Found this on the Failblog. Anyone want to take a guess and what confluence of events led to this?

The Technorama crew and spouses took a back stage tour of the Hoover Dam. The audio and video will be posted on the Technorama blog, but I took a couple of pics worth sharing.

This spillway has only been used once (or twice if you count testing). However, that one use spanned several months when flow from the Colorado river had filled Lake Mead and threatened to top the Hoover Dam. The high water mark can still been seen in this picture because the sides of the canyon were covered in calcification while it was under water.

The photo above doesn’t show the full size of the Hoover Dam. I turned my camera into portrait mode to capture more of the Dam’s face. But when I stitched the photos together, the whole picture doesn’t fit nicely into a rectangular frame. Click the image below to see the full-sized, uncropped version.

Found this video through Mixx. Wally Wallington demonstrates how the stones of Stonehenge could have been transported and erected with fewer people than you might think. He stands a 19,000 lb. block on its end by himself using only leverage and gravity.

7 Engineering Wonders of the Modern World: Contemporary World Record-Setting Construction

Found this story on Digg. I like the 1000′+ outdoor elevator, it is much more impressive than the Grand Canyon Skywalk. If only it weren’t in China.

The only thing that might top this is the Millau Bridge.

Photo source: Peter Welland