The WORST episodes of Megastructures
Every episode of Megastructures ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Megastructures!
Take an eye-popping look at the greatest structures and machines ever created as we focus on some of the world's modern-day super-human miracles of construction.
#1 - Soviet Doomsday Sub
Season 2009 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/8/2009
In the extreme Russian north a team of engineers are ready to dismantle a Typhoon-class submarine – the world's largest nuclear submarine. In its heyday, this monster sub was a terrifying weapon of war. It prowled the oceans of the world armed with 20 deadly nuclear missiles. Now that the Cold War is over, the Typhoon is ready for demolition. But dismantling a submarine with two nuclear reactors is a risky mission. It will take the team over a year to remove the radioactive nuclear fuel, move the submarine into the dry dock and cut its hull into pieces small enough for recycling.
#2 - Secrets of Oscar Tar Bridge
Season 2010 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/9/2010
#3 - Heavy Metal Shredding
Season 2011 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/24/2011
"I love what I do. I get to tear stuff up." Every day around the world, thousands of planes, trains, and automobiles get cut down to size for recycling. A jumbo jet costing a hundred million dollars becomes parts the size of beer cans in a matter of hours. An 18-ton steel rail car is attacked by some of the world's most expensive knives. And a fleet of automobiles dies a torturous death -the equivalent of an agonizing tooth extraction and an elaborate embalming ... all to process them for shredding and recycling. Finally, shredded metal is reborn as shiny new Land Rovers.
#4 - Electric Ocean
Season 2007 - Episode 1 - Aired 5/12/2007
Three teams of engineers are locked in a race to harness what may be the most powerful form of green energy: swift tidal currents and battering waves, the power of the oceans.
#5 - China's Smart Tower
Season 2010 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/26/2010
The Pearl River Tower is one of the first of a new generation of super smart buildings. It will use less than half the energy of a conventional skyscraper and will harvest the forces of nature to make energy of its own. With a curved facade that faces directly into the wind, the Pearl River Tower in China's Guangzhou City is shaped for performance. With a design specific to its environment, the Pearl River Tower utilizes a multitude of energy efficient technologies in one single structure, and symbolizes the future for super-tall building design.
#6 - Building the World
Season 2007 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/23/2007
The engineering, design and construction of a man-made archipelago, built in the shape of a world map, just off the coast off Dubai, the project of ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
#7 - Super Copters
Season 2011 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/19/2011
Incredible technology is making these 'super copters' much more impervious to attack, with Kevlar and other advanced composite materials strengthening the body - while keeping it lightweight. Using live action, re-creations, amazing archival footage and advanced CGI, we marvel at the creation of today's 'super copters' - extraordinary multi-purpose helicopters for the twenty-first century.
#8 - Super Rigs
Season 2011 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/8/2011
As the World's insatiable need for oil and gas grows, companies are going deeper, into more hostile environments than ever before. Watch as we rip apart the largest oil rigs on the planet to reveal the secrets of these amazing technological achievements… and discover if they can survive Mother Nature's most violent forces.
#9 - Mega Breakdown: Train Overhaul
Season 2011 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/13/2011
Locomotives don't last forever. Eventually they go to a scrap yard to die. Their parts are cut up, melted down and ultimately reformed into new products. In this business, nothing goes to waste
#10 - Singapore's Vegas
Season 2010 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/5/2010
The secrets behind Singapore's Marina Bay Sands development, which includes hotels, a museum, casino, waterfront promenade and theatres.
#11 - Super Sky Tram
Season 2009 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/27/2009
For over 40 years the Big Red Box at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, carried skiers, hikers, paragliders and sightseers up to the 3,400-metre summit of Rendezvous Mountain. But nothing lasts forever, so when cable inspector Norm Duke found evidence of stress fractures inside the aging steel track cables, there was no choice but to tear down and replace Jackson's iconic aerial tram. At a cost of US$31 million, this two year construction project is a top-to-bottom, state-of-the-art replacement. It will operate in 120 kph winds and minus 30°C temperatures, all with the quiet precision of a giant Swiss watch. Construction crews battle a record-breaking snowfall, zero visibility, high winds and impassable mud-slick mountain roads to build its five towers and two terminals, and string more than ten miles of heavy steel cable as they risk their lives in a battle to finish before winter closes in.
#12 - Electric Ocean
Season 2009 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/31/2009
Three teams of engineers are locked in a race to harness what may be the most powerful form of green energy: swift tidal currents and battering waves, the power of the oceans. Each team believes it can solve a portion of the world's energy needs. They're testing three different machines designed to be placed in the water and convert oceanic energy into electricity. But getting the machine from the design stage to implementation is a difficult challenge and now each team prepares to install their systems and turn them on for the first time. If they succeed, they could radically change the way we power our planet.
#13 - World's Tallest TV Tower
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/11/2011
At 610m high the Guangzhou Sightseeing and TV Tower is the tallest television tower on earth and among the world's top ten tallest buildings. Tough enough to withstand typhoon, earthquake and other assaults from Mother Nature, this elegant building forced a rewrite of the rule books. A deceptively simple twist in the middle of the main 450m tower sets this super tall building in a mega class of its own and, proves a test of massive proportions for the team responsible for breathing life into the vision of Dutch architects Mark Hemel and Barbara Kuit.
#14 - Dam Busters
Season 2008 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/30/2008
A team of experts mobilises to demolish, excavate and recycle a 25,000 ton dam built of concrete and steel. The pressure is on: they have just half the time needed to complete the job. Worse yet, their biggest challenge stands behind the old dam – one million cubic yards of boulders, gravel and sand that the river has stacked against it for nearly a century. To remove this blockade, the team gambles on a radical, dangerous plan that's never been tried before: turning the energy of a perfect storm against the debris. If they are not successful, a generation of endangered salmon returning to spawn may be wiped out.
#15 - Mega Breakdown: Italian Bridge
Season 2008 - Episode 13 - Aired 9/10/2008
A historic bridge is being taken down and recycled, but the demolition team faces challenges while doing it.
#16 - Shanghai Super Tower
Season 2008 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/14/2008
The design and construction of the Shanghai World Financial Centre which, at 101 floors high, will be China's tallest structure.
#17 - Machines of War: Guns
Season 2006 - Episode 12 - Aired 10/12/2006
The history and evolution of the gun.
#18 - Berlin Wall
Season 2006 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/14/2006
A history of the Berlin Wall, the “wall of shame” that divided East and West Germany from 1961 to 1989. The hour chronicles escape attempts and how East German authorities responded to them, and also recalls the opening of the Wall on Nov. 9, 1989. East and West Germany were formally reunited a year later.
#19 - Mega Ship
Season 2005 - Episode 27 - Aired 12/27/2005
The episodes documents the 134,000 ton Mega Ship's voyage through the pirate infested waters of the Singapore and Malacca Straits carrying millions of dollars of precious cargo. From the bridge to the engine room, Megastructures follow Captain Llewellyn as he guides his ship to the port of Singapore.
#21 - Indy Motor Speedway
Season 2005 - Episode 12 - Aired 9/13/2005
Spanning 559 acres and host to over 250,000 permanent seats, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the largest seated sporting arena in the world. The Speedway opened its gates in 1909 during the horse-and-buggy era. Now, it is one of the most technologically advanced racetracks on the globe.
#22 - Las Vegas
Season 2005 - Episode 6 - Aired 6/22/2005
#23 - Alcatraz
Season 2005 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/16/2005
The worst of the worst were sent here—men like Al "Scarface" Capone, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, "The Birdman" Robert Stroud. For 29 years, Alcatraz was a ferocious battle between America's toughest prison and the brilliant criminal minds locked inside. We'll explore the design, construction and legendary escapes from The Rock.
#24 - Inside a Super Casino
Season 2004 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/1/2004
Megastructures gets an inside look into the 13-year design and construction of Atlantic City's towering new casino, the Borgata.
#25 - The World's Biggest Cruiseliner
Season 2008 - Episode 8 - Aired 6/4/2008
Looks at the technological designs and construction of the huge cruiseliner "Freedom of the Seas".