Top 10 Amazing Fun Facts About Construction You Won't Believe!

1. Roman Self-Healing Concrete

When life gives you volcanic ash, use it as the Romans did – make self-healing concrete with it: Ancient Roman concrete contained a unique pozzolanic material mixed with lime, which, when combined with quicklime at high temperatures, formed lime clasts that possessed the ability to repair cracks by filling them with calcium carbonate or reacting with other materials to strengthen the structure, resulting in impressive durability and long-lasting structures.
Source => news.mit.edu

2. Giza's Pyramid Party Palace

When ancient Egyptians weren't busy inventing eyeliner, they were slaving away to build the ultimate penthouse suite for their Pharaohs: The Great Pyramid of Giza's outer casing consisted of 67,390 cubic meters of high-quality limestone sourced from Tura quarries. These massive blocks traveled across the Nile, were dragged into position, and smoothed down, giving the pyramid a sleek rampway-to-heaven finish. While the original inscriptions on the casing stones remain a mystery, we can only assume they didn't say "party like it's 2460 BCE."
Source => apollo-magazine.com

Did you know concrete can be eco-friendly too? Green concrete uses waste materials, saves energy, and reduces carbon emissions, all while being more durable! Discover more about this amazing innovation.

=> Fun Facts about Concrete

3. Great Wall of China: Dynasty Quilt

You might say the Great Wall of China was the ultimate "dynasty patchwork quilt": this mammoth structure is actually a mishmash of walls built by different dynasties over 2,700 years, spanning a whopping 50,000 kilometers of stone and grit. Funny enough, that's enough masonry to circle our dear planet ten times over! But there's no joking about the UNESCO World Heritage status or the rich history of politics, economics, military, and culture that the Great Wall carries on its sturdy shoulders.
Source => np.china-embassy.gov.cn

4. Timeless Charm of Salisbury Clock

As time ticked by, the Salisbury Cathedral clock was having none of it: Holding the Guinness World Record for the world's oldest surviving working clock, this 14th-century masterpiece still strikes every hour without a face, powered by two sections driven by falling weights, now proudly ticking away in the Cathedral's left naïve, bringing timely charm to any centuries-old dinner party.
Source => experiencesalisbury.co.uk

5. Ancient Roman Brick Gossip

Not just a brick in the wall, these Romans were making building blocks talk: Roman brick stamps not only identified the brick maker but also provided information on production supervisors, brickyards, and even the names of consuls serving in the year of production, allowing scholars to learn about Ancient Rome's construction demand and date it accurately.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

6. Hollywood Sign's Makeovers

Who knew Tinseltown's iconic landmark was an extreme makeover junkie? Not even Tim Gunn could criticize its fashionable facelifts: The Hollywood Sign, originally constructed in 1923 with wooden letters, got a steel upgrade in 1978 and a new coat of paint in 2005. Griffith Park keeps an eye on the sign's security, while visitors can hike up to its location and marvel at how it's managed to stay both iconic and relevant.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

7. Dubai's Splash-tacular Island

Dubai's real estate scored a splash-tacular slam dunk with its slammin' man-made islands: A large palm tree-shaped island, Palm Jumeirah, was created by dredging sand from the Persian Gulf and spraying it into place using GPS satellites for accuracy, adding hundreds of kilometers of private coastline, housing around 65,000 people, and even decking out the island with mobile phone masts disguised as native flora.
Source => theguardian.com

8. London Bridge's American Adventure

In a twist of fate that would make an Aahzooine dreamcatcher trade their last feather, London Bridge found itself not falling down but crossing the pond in the most peculiar journey imaginable: Businessman Robert McCulloch bought the bridge in 1962, dismantled it stone by stone, marked each with a code, shipped them 10,000 miles to California, trucked them to Arizona, and reconstructed the bridge over a faux riverbed in Lake Havasu City, where it now reigns as a charmingly out-of-place tourist attraction since its 1971 dedication.
Source => pbs.org

9. Heavy Love on Pont des Arts Bridge

When love weighs you down: In 2014, Paris's Pont des Arts bridge transformed from a symbol of everlasting love to a cautionary tale about the perils of love's literal "heaviness." Turns out, over a million love locks, weighing more than 45 tons, caused a partial collapse of the bridge's parapet, prompting the city to remove the metallic declarations of affection and preserve the historic structure.
Source => bbc.com

10. Sky-high Lego Tower Stabilization

When a Lego project reaches new heights of ambition, quite literally, it's time to break out the metal cables to hold that tower steady: Constructed in Budapest, Hungary, the tallest Lego tower in the world stands at a dizzying 114 feet, consisting of 450,000 bricks and lasting a whimsical five days before its deconstruction.
Source => bedtimemath.org