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 - Iceland's Big Dig
Season 2007 - Episode 3 - Aired 5/5/2007
In Iceland, a giant tunnel boring machine called `Jaws' has chewed up nine miles of basalt to aid a hydroelectric project. See the rock cruncher at work as it burrows deep down.
#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 8 - 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 - 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.
#10 - Mega Breakdown: Italian Bridge
Season 2008 - Episode 12 - Aired 9/10/2008
A historic bridge is being taken down and recycled, but the demolition team faces challenges while doing it.
#11 - Atom Smasher
Season 2008 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/3/2008
Follow expert scientists and engineers as they complete work on a Large Hadron Collider, a machine that will be able to capture pictures of atoms.
#12 - 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.
#13 - Singapore's Vegas
Season 2010 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/5/2010
The secrets behind Singapore's Marina Bay Sands development, which includes hotels, a museum, casino, waterfront promenade and theatres.
#14 - 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.
#15 - 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.
#16 - Ultimate Casino
Season 2005 - Episode 18 - Aired 10/18/2005
#17 - Mega Plane
Season 2008 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/2/2008
#19 - Bridge Breakdown
Season 2008 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/15/2008
Demolition of the (1927) Carquinez Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area
#20 - Dubai's Dream Palace
Season 2007 - Episode 6 - 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.
#21 - Beijing Olympic Stadium (Building Green Beijing)
Season 2008 - Episode 15 - Aired 8/5/2008
2010 environmental improvement plan in Beijing, China
#22 - Wave Energy
Season 2010 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/27/2010
#23 - Dubai's Palm Island
Season 2010 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/21/2010
A huge project is underway in the Arabian Gulf, so vast it can be seen from space. Palm Jumeirah is an artificial island in the shape of a palm tree.
#24 - Ecoark
Season 2011 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/27/2011
Planned to be one of the greenest buildings in Asia, and possibly the world, the Eco Ark aims to be a glowing example of how to turn a problem into a solution. Its walls are made completely out of recycled material.
#25 - Mega Breakdown: Train Overhaul
Season 2011 - Episode 8 - 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