge opened on May 27, 1937 as the world's longest and tallest suspension bridge.

Who led France's failed 1880s Panama canal attempt, fresh from building the Suez Canal?

An estimated 22,000 men died and 800,000 investors lost their savings; the US finished the job and opened it in 1914.

Ships crossing the Isthmus by canal are lifted by locks to which artificial lake, 26 metres up?

Damming the Chagres River to make the lake cut the amount of digging needed enormously.

The Channel Tunnel connects Folkestone in England with which town in northern France?

Opened in 1994, it has the longest undersea section of any tunnel, 37.9 km, and runs about 45 metres below the seabed.

How many bores make up the Channel Tunnel?

Two rail tunnels flank a smaller service tunnel that was bored ahead as a pilot, all linked by 270 cross-passages.

Which Roman building holds the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome?

Roman concrete was laid rather than poured because its aggregate was so coarse, and could set underwater.

Research published in 2023 credits Roman concrete's ability to self-repair cracks to what?

Earlier theories focused on volcanic pozzolana ash, which does help stop cracks spreading and resist seawater.

Portland cement is named after a Dorset building material because of what?

Joseph Aspdin patented it in 1824; his son William is regarded as the inventor of the modern version.

Concrete is the second most used substance on Earth after what?

Cement reacts with water through hydration, hardening over hours into a stone-like solid.

Joseph Monier, a key figure in reinforced concrete, first patented it in 1867 for what use?

The French gardener went on to build reinforced concrete water tanks and bridges.

Why does steel rebar work so well inside concrete as temperatures change?

Rebar's ribs and lugs grip the concrete so the bar cannot slip.

The Bessemer process, patented in 1856, made steel cheap by blowing what through molten pig iron?

The oxygen burned off excess carbon; steel rails then lasted ten times longer than iron ones.

Which 1885 Chicago tower is often cited as the world's first skyscraper?

William Le Baron Jenney's ten-storey tower was the first supported by a fireproof structural steel frame; it was demolished in 1931.

Elisha Otis's 1853 invention that made tall buildings practical was a device that did what?

He demonstrated it at the New York Crystal Palace in 1854 and installed the first passenger safety elevator in 1857.

The 'Hard-Boiled hat', patented in 1919 by E. W. Bullard, was made from what?

Bullard got the idea from a World War I steel helmet, and the US Navy commissioned a shipyard version the same year.

Which 1931 project was the first where the contractor required helmets for all workers?

Six Companies required them; Joseph Strauss followed suit on the Golden Gate two years later.

Which US president signed the act creating OSHA into law in December 1970?

The agency itself opened on April 28, 1971, and requires fall protection like harnesses and guardrails on sites.

The first bulldozer designs, in 1923, came from a farmer and a draftsman working in which state?

James Cummings and J. Earl McLeod built it in Morrowville, where a replica sits in the city park; the machines were adapted from Holt farm tractors.

The nail gun was designed by Morris Pynoos for work on which famous aircraft?

The wooden fuselage was nailed and glued, then the nails removed; the first air-powered nail gun reached the market in 1950.

The standard 4-by-8-foot plywood sheet came from a company that developed veneer-core plywood for which 1905 event?

Plywood's alternating grain, or cross-graining, stops it splitting when nailed at the edges.

Drywall panels are made from which mineral, sandwiched between paper?

Sackett Board, invented in 1890, layered plaster between four plies of wool felt paper; US Gypsum launched Sheetrock in 1917.

Ordnance worker Vesta Stoudt wrote to Roosevelt proposing duct tape for sealing what?

Johnson & Johnson's Revolite division made the original rubber-adhesive tape on duck cloth.

Building cranes first appeared in which ancient civilization, in the late 6th century BC?

Cuttings for lifting tongs on Greek temple blocks give it away; the Romans later added human treadwheels for heavier loads.

The Taisun crane at Yantai, China, holds the world lifting record at how many tonnes?

The double bridge crane is 133 metres tall with a 120-metre span.

The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest power station by installed capacity, spanning which river?

Its 22,500 MW output comes from 32 main turbines, and its 463,000 tonnes of steel would build 63 Eiffel Towers.

In 2005, NASA calculated water behind the Three Gorges Dam lengthens Earth's day by how much?

The shift in mass also makes the planet very slightly rounder in the middle.

Which engineer effectively supervised the Brooklyn Bridge's completion after her husband was left bedridden?

The bridge opened in 1883 as the world's longest suspension span; a year later P. T. Barnum marched 21 elephants across to prove it was sturdy.

Workers in the Brooklyn Bridge's pressurised caissons got a mystery illness the physician named what?

It was decompression sickness, the bends; 110 cases were treated in four months of 1872 and three men died.

How many rivets hold together the 18,038 iron parts of the Eiffel Tower?

Rivet holes were specified to within one millimetre, and any part that did not fit went back to the factory.

Which New York skyscraper ended the Eiffel Tower's 41-year reign as the world's tallest structure in 1930?

A broadcasting aerial added in 1957 made the tower taller than the Chrysler again by 11 metres.

Which British architect co-designed France's Millau Viaduct with engineer Michel Virlogeux?

Its structural height of 343 metres tops the Eiffel Tower, and it was built in just three years, opening in December 2004.

Jorn Utzon won the Sydney Opera House design competition in 1957. In which year did it finally open?

The final cost was A$102 million, and the shells are covered in 1,056,006 Swedish tiles in glossy white and matte cream.

Marc Isambard Brunel's first successful tunnelling shield dug under which river in 1825?

The Thames Tunnel shield only protected the diggers; a full boring machine came later, and today's biggest, like Seattle's Bertha, cut bores over 17 metres wide.

The tunnel boring machine 'Bertha' was built in 2013 for a highway tunnel in which US city?

Hitachi Zosen built it for the Highway 99 project; it started in July 2013 and famously stalled that December.

'Skyscraper' was first applied to steel-framed buildings of at least how many storeys?

The term came from public amazement at the towers rising in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and St. Louis.

What is the non-load-bearing outer skin hung from a skyscraper's steel frame called?

They either bear on the framework below or are suspended from the framework above.

Lego, the world's biggest toy maker, takes its name from a Danish phrase meaning what?

Carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen of Billund began with wooden toys in 1932; the company is also arguably the world's largest tyre manufacturer, making about 306 million tiny ones a year.

In Bob the Builder, how do the characters answer Bob's catchphrase 'Can we fix it?'

The theme song of the same name was a million-selling UK number one; the show was created by Keith Chapman and ran from 1999.

Which president turned on the Empire State Building's lights at its 1931 opening, from a button in Washington?

The building opened 45 days ahead of schedule and just eighteen months after work started.

Roughly how many workers died during the American phase of building the Panama Canal?

Most were West Indian labourers, especially from Barbados; about 350 Americans died.

Which country's government took full control of the Atlantic-Pacific canal at the end of 1999?

The handover was set by treaty in 1977; by 2012 more than 815,000 vessels had passed through.

Which two leaders agreed in 1981 to set up the working group behind the Channel Tunnel?

Thatcher assumed the tunnel would carry cars rather than trains.

What is the rotating platform that holds an excavator's cab and boom called?

Modern excavators pull the bucket toward themselves, unlike the first steam shovels that pushed away.

Excavators are sometimes nicknamed after what number, referring to their full rotation?

They are also called diggers, scoopers and, in the UK, wheeled excavators are 'rubber ducks'.

What was the first known crane machine, a water-lifting device from ancient Mesopotamia?

Construction cranes powered by men or donkeys came later in ancient Greece.

How were the largest construction cranes of the Roman Empire powered?

They allowed far heavier lifts than the man- or donkey-powered Greek cranes.

A jackhammer combines a hammer directly with which tool?

It was invented by William McReavy, who sold the patent to Charles Brady King.

Which Columbus, Ohio industrialist is credited with inventing the concrete mixer?

Stothert & Pitt's 1885 price book records an earlier Lee's Mixer used on the Admiralty Pier at Dover.

How many main types of scaffolding are used worldwide today?

They include tube-and-coupler, modular, H-frame, suspended, timber and bamboo scaffolds.

Bamboo scaffolding has long been particularly common in China, India and which city?

Bamboo scaffolding remained widespread there into the 2020s; unsafe scaffolding of any kind can result in death or serious injury.

A wheelbarrow, with the load between the wheel and the handles, is which kind of lever?

It splits the load's weight between the wheel and the operator; a typical one holds about 100 litres.

Traditional Chinese wheelbarrows differed from Western ones in what way?

The Western design puts the wheel at the front and shares the weight with the operator.

Why is a spirit level so called?

Alcohol resists freezing and gives less friction for the bubble than water.

Which French scientist invented the spirit level before February 1661?

Its history was summarized in an 1887 Scientific American article.

The 'plumb' in plumb bob comes from the Latin word for which metal?

The tool has been used to check verticals since at least ancient Egypt.

Fired bricks have been used as a building material since roughly when?

Air-dried mudbricks, bound with straw, are older still.

Lightweight bricks are made from what material?

A 'block' is a similar but usually larger unit of clay or concrete.

In masonry, why is mortar deliberately weaker than the bricks it binds?

The word comes from Old French mortier, meaning both builder's mortar and a mixing bowl.

What has been the most common binder in mortar since the early 20th century?

Lime mortar is still used in some specialty new construction.

What is asphalt concrete commonly called in the UK and Ireland?

It is mineral aggregate bound with bitumen, laid in layers and compacted.

On an I-beam, what are the horizontal elements called?

The vertical web resists shear while the flanges take most of the bending.

What is the vertical element of an I-beam called?

Its shape is efficient for bending and shear but poor at resisting torsion.

The word 'adobe' reached English via Spanish from which language?

Adobe is simply Spanish for mudbrick; the architecture dates back more than 5,100 years.

Which civilization popularized the structural, load-bearing arch from the 4th century BC?

Decorative arches go back to the 4th millennium BC, but the Greeks preferred posts and beams.

A construction system based on posts and beams rather than arches is called what?

Ancient Greek, Chinese and Japanese architecture, and modern steel frames, are trabeated.

In a truss, what are the joints connecting the members called?

Members are treated as two-force members carrying only tension or compression.

Which Scottish rail crossing is a famous example of a cantilever truss design?

A cantilever is fixed at one end and unsupported at the other.

In traditional timber framing, what is a cantilevered overhang called?

It is also called a forebay; the cantilever barn is a historic log-built type in the southern US.

What is the open circular hole at the apex of a dome called?

Squinches and pendentives handle the transition from a square room to a round dome base.

What is the arched part of a flying buttress that spans from wall to pier called?

The system flourished during the Gothic period to counter the thrust of stone vaults.

Foundations are generally classified into which two broad types?

Foundation engineering applies soil and rock mechanics to design them.

Under which emperor did construction of the Colosseum begin in AD 72?

It was completed under his son Titus in AD 80 and named the Flavian Amphitheatre after the dynasty.

Which emperor added the hypogeum, the tunnels beneath the Colosseum floor?

The tunnels housed animals and slaves before shows.

The Colosseum's brick-faced concrete is combined with travertine limestone and which volcanic rock?

It could hold an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 spectators.

The best-known sections of the Great Wall of China were built by which dynasty?

The first walls date to the 7th century BC and were joined under the Qin.

Which Mughal emperor commissioned the Taj Mahal in 1631?

It houses the tomb of his wife Mumtaz Mahal and later his own.

On the bank of which river does the Taj Mahal stand?

The mausoleum was completed in 1648 and the whole complex around 1653.

Under which bishop did construction of Notre-Dame de Paris begin in 1163?

It was largely complete by 1260 and pioneered the rib vault and flying buttress.

In which month and year did Notre-Dame de Paris reopen after its 2019 fire?

The fire in April 2019 closed the cathedral for extensive repairs.

Which architect began the Sagrada Família in 1882 before Gaudí took over in 1883?

Less than a quarter of the project was complete when Gaudí died in 1926.

Which pope consecrated the Sagrada Família and proclaimed it a basilica in 2010?

The Tower of Jesus Christ was inaugurated in June 2026, on the centenary of Gaudí's death.

Which building surpassed the Petronas Towers as the world's tallest in 2004?

The 88-storey Petronas Towers remain the world's tallest twin skyscrapers.

Which Bangladeshi-American engineer invented the tube-in-tube structure used in the Petronas Towers?

Tube structures became standard for extremely tall buildings.

How many stories does the Shanghai Tower have?

At 632 metres it is China's tallest building and the world's third-tallest.

Which design firm designed the Shanghai Tower?

Its tiered design divides the building into nine vertical zones for energy efficiency.

To what symbolic height in feet does One World Trade Center rise?

The final spire component was installed on May 10, 2013.

Which architect designed One World Trade Center?

He worked at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; the tower is the tallest in the Western Hemisphere.

Which architect designed London's Tower Bridge, built between 1886 and 1894?

John Wolfe Barry engineered it with help from Henry Marc Brunel.

What term describes the lifting central spans of Tower Bridge?

They were originally hydraulically powered so ships could reach the Pool of London.

Which two engineers designed the great cantilever rail crossing of the Firth of Forth, opened in 1890?

It was voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder in 2016 and is a UNESCO site.

Which Canadian span overtook the Firth of Forth crossing's cantilever record in 1919?

The Forth Bridge remains the world's second-longest single cantilever span.

Which Turkish span overtook Japan's Akashi Kaikyo crossing for the longest suspension span in 2022?

The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge's 1,991-metre central span had held the record since 1998.

The Akashi Kaikyo suspension crossing links Kobe with what?

It is part of the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Project across the Seto Inland Sea.

The Itaipu Dam sits on the Paraná River between Brazil and which other country?

Its name means 'the sounding stone' in Guarani, and it was completed in 1984.

How long is the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest railway tunnel?

It opened in June 2016 as the first flat, low-level route through the Alps.

Which two Swiss cantons does the Gotthard Base Tunnel connect?

It runs from Erstfeld to Giornico, passing beneath Sedrun.

Boston's Big Dig rerouted the elevated Central Artery of which highway into the O'Neill Tunnel?

It also extended I-90 to Logan Airport via the Ted Williams Tunnel.

Which cable-stayed crossing of the Charles River was built as part of the Big Dig?

The Rose Kennedy Greenway now occupies the space of the old elevated roadway.

Which company was the general contractor for Boston's Big Dig?

It was the most expensive highway project in US history, plagued by overruns and leaks.

Which act signed by Eisenhower launched the Interstate system?

The system is officially named after Eisenhower.

The canal completed across upstate New York in 1825 links the Hudson River with which of the Great Lakes?

Critics called it 'Clinton's Big Ditch' after Governor DeWitt Clinton.

Which New York governor was the Erie Canal's lead supporter, mocked by opponents as building a 'Big Ditch'?

Toll revenue covered the state's construction debt within the first year.

Where was the 'Golden Spike' driven to complete America's first transcontinental railroad in 1869?

Leland Stanford tapped it with a silver hammer on May 10, 1869.

How many miles of track did the Union Pacific build westward for the first transcontinental railroad?

The Central Pacific built 690 miles east from Sacramento.

Caterpillar Inc. was formed by the 1925 merger of Holt Manufacturing and which other firm?

It is the world's largest maker of construction equipment.

How did the Holt company's tracked tractor get its famous name?

Charles Clements saw the machine upside down through his camera lens; Holt trademarked the name in 1910.

To which city did Caterpillar move its headquarters in 2022?

It left Peoria for Deerfield, Illinois in 2017 after scrapping an $800 million new headquarters there, then moved again to Texas in 2022.

How did Bechtel's founder begin building railroads in Oklahoma Territory in 1898?

Warren Bechtel moved from Kansas to Oklahoma Territory; the company moved its headquarters to Reston, Virginia in 2018.

Which consortium of western contractors, formed in January 1931, took on the Colorado River dam?

The group built the giant Colorado River dam project.

JCB founder Joseph Cyril Bamford built his first vehicle in 1945 using a welding set bought for how much?

He worked in a rented lock-up garage in Uttoxeter and built a tipping trailer from war surplus.

In which English county is JCB based?

The word JCB appears in the Oxford English Dictionary as a generic term for diggers.

What does the name of Japanese equipment maker Komatsu mean?

It is named after the city where it was founded in 1921 and is the world's second-largest maker of construction equipment.

Under Hammurabi's Code, what happened if a house collapsed and killed the owner?

Law 229 is often cited as the earliest known building regulation.

Which 1666 disaster prompted the first significant building regulation in England?

The Rebuilding of London Act was passed the same year.

Which non-profit developed the LEED certification program?

By 2024 there were over 195,000 LEED-certified buildings in 186 countries.

Which US jurisdiction led in LEED-certified square footage per capita in 2022?

Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, California and Maryland followed in the 2022 ranking.

Levittown, New York was built between 1947 and 1951 for whom?

It is regarded as the first truly mass-produced suburb.

By July 1948, Levitt & Sons were finishing houses at Levittown at what rate?

By 1951 the firm had built 17,447 homes in and around Levittown.

Roughly how many mail-order kit houses did Sears sell between 1908 and 1942?

The kits shipped mostly by railroad boxcar and came in more than 370 designs.

How many house designs did the Sears Modern Homes line offer over its 34 years?

Most included central heating, indoor plumbing and electricity.

The topping-out ceremony traces to which culture's rite of placing a tree atop a new building?

It was meant to appease tree spirits displaced by construction and later spread to England and the Americas.

At what stage of construction is a topping-out ceremony traditionally held?

A tree or leafy branch, often with flags, is fixed to the topmost beam and a toast is drunk.

What did ancient cornerstone ceremonies typically involve placing on or under the stone?

All other stones are set in reference to the cornerstone, fixing the structure's position.

Which country is most associated with timber-framed, half-timbered houses?

Joints are secured with large wooden pegs and framers hew logs with broadaxes and adzes.

What is a wooden nail used in timber construction called?

Also spelled 'trunnel', it predates the metal wire nail that dominates today.

Which type of fastener dominated roughly from 1800 to 1914, between hand-wrought and wire types?

Nail prices fell tenfold from the late 1700s to the mid-1900s.

What is the distance between each thread of a screw called?

Most screws tighten clockwise, a right-hand thread.

Which screw drive was the first type developed and can be cut with just a saw or file?

It is driven by a flat-bladed screwdriver.

Which British metalworker is credited with the first retractable tape measure, in 1821?

He repurposed surplus flat wire from unfashionable pannier dresses.

Why does the hook on a construction tape measure move slightly on its rivets?

The play equals the hook's thickness so inside and outside measurements both read true.

A theodolite measures what?

The modern version evolved into the total station, which also measures distances electronically.

The word 'theodolite' first appears in a 1571 surveying textbook by which author?

The book was titled A geometric practice named Pantometria.

What is the handle of a hammer also known as?

The claw hammer's claw pulls nails out of wood.

Which British prime minister took up bricklaying as a hobby?

Bricklaying's biggest competition is the Spec-Mix Bricklayer 500 in Las Vegas.

What is a bricklayer colloquially called in British and Australian English?

Formal apprenticeships usually take three to four years.

Steel-frame construction displaced which predecessor in the early 20th century?

The technique made the skyscraper possible.

Building insulation is divided into which two main categories?

Buildings typically use a combination of both.

How fast does the Bailong Elevator in Zhangjiajie, China climb its 326 metres?

Guinness recognized it as the world's tallest outdoor elevator in 2015.

When it opened in 1999, London's Millennium Dome ranked where among the world's buildings by usable volume?

Its exhibition drew barely half of the forecast 12 million visitors.

The Pont du Gard carried water to which Roman colony?

Its three tiers of arches stand 48.8 metres high and it became a UNESCO site in 1985.

How much water a day did the Pont du Gard aqueduct carry, by estimate?

Its gradient averaged just 1 cm per 182.4 metres.

How did Roman aqueducts move water?

Most conduits were buried and followed the terrain, with bridgework across valleys.

Roman roads were built from roughly which year onward?

They were cambered for drainage and flanked by footpaths and ditches.

How many Quonset huts were manufactured during World War II?

A 10-person team could assemble one in a day with hand tools.

The Quonset hut was based on which British World War I design?

It was named for Quonset Point in Davisville, Rhode Island, where it was first deployed.

What is a tunnel boring machine nicknamed?

TBM-bored tunnels reached cross-sections of 17.6 metres by June 2023.

What is the most popular accessory mounted on the rear of a bulldozer?

The hook-like device loosens dense materials before the blade pushes them.

Which company developed a steam dust-cart with a tipper mechanism in 1896, an ancestor of the dump truck?

In the UK the road vehicle is called a tipper lorry.

The section of a backhoe arm closest to the vehicle is called what?

The dipper carries the bucket; both terms come from steam shovels.

How does a skid-steer loader turn?

It can turn within its own length by driving one side forward and the other in reverse.

Which North Dakota company bought the rights to the Keller loader in 1958, leading to the Bobcat?

The M-200 Melroe self-propelled loader was introduced at the end of 1958.

What is the chemical reaction between cement and water called?

The process is exothermic, so ambient temperature affects setting time.

Cements that set through a reaction with water and can harden underwater are called what?

Portland cement is the classic hydraulic cement.

In welding, what is the puddle of molten material at the joint called?

Unlike brazing and soldering, welding melts the base metal itself.

What is the flattened tail end of an installed rivet called?

Rivets are far better at supporting shear loads than tension.

Hans Liebherr founded his crane and equipment group in 1949 in which country?

Still wholly family-owned, Liebherr spans over 130 companies in 11 divisions, from tower cranes to domestic appliances.

Who received the 1839 patent for the steam shovel?

Grimshaw of Boulton & Watt had built a steam excavator in 1796, and Brunton patented one in 1833.

Cross-laminated timber glues together at least how many layers of solid-sawn lumber?

Each layer's grain is usually rotated 90 degrees; Austria issued the first national CLT guidelines in 2002.

Which country used Gerhard Schickhofer's research to create the first national CLT guidelines in 2002?

A 1920s Tacoma patent and a 1985 French patent are cited as precursors; European standards followed from 2008.

Dynamite takes its name from the Greek word dýnamis, meaning what?

He renamed it after the Greek dýnamis, 'power'; his father Immanuel's Stockholm construction work inspired the search for better blasting.

In which US city did T. L. Smith develop an early tilting-drum concrete mixer in 1900?

The first portable concrete mixer was patented in 1904; Columbus industrialist Gebhardt Jaeger is also credited with the invention.