10 Grand Creations We Constructed Only to Destroy

When the first modern human built the initial permanent structure, it was destined that someone would eventually attempt to outdo it with an even bigger one. We have a fascination with the grand, the enormous, and the awe-inspiring. However, even the most colossal man-made marvels can fade into obscurity, often due to catastrophe or necessity.

10. The Great Wheel

Humanity’s love for all things grand is matched only by our love for fun. We also have a fondness for money, and every so often, a mix of youthful nostalgia and financial ambition creates the colorful, sometimes sticky environments known as carnivals. These temporary, often whimsical structures are a perfect fit for the fleeting nature of carnivals and fairs.

The grandest of all global exhibitions are the World’s Fairs; the Eiffel Tower was built specifically for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. Jump ahead to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, where organizers realized their venue needed an iconic structure to rival the Eiffel Tower. Thus, The Ferris Wheel was born.

Though the Ferris Wheel may seem ordinary in today’s world of advanced engineering, the race to build the largest Ferris Wheel is still fierce. Today, the London Eye stands as a monument to this pursuit, having once held the title of the world’s largest, though it wasn’t the first attempt by the city. The Great Wheel held the record for the tallest Ferris Wheel from 1895 to 1900.

Constructed for the Empire of India exhibition, the wheel stood a towering 94 meters (308 ft) high and could carry 40 passengers per car (with 40 cars in total). A complete ride on the Great Wheel lasted 20 minutes.

The wheel is estimated to have transported half a million passengers during its operation before being dismantled in 1907 due to financial concerns by the same engineers who designed it. Fun may be thrilling, but it’s not sustainable if it’s draining your finances.

9. SS Great Eastern

Although the SS Great Eastern didn’t boast a Ferris wheel the size of London’s, its paddle wheel was likely large enough to rival one at many local fairs. Yet, in the grand scheme of this colossal ocean liner, it still seemed relatively small.

The enormous steamship, Great Eastern, emerged from the visionary designs of the brilliant Englishman Isambard Kingdom Brunel and was completed in 1858. Upon its launch, the ship was so massive it was originally named Leviathan. At a staggering six times the size of any naval vessel at the time, it reigned as the world’s largest for nearly four decades, measuring about 210 meters (700 feet).

The ship took three months to launch and financially ruined the company that first owned it. Additional setbacks followed: a boiler explosion derailed its maiden voyage and bankrupted its second owners in 1859, and in 1862, it collided with an uncharted rock in New York Harbor, leading to another bankruptcy for its third owners.

The enormous ship abandoned its passenger role and took on the critical mission of connecting continents through trans-Atlantic telegraph cables from 1866 to 1874. However, despite its significant contributions, the vessel was dismantled in 1888 after spending its last years as a floating advertisement in Milford Haven, Wales. When it was deconstructed, rumors spread that a human skeleton had been discovered trapped inside its double hull, suggesting that the ship's misfortune was the result of a curse. While this is likely a myth, it does provide a potential explanation for the SS Great Eastern’s failure to achieve the glory it deserved in its troubled existence.

8. Tsar Tank

The fascinating tale of the Tsar Tank began in 1914 when Russian engineer Nikolai Lebedenko envisioned a tank with 8-meter (27 ft) wheels, capable of overcoming almost any obstacle. Tsar Nicholas II eagerly backed the project. Legend has it that Lebedenko showcased the tank to the Tsar using a small wooden model that traversed a stack of books, convincing Nicholas II of the idea’s potential.

In 1915, during its first public test in front of high-ranking military officials, the mighty Tsar Tank was undone by nothing more than a simple mix of dirt and water—better known as “mud.” Despite Lebedenko's efforts to improve it by adding larger engines, the project was too costly to continue. The sole prototype remained stuck in the mud throughout World War I, only to be abandoned and scrapped in 1923. This served as a reminder that, no matter how grand the vision, first impressions truly count.

7. The Crystal Palace

The World’s Fairs are known for showcasing extraordinary feats of architecture and engineering. So, when London hosted the Great Exhibition of 1851, it was no surprise that a modern architectural marvel was commissioned. Designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, the Crystal Palace spanned 23 acres and was primarily made of glass panels and steel framing.

At the time, the structure was revolutionary as it used a modular design, with common elements assembled to create a grand whole. With 90,000 square meters (990,000 sq ft) of space, a length of 563 meters (1,848 ft), and a roof soaring over 30 meters (100 ft) high, the Crystal Palace was a spectacle only a World’s Fair could accommodate. It held so many exhibits that more than 13 kilometers (8 mi) of display tables were necessary to display them all.

After the fair ended, the monumental Crystal Palace proved challenging to move. Despite its immense size and the logistical hurdles required to relocate it, the structure was transferred to the upscale Sydenham Hill area of London in 1854. It then hosted sporting events, plays, museums, and other exhibitions until a devastating fire destroyed it in 1936. The remaining water towers were demolished in 1941 to prevent German bombers from using them as landmarks during World War II. Today, the Crystal Palace survives only in the annals of history.

6. Big Muskie

Mining operations often involve machinery so colossal it could be mistaken for a small city. Online forums and blogs frequently feature awe-inspiring machines like the Bagger 288, a giant excavator so large and surreal that many initially think it’s a manipulated image.

Gigantic machines are usually designed for maximum efficiency. Take Big Muskie, for instance, a towering behemoth nearly 22 stories tall with a bucket weighing 200,000 kilograms (460,000 lb) when empty. Used in strip mining, where earth is removed to expose coal layers, Big Muskie extracted 4.8 million cubic yards of dirt during its 22-year service.

Big Muskie didn’t rely on traditional wheels or treads for mobility. Instead, it used massive hydraulic feet to shuffle its enormous frame from one spot to another, often taking several days to cover just a single mile. Ultimately, the machine proved too enormous and expensive to operate. A sharp decline in demand for high-sulfur brown coal made a machine as wide as an eight-lane highway redundant and unprofitable.

Even after its dismantling, Big Muskie holds the title of the largest bucket-digging machine ever constructed. Today, the only remaining piece of this colossal machine is its enormous bucket, which continues to attract thousands of curious tourists each year.

5. Schwerer Gustav

Few events lead to monumental engineering achievements like war. The Schwerer Gustav was created because of Adolf Hitler's deep animosity toward France and their seemingly indestructible fortifications along the German border in 1941. The only answer to this challenge was a railway-mounted cannon with shells so massive that each one had to be slightly larger than the last to accommodate the shock wave expanding the barrel’s lining.

This four-story behemoth fired 4,500-kilogram (10,000 lb) explosive shells over 50 kilometers (30 miles) in just 170 seconds. The Nazis constructed two of them. But both the Schwerer Gustav and its sibling gun, the Dora, were far too unwieldy for practical use. It required a team of 500 men under the supervision of a Major General to transport and precisely aim its 30-meter (100 ft) barrel.

When the war concluded, the impractical Schwerer Gustav was captured and dismantled by American forces. The Dora was intentionally destroyed to prevent it from falling into enemy hands in 1945.

4. Moskva Pool

In 1931, the Soviet Union envisioned a monumental structure in Moscow called the Palace of the Soviets. Although the first design competition ended without a victor, the second competition attracted over 272 proposals from 160 architects worldwide. After rejecting renowned figures like Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, the judges selected Boris Iofan’s neoclassical design, which featured a 415-meter (1,362 ft) skyscraper crowned with a statue of Vladimir Lenin so enormous that it could have kept the Statue of Liberty as a pet.

The Palace of the Soviets was to include a massive central hall seating over 20,000 people and a library inside Lenin’s head. Had it been completed, this colossal symbol of communism would have been the tallest building in the world, surpassing the Empire State Building by approximately 100 feet. However, construction halted when Nazi forces invaded Soviet Russia in 1941, and the materials were redirected for other infrastructure projects.

In 1958, the Soviets transformed the building's unfinished foundation into the world’s largest outdoor swimming pool, the Moskva swimming pool. It remained open year-round for three decades before being demolished in 1995 to make way for another foundation, this time for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Remarkably, this church was a replica of the original one that had been torn down to make room for the unfinished Palace of the Soviets.

3. Seawise Giant

The Seawise Giant emerged in the late 1970s, a time when shipyards worldwide were churning out supertankers to satisfy the surging demand for crude oil. After bankrupting its original Greek owners while still under construction, the Giant was acquired by a Hong Kong shipping magnate who, upon seeing its colossal size, decided it wasn’t quite big enough and made the ship even larger, achieving its staggering final dimensions.

The Seawise Giant was so enormous that its length was compared to that of skyscrapers, and its deck area was measured in soccer fields. At 450 meters (1,500 ft) long and 69 meters (225 ft) wide, it was so massive that it couldn’t pass through the English Channel and was so heavy that it required 9 kilometers (5.5 mi) to come to a complete stop.

In 1988, the Seawise Giant’s sheer size likely saved her when Iraqi fighter jets attacked her during the Iran-Iraq war while she was navigating the Straits of Hormuz. Despite the attack, she remained accessible for salvage in the shallow waters where she partially sank. After being repaired in 1989, she sailed under various names until 2004, when she was permanently stationed as an offshore loading and storage platform in the Persian Gulf. Renamed Knock Nevis, she would never sail the open seas again. In 2009, like many commercial vessels, she was sold for scrap in Alang, India.

The only remaining piece of the world’s largest ship is her 36-ton anchor, which is now displayed in front of the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.

2. London Underground Aircraft Factory

During the Blitz of the 1940s, Great Britain found itself in a tight spot, trying to build its military while Germany relentlessly bombed every visible defense site. The solution was right beneath their feet, as not even the most powerful German bombs could break through an average of 24 meters (80 ft) of earth. Conveniently, London’s Underground system provided nearly 160 kilometers (100 mi) of underground tunnels, perfect for such a purpose.

The British wartime effort turned its focus on rebuilding the aircraft component factory of Plessey, which had been destroyed by German bombs in 1940. By 1942, Plessey had employed 4,000 workers, producing components on 30,000 square meters (300,000 sq ft) of underground factory floor, sheltered by the earth itself. For the next four years, a predominantly female workforce, numbering in the thousands, toiled in what was likely the world’s narrowest factory, often enduring oppressive conditions in the depths below ground.

As the war ended, the London Underground swiftly returned to its primary role of serving civilian commuters. Today, there are almost no traces of the wartime factory that was once a proud, though claustrophobic, effort by thousands of British civilians.

1. The Great Hedge Of India

You might be wondering how a hedge could ever be called “great,” but that title is fitting when you discover that this hedge stretched a remarkable 2,400 kilometers (1,500 mi) and required the labor of 12,000–14,000 men to maintain. It was 2–4 meters (6–12 ft) thick and 3–4 meters (10–14 ft) tall, but its true claim to greatness lay in its immense length, nearly long enough to divide India in half from north to south.

The Great Hedge was born out of humanity’s unrelenting desire for salt. In the 1800s, the British East India Company controlled the salt trade in India. However, with salt being so abundant along the coastline, India’s entire shore became a hotbed for smuggling the valuable commodity. The hedge was created as a barrier, though it came at a hefty price and its effectiveness was highly questionable.

In 1879, with changes to the tax laws, smuggling ended, rendering the hedge unnecessary. It was dismantled and largely forgotten in Western history as an unsavory example of British foreign policy. It remained nearly lost to history until 1995, when British librarian Roy Moxham unearthed obscure mentions of the once-mighty hedge. Moxham led further expeditions to uncover its remnants, and in 1998, a small raised embankment was identified as the likely last vestige of the Great Hedge of India.