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 - Building the World
Season 2007 - Episode 9 - 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.
#2 - 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.
#3 - 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.
#4 - Las Vegas
Season 2005 - Episode 6 - Aired 6/22/2005
Power systems and infrastructures that keep Las Vegas glittering are examined.
#5 - 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.
#6 - North Branch Correctional Institution (Hi-Tech Prison)
Season 2008 - Episode 11 - Aired 6/15/2008
The North Branch Correctional Institution (NBCI) will house 2,000 violent criminals. Its security measures are much more than technological marvels they are the features that will protect the lives of prison guards and revolutionize rehabilitation programs for inmates.
#8 - 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.
#9 - Super Pipeline
Season 2008 - Episode 19 - Aired 12/31/2008
We look at one of the gas industry’s riskiest projects ever undertaken. By 2008, Britain will be connected to Norway via a 1,200 km super pipeline. It’s composed of over one million tonnes of steel and equating to a 1/3 of the world’s combined pipeline production company. Yet all of the work must be completed by robots working 3 km under the North Sea against harsh underwater currents, sub-zero temperatures and abysmal wind and wave conditions.
#10 - Sinking an Aircraft Carrier
Season 2008 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/29/2008
A specialist demolition team attempt to create the largest artificial reef in the world by sinking the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany. As they battle through thick steel plating and hazardous waste, the workers are aided by marine architects, divers, engineering units and local authorities.
#11 - World's Biggest Casino
Season 2008 - Episode 21 - Aired 12/31/2008
World's Largest Casino follows the construction of the world's biggest casino and its second biggest building. It's being sited in Macau, in Southern China, which is being groomed to be Asia's capital of gambling. The Venetian is to be built by the Sands Corporation of Las Vegas, and is to feature a giant hotel with 3000 suites, a 15,000 seat arena, a theatre, event halls, 350 shops along indoor canals hundreds of metres long, an outdoor lagoon for gondola rides, and above all, a huge casino floor the size of eight football pitches. We follow the reclamation of land between two islands for this project, and watch it fly up in record time due to special working methods being devised – from on-site factories, to having prefabricated parts trucked in from China. We see how the ambitious designs are brought to reality, despite the pressures and an environment that's very different from America, both in terms of climate and culture. We go in-depth into the amazing concern for detail in the outfitting and decoration which will turn a giant concrete conglomeration of structures into a place designed to entice people to stay as long as possible. Andwe meet the people responsible for putting the project together, and see how they co-operate to get the resort open on time. But will the public come to visit this US$2.4bn megastructure? There's no guarantee...
#12 - Icelandic Super Dam
Season 2008 - Episode 12 - Aired 6/18/2008
This episode looks at the Karahnjukar Hydroelectric Project in Iceland - an audacious engineering feat that includes the building of Europe's highest dam, the drilling of 30-mile-long tunnels and the construction of a gigantic underground power plant.
#13 - Dam Busters
Season 2008 - Episode 18 - 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.
#14 - Singapore's Vegas
Season 2010 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/5/2010
The secrets behind Singapore's Marina Bay Sands development, which includes hotels, a museum, casino, waterfront promenade and theatres.
#15 - Deep Sea Drillers
Season 2007 - Episode 3 - Aired 5/11/2007
In an attempt to tap into a vast natural gas supply, the US is drilling the Atlantic sea bed. Discover what it takes to drill in the dark depths.
#16 - World's Tallest Hotel
Season 2007 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/15/2007
Soaring 2716 feet about the city of Dubai, Burj Khalita took seven years to build and cost a staggering $1.5 billion.
#17 - An Integrated Petrochemical Giant
Season 2019 - Episode 1 - Aired 12/2/2019
Located at the tip of Peninsula Malaysia, the Pengerang Integrated Complex is a first in Malaysia, and the biggest. Covering an area equivalent to the size of 3,500 football fields, this massive petrochemical hub is a one stop shop for petroleum, petrochemicals and even electricity and gas. On the ground, the task at hand is a mammoth one. The 60,000-strong work crew has to complete the construction in five years – a quarter of the usual time taken. To do so, they’ll have to conquer challenges never before undertaken on such a scale, and everything has to run like clockwork. In this special, National Geographic Channel goes behind the scenes to uncover this Megastructure’s journey from design to delivery. As work unfolds, we join the project managers, engineers and urban planners tasked with carrying out the job, and bring to life state of the art engineering at the heart of the complex.
#18 - Ultimate Casino
Season 2005 - Episode 18 - Aired 10/18/2005
#20 - Bridge Breakdown
Season 2008 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/15/2008
Demolition of the (1927) Carquinez Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area
#21 - World Record Cruise Ship
Season 2010 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/18/2010
Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, one of the world's largest cruise ships, which features 16 decks and can accommodate 5400 passengers.
#22 - Dubai's Dream Palace
Season 2007 - Episode 11 - Aired 8/25/2007
Megastructures heads to the tiny desert kingdom of Dubai to explore the remarkable engineering behind the seven-star Burj Al-Arab Hotel. Five years in the making, this striking building stands like a gigantic white sail off the shore of Dubai. As this programme reveals, a refusal to compromise on the part of the hotel’s young designers ensured that the project pushed the boundaries of design. The Burj Al-Arab was envisaged by Dubai’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, as a means of diversifying the country’s economy away from oil into tourism. The Sheikh dreamt of a luxury hotel that would put Dubai on the world map, and surprised many by choosing a relatively inexperienced British firm to supply the design.
#23 - Beijing Olympic Stadium (Building Green Beijing)
Season 2008 - Episode 13 - Aired 8/5/2008
2010 environmental improvement plan in Beijing, China
#24 - South Pole Station
Season 2007 - Episode 6 - Aired 6/11/2007
Welcome to the South Pole, one of the most isolated places on the planet. For decades, the South Pole has been a haven for astronomy, climatology, and other science fields. Now, nearly 50 years after the first research station was built, a team of mega-builders is daring to construct a 21st century science research facility: the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
#25 - 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.