The WORST episodes of Abandoned Engineering

Every episode of Abandoned Engineering ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Abandoned Engineering!

As the saying goes – they probably seemed like good ideas at the time. The world is peppered with examples of incredible engineering projects and buildings designed to make life easier for those that used them, amaze those that came to see them, and make money for those that ordered, designed and built them. They were the stuff of dreams. Each and every one of these extraordinary places is home to a wealth of powerful and compelling stories. We’ll see and hear about some of the most spectacular examples of abandoned engineering the world has ever known. We’ll show how and why they were built, consider the financial and social costs of their failure and examine the environmental and ecological impacts.

Last Updated: 3/22/2025Network: U&YesterdayStatus: Continuing
Spike Island
star
0.00
0 votes

#1 - Spike Island

Season 6 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/8/2020

An impressive compound commandeered and repurposed by a brutal regime and an eerie complex off the coast of Ireland that became the biggest of its kind.

Moonshot
star
6.13
8 votes

#2 - Moonshot

Season 10 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/10/2022

An industrial ruin in the Florida Everglades that once took part in the greatest race the human race has ever seen; a community in Indonesia torn apart by a terrifying and deadly unseen force; the graffiti-covered walls of an Ibizan legend hinting at a fun-loving past; and a Bulgarian school hiding an ambitious and covert plan for retaliation.

Ruins of Empire
star
6.57
7 votes

#3 - Ruins of Empire

Season 9 - Episode 6 - Aired 4/25/2022

Exploring a British fort that became a bizzare zoo, a brutalist school for Communist top brass and a lost world hides secrets of a vanished people.

Bannack USA
star
6.76
17 votes

#4 - Bannack USA

Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/14/2019

A sprawling Wild West ghost town sits peaceful and abandoned in Montana, USA, but is still haunted by tales of murder, corruption and buried treasure. Also, a cold, dark, underground mountain network that cost the lives of thousands... the crumbling ruins of an English industry that turned poison into profit... a peaceful village that was shattered by the terrors of war.

Niagara's Hidden Marvel
star
6.78
9 votes

#5 - Niagara's Hidden Marvel

Season 9 - Episode 4 - Aired 6/6/2022

Exploring a royal retreat caught in a web of corruption, an engineering marvel hidden behind the Niagara Falls in Canada, and a subterranean treasure.

Trouble In Paradise
star
6.86
7 votes

#6 - Trouble In Paradise

Season 9 - Episode 7 - Aired 5/2/2022

Exploring a luxury resort in Argentina, a Greek palace above a Mexican city and a former hotel in Hawaii.

A Royal Deception
star
6.91
11 votes

#7 - A Royal Deception

Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 8/13/2021

Exploring a jungle refuge concealing a story of royal deceit, nuclear bunkers infiltrated by outsiders, and a haunted hospital marked by scandal.

Mission: Space
star
6.91
66 votes

#8 - Mission: Space

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/25/2017

We aim for the stars and find out why unwanted battleship guns allow the United States to gain vital information about the borders of space. We ask how the shattered remains of a secret Nazi base became the first on the path to a new world, with the development of the ground-breaking V2 rocket. We explore a forgotten structure deep in the Arizona desert to ask if it is the true home of America's space programme. And we reveal the bizarre link between a discarded oil drum and a Cold War struggle to survive in zero gravity.

Paradise Lost
star
6.92
12 votes

#9 - Paradise Lost

Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 8/6/2021

Exploring a ghost town in Colorado, the remnants of an industrial enterprise in Puerto Rico, and a remote village on Cyprus.

Escobar's Ruin
star
6.94
17 votes

#10 - Escobar's Ruin

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/1/2019

Features a ruined compound in Colombia which was once home to Pablo Escobar and alien-looking structures with no apparent purpose, isolated in an empty English marshland in Denge, near Dungeness in Kent. But how and why were they ever built at all, and why are they now left abandoned?

Blast Zone
star
7.00
16 votes

#11 - Blast Zone

Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/23/2020

Within a dense Polish woodland sits a forgotten complex with an explosive history. Also, grand coastal defences in Ghana reveal a tortured past.

Lost Bridges
star
7.00
57 votes

#12 - Lost Bridges

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/4/2017

Soaring across some of the widest rivers and deepest valleys on the planet, bridges have always been at the cutting edge of engineering. We travel high into the mountains of the Colorado desert to find out why a hidden engineering masterpiece could disappear at any time. We ask why a stretch of overgrown concrete in a Czech reservoir is known as 'Hitler's bridge'. We find out how the highest bridge in the world collapsed in less than one minute. Finally, we uncover the story behind Cape Town's invisible bridge, which never carried a single vehicle.

England's Abandoned Village
star
7.00
20 votes

#13 - England's Abandoned Village

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/14/2019

An eerie, empty country village which hides a sad secret, a mysterious tower battered by the elements and a disused railway deep beneath the streets of a city.

Villa De Vecchi Rhodes
star
7.00
12 votes

#14 - Villa De Vecchi Rhodes

Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/8/2019

A formerly luxurious and strategic mountain-top villa on the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean that's been ravaged by acts of revenge by locals since 1955.

Fortress of the Sky
star
7.00
11 votes

#15 - Fortress of the Sky

Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/10/2021

Eerie ruins hiding in the forested hills of Arkansas, USA, and a disintegrating gulag in Albania that housed enemies of the state.

The Battle of San Pietro
star
7.00
9 votes

#16 - The Battle of San Pietro

Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 9/17/2021

Featuring Italian ruins immortalised by Hollywood, a crumbling Chilean city with two lives and a brutalist Scottish relic whose prayers went unanswered.

Jungle Fantasy Land
star
7.00
8 votes

#17 - Jungle Fantasy Land

Season 9 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/28/2022

Exploring the remains of a pioneering industry town in Ohio, a once beautiful Croatian resort bombarded by enemy fire, and an otherworldly garden of Eden in Mexico.

The Beached Leviathan
star
7.00
9 votes

#18 - The Beached Leviathan

Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/4/2022

The graffitied remains of a correctional facility in Atlanta, USA with a controversial and unexpected past, forgotten remnants of fraud and fusion on the Western border of Argentina and a mysterious ancient complex built by a devoted Khmer King in the jungles of Cambodia.

The True Cross
star
7.00
9 votes

#19 - The True Cross

Season 11 - Episode 5 - Aired 6/12/2023

Exploring Old Byron Hot Springs in the Californian desert - a once glittering Hollywood hotspot, converted into a top-secret interrogation centre.

The Lost Pirate City
star
7.07
15 votes

#20 - The Lost Pirate City

Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 7/9/2020

What happened to an infamous pirate city in Jamaica? Also, a grim gulag in Croatia and a Louisiana plantation caught up in the aftermath of the American Civil War.

Hollywood Heroes
star
7.08
13 votes

#21 - Hollywood Heroes

Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/13/2021

Legendary film sets with surprising pasts and real locations that inspired Hollywood. Within these decaying structures are the echoes of history.

Top Secret Nuclear Arsenal
star
7.08
13 votes

#22 - Top Secret Nuclear Arsenal

Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/11/2020

A secretive underground base that concealed the power to destroy nations, and a sprawling industrial relic clinging to the edge of an unforgiving waterfall.

Defenders Of Liberty
star
7.08
12 votes

#23 - Defenders Of Liberty

Season 6 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/3/2020

A now silent site that played a pivotal role defending the U.S through the 20th century. Plus, a crumbling Italian fortress and a ghostly Ukrainian mansion.

Bunker Nation
star
7.09
11 votes

#24 - Bunker Nation

Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/24/2020

A small isolated country littered with strange concrete mushrooms and a secret Japanese facility that was once at the forefront of weapons technology.

Apocalyptic Skyscraper
star
7.10
10 votes

#25 - Apocalyptic Skyscraper

Season 9 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/18/2022

Exploring a ruined castle above a German village, a rural town in Idaho, a futuristic skyscraper in Johannesburg and a fantasy world outside of Buenos Aires.