Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

The Coathanger

Some Sydney locals call the Sydney Harbour Bridge “the Coathanger,” and, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. The way that the bridge’s steel arch goes over the water looks like a giant clothes hanger. People gave the Bridge this name right after it opened in 1932 & the name has stuck around ever since.

The Wobbly Bridge

In 2000, London’s Millennium Bridge opened, and excited crowds rushed across, only for it to sway. A lot. People instantly called it the “Wobbly Bridge,” with the nickname spreading faster than the engineers could install dampers. Thankfully, they worked out the cause of the wobbling & managed to stop it.

The Giant’s Dance

Stonehenge wasn’t always known as Stonehenge. In fact, medieval writers referred to it as the “Giant’s Dance,” which somehow makes it seem even more mysterious. Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote about it in Historia Regum Britanniae, claiming giants lugged the stones over from Africa. But we know now that this isn’t true.

The Empty State Building

When the Empire State Building opened in 1931, it wasn’t exactly bustling & it actually sat half-empty for years. It eventually earned the nickname “Empty State Building.” Newspapers used it constantly, although the name eventually fell out of fashion. Honestly, it’s weird to think that the Building wasn’t always the famous landmark that we know it for.

The Temple of Freedom

People used to really like using dramatic language when they talked about buildings, and that included the U.S. Capitol. It was once known as the “Temple of Freedom.” You can still see that phrase in old congressional speeches & printed pamphlets, along with early architectural commentaries. It was especially common before the Civil War.

The Shrine of Democracy

Even Mount Rushmore had a nickname, and it began during the 1930s dedication events. Officials were eager to give the monument a sense of national weight, so they gave it the nickname the “Shrine of Democracy.” The name was everywhere for a while during the Great Depression.

The Iron Lady

Before there was Margaret Thatcher, there was the real “Iron Lady,” which was the Eiffel Tower. French journalists called the tower “La Dame de Fer” as a way to describe the tower’s serious look. In fact, you’ll see the nickname in old literary journals from that time. It was almost like everyone already knew what it meant.

​​The Akhet Khufu

When the Great Pyramid of Giza was being built, people called it “Akhet Khufu,” which essentially translates to “Horizon of Khufu.” The name is all over Old Kingdom records connected to the pyramid complex & in discussions of the Wadi al-Jarf papyri. Modern researchers still use the term when they’re talking geology around Giza’s plateau.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Sydney Harbour Bridge
2. Millennium Bridge in London to close for urgent repairs
3. Archaeology and legend: investigating Stonehenge
4. 10 Surprising Facts About the Empire State Building
5. D.C. Washington. Capitol. Exterior. View called “In the Temple of Freedom”
6. Mount Rushmore National Memorial Cultural Landscape
7. The Iron Lady: Nicknaming the Eiffel Tower
8. Records of the pyramid builders: discovering eye-witness accounts of a legendary construction project

No, they’re not magical, but they sure feel that way when you’re standing there, and here are ten places like this. Which of these would mess with your sense of balance the most?

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Electric Brae, Scotland

Drive along the coast road near Dunure & you’ll find a short hill that’ll make you check your car’s brakes. Locals call it Electric Brae. But there’s nothing electric about it, and stopping in the marked area makes it seem like your car rolls up the slope.

This is because the sea sits higher than the road, so your eyes are completely fooled by the horizon.

Magnetic Hill, Moncton, Canada

In Moncton, people have been rolling backward up a hill since the 1930s. Pull into the lane & shift to neutral, and suddenly your car creeps uphill. However, there’s no trickery under the pavement.

There’s just a perfectly placed dip that hides the real slope. The place is so popular that a company built a theme park right next door to take advantage of the sheer number of visitors.

Jeju’s Mysterious Road, South Korea

Those who rent a car on Jeju Island might hear locals talk about the “Mysterious Road.” It’s a short stretch where bottles & balls, even buses, appear to drift uphill.

The trees and terrain bend just enough to mess with your sense of direction. Once you know it’s a downhill slope, it somehow feels even stranger.

Spook Hill, Lake Wales, Florida

Spook Hill looks like something out of an old roadside movie. There’s a big painted sign telling you to stop on a white line and shift to neutral. Then, watch your car roll up the hill toward the old schoolhouse.

People used to blame it on buried treasure or a ghostly alligator, but it’s simply the land playing tricks again.

Gravity Hill, Bedford County, Pennsylvania

Gravity Hill is behind farmland near New Paris. There’s no gift shop or big sign, just a quiet road that refuses to make sense, which you can see for yourself if you stop your car at the faded white letters. You’ll feel it inch uphill all by itself.

Even pouring water looks wrong here, as it flows “up” the pavement, and locals love showing it off to new visitors.

Magnetic Hill, Ladakh, India

High up in the Himalayas, the Magnetic Hill near Leh sits about 11,000 feet above sea level, with thin air & bare mountains everywhere. It all feels a little surreal already.

But put your vehicle in neutral, and it’ll seem to climb toward the horizon. It’s all because the empty landscape makes every slope look flipped upside down.

Oregon Vortex, Oregon

Those passing through Gold Hill, Oregon, may see signs pointing toward a place that “defies gravity.” That’s inside the Oregon Vortex.

Here, people look taller or shorter depending on where they stand & balls seem to roll the wrong way. It’s been around since the 1930s.

Mystery Spot, Santa Cruz, California

Somewhere between the tall redwoods & the foggy hills of Santa Cruz is the Mystery Spot, a crooked little shack that’ll ruin your sense of balance.

People walk in laughing. They walk out holding the walls for support. Everything tilts, including the floor & the furniture, and a stream of water somehow slides uphill. Standing straight? That’s impossible.

Magnetic Hill, Orroroo, South Australia

Way out near Orroroo is a lonely road that doesn’t seem to follow the same rules as the rest of Earth. There’s nothing around but dry grass & a huge sky.

But somehow, your car creeps uphill without you doing anything, and travelers have been pulling over for years just to see it happen.

Mount Aragats “anti-gravity” stretch, Armenia

Driving toward Mount Aragats means going through a stretch of road where gravity apparently stops. Even bikes roll the wrong way here.

But that’s not all for weirdness, as the air’s thin & the scenery’s rather intense. And nobody’s in a hurry to explain it. Really, it’s one of those places where the strangeness has to be seen to be believed.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Electric Brae
2. Magnetic Hill Illusion
3. Dokkaebi Road (Mysterious Road)
4. Spook Hill
5. Gravity Hill
6. Magnetic Hill: India
7. Oregon Vortex: Paved Road All The Way
8. Santa Cruz “Mystery Spot” Explained
9. Magnetic Hill: Australia
10. Off The Beaten Path: The Secret of Mount Aragats

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Times Square’s subway maze

Most people know that the subway stop under Times Square is busy. Yet there are also some secrets behind it. It’s actually a system that was built by three rival private companies between 1900 & 1930. The result? Four different lines & 20 entrances, as well as a tunnel that links you to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Don’t be surprised if it feels like you’re walking in circles.

A village in Central Park

Long before picnics & joggers, Seneca Village existed in Central Park. It was a community mainly of free Black landowners that stretched between today’s 82nd & 89th Streets. But by 1857, the city cleared everyone out. This was just for the park project. The community had homes & schools, as well as churches, before it disappeared.

The Eiffel Tower bends

The Eiffel Tower sways. Engineers measured its first “bending mode” at around 0.32 hertz, which means the whole thing gently rocks back & forth every three seconds or so. You’d never notice it standing underneath. But the math says it’s moving. How amazing is that?

Cleaning the Louvre

Cleaning glass as tall as the Louvre Pyramid isn’t exactly a bucket-and-sponge job. After all, it’s around 21 meters. They use a robot with permanent magnets to climb the glass & scrub because it’s a lot safer than climbers dangling on ropes. You might even spot the little machine sliding around the panes.

Colosseum hypogeum

Today, you can see the Roman Colosseum’s stone walls. But there’s so much more to it. There’s the hypogeum underneath, which is about six meters deep, and it features lifts & tunnels. It also has roughly 30 shafts that link into water channels. Scholars believe these allowed stagehands to flood & drain the arena for naval shows.

The Sistine Chapel’s restoration

Anyone lucky enough to visit the Sistine Chapel should look up. However, you’re not simply seeing Michelangelo’s frescoes there, but colors uncovered only a few decades ago. The Vatican started the big restoration in 1980. This involved stripping away a lot of soot & glue that had muted the original brightness for centuries. You’re seeing it differently from people before.

The Taj Mahal’s inlay

Take a closer peek at the Taj & you’ll see delicate floral inlays. They might look like simple decorations, but these actually use more than 40 types of gemstones. These include carnelian & jasper. Even the lapis lazuli fits into white marble so smoothly that it’s hard to even feel the seams with your finger. It sure is incredible.

The Forbidden City’s doors

Those massive red gates in Beijing aren’t merely for show. Look closer & you’ll see shiny brass studs in rows of nine, specifically nine across & nine down. That makes 81 in total. In imperial China, nine meant authority & foreverness, so the pattern repeats everywhere inside the palace. The Forbidden City sure has lasted forever.

Niagara River’s water weight 

The constant roar from Niagara comes from the river working overtime. There are around 6,500 cubic meters of water surging forward every second. A good comparison would be filling more than two thousand Olympic pools in about an hour, which is rather incredible for one river.

Machu Picchu’s terraces

Those green steps built into the sides of Machu Picchu helped with farming, but also so much more. Archaeologists studying the site found that the terraces are part of an advanced drainage system. The layers of stone & soil allowed heavy rain to filter down without eroding the slopes. Without them, the city would have faced constant landslides. Pretty clever, right?

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Times Square Subway Complex Pedestrian Movement Analysis
2. Before Central Park
3. Dynamic characterization of the Eiffel Tower
4. Contemporary Superpositions As Heritage: The Louvre Pyramid
5. How Roman engineers could have flooded the Colosseum
6. Michelangelo Buonarroti: Restoration of the Frescoes on the Vaulted Ceiling and the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel
7. Gemstones in the Era of the Taj Mahal and the Mughals
8. Spatial Feature Analysis of the Beijing Forbidden City and the Shenyang Imperial Palace Based on Space Syntax
9. Analysis of the Niagara River plume dynamics
10. Ancient Machu Picchu Drainage Engineering

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Mass coral spawning comes after spring full moons

Think about the biggest block party you’ve ever seen. Now imagine it underwater. Once a year, right after a spring full moon, corals all around the Great Barrier Reef release their eggs & sperm at the same time. It only lasts a few nights. But that doesn’t make it any less incredible.

Crown-of-thorns starfish produce huge numbers of eggs

Crown-of-thorns starfish are essentially baby-making machines. A single female can lay tens of millions of eggs in one season. Yes, millions. Unfortunately, it’s not all good news, as when there are too many of these starfish, they chew through the coral incredibly fast. Studies show they’re a major reason coral cover on the reef has declined.

The reef releases dimethylsulfide gas into the air

The Great Barrier Reef actually gives off a gas called dimethylsulfide, also known as DMS. It comes from tiny algae living inside corals. Measurements show that the reefs release DMS into the air during low tides, where it can drift into the atmosphere. Who knew coral could be so gaseous?

Underwater reef sounds help restore fish to degraded areas

Researchers conducted a strange experiment on damaged reefs. They set up speakers & played recordings from healthy reef areas. But instead of silence, those patches started filling up with more fish within weeks, with the sound mostly being clicking shrimp & fish calls. It worked like a magnet.

Reef snakes stay put

The reef is home to sixteen different species of true sea snakes. Most of them aren’t wanderers. Studies found they stick close to the reefs where they were born & rarely move to neighboring systems. As a result, populations in different reef zones remain completely separate. That’s quite unusual for wide-ranging marine species.

The modern reef began only about 9,500 years ago

Most people know that the Great Barrier Reef has been around for a long time. But the modern version hasn’t been around as long as you might think. It formed after the last ice age when rising seas flooded the continental shelf & core samples show this happened roughly 9,500 years ago. However, reef-building in the area started much earlier.

Some reef corals can glow neon at night

Swimming under the Great Barrier Reef is an incredible experience. It’s even better when you do it under UV light because you’ll see that parts of the reef actually glow. In fact, scientists have recorded all sorts of colors. They’ve cataloged more of them in the Great Barrier Reef corals than anywhere else.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Moonrise timing is key for synchronized spawning in coral Dipsastraea speciosa
2. Laboratory study on the relative predation rates of crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) larvae by five fish species
3. The contribution of coral-reef-derived dimethyl sulfide to aerosol burden over the Great Barrier Reef: a modelling study
4. Acoustic enrichment can enhance fish community development on degraded coral reef habitat
5. Distribution of sea snakes in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: Observations from 10 yrs of baited remote underwater video station (BRUVS) sampling
6. A Potted Geological History of the Great Barrier Reef
7. Why corals glow even in the depths of the sea

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

A small bridge marks the plate boundary

There’s an old steel bridge right in the center of Parkfield that crosses Little Cholame Creek, although what’s really interesting is what’s underneath. The San Andreas Fault runs straight through the middle. One end of the bridge sits on the Pacific Plate, the other on the North American Plate, with a sign pointing it out.

Parkfield sits at a fault-segment transition

Parkfield sits right where the San Andreas Fault has an odd kind of switch. Up north, the fault moves slowly, but down south, it locks up until it suddenly slips again. Parkfield is right at that handoff point. As such, it catches both kinds of movement from essentially sitting on the fault’s hinge.

Sensors record many tiny quakes

While most towns only feel the bigger shakes, Parkfield feels a lot of them. And that’s why there are so many sensors everywhere. Yes, scientists have put sensors in the hills and mounted them on poles, even burying them underground. Having all this equipment means that the tiniest of movements are also recorded, creating a huge quake log over time.

Magnitude-6 earthquakes on schedule

Interestingly, Parkfield gets a large earthquake almost on schedule every couple of decades. Big ones around magnitude six have popped up in 1857, 1881, 1901, 1922, 1934, 1966 & again in 2004. Of course, the gaps aren’t exact, as sometimes they’re 12 years, sometimes they’re 30. But the pattern’s been surprisingly steady for over a century.

Comparisons to California

California does get a lot of earthquakes. But what makes Parkfield stand out is how often its ground moves, as the town records tens of thousands of earthquakes each year, with most too small for anyone to feel. Most earthquakes in California come from activity in the Geysers geothermal field, while Parkfield’s activity happens naturally along the fault.

The 2004 mainshock

Parkfield’s last big earthquake was a magnitude 6.0 in late September 2004, just before lunch. The epicenter was a few miles southeast near Gold Hill. The tremor was strong enough to shake the whole area, but what’s interesting is that the scientists could precisely pin down the earthquake’s location to within meters. That sort of accuracy just doesn’t happen in most towns.

The next prediction

Scientists watch Parkfield quite closely, even though they no longer make specific predictions. The next magnitude-6 quake is definitely going to happen at some point, but the timing isn’t clear, with recent studies tracking stress changes & small shifts in the fault. The goal for scientists is to focus on continuous monitoring & readiness rather than naming a year.

How people live there safely day to day

People in Parkfield deal with earthquakes the way other California communities do. They prepare early. Apps like MyShake, for example, send warnings and give people a little pre-warning, while San Luis Obispo County pushes regular earthquake safety information. Plus, most buildings here follow California’s seismic codes.

What locals expect when it shakes

As small quakes happen so often here, many residents aren’t surprised when they feel a quick jolt. They might not even stop unless it’s strong enough to rattle shelves. The local media usually reports little to no damage for these routine quakes, but nobody takes their safety for granted. Larger events can happen with little warning.

Ranching in Parkfield

Yes, the town might be tiny, but ranching keeps it active in its own way. Families have been running cattle on the V6 Ranch for generations. They’ve managed to keep the ranch open for events & continue to have seasonal activities without turning it into a tourist trap. It’s one of those places where you still see working trucks pulling up to the local café after a long day.

Getting there

Anyone interested in visiting Parkfield should know that it isn’t exactly on the way to anywhere. You’ll need to drive through many county roads that wind through ranchland & low hills. But once you get there, it’s completely worth it. Where else can you find a town that has ground literally shaking underneath you?

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. The Parkfield prediction experiment
2. Scientific goals of the Parkfield earthquake prediction experiment
3. The Earthquake Prediction Experiment at Parkfield, California
4. Preliminary Report on the 28 September 2004, M 6.0 Parkfield, California Earthquake 
5. Field Trip Guide to selected features along the San Andreas fault near Parkfield, central California
6. Lists, Maps, and Statistics – Earthquake Hazards Program
7. Seismic attenuation and stress on the San Andreas Fault at Parkfield: are we critical yet?
8. 3.7-magnitude earthquake shakes northern SLO County in early morning hours

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Built as a hump yard and expanded in stages

Bailey Yard began taking shape in the late 1940s, with Union Pacific rolling out the first big changes in 1948. They added a modern hump yard with new classification tracks. Over the next few decades, construction continued, with an eastbound hump & diesel facilities arriving in the 1960s. They added more upgrades in the 1970s. The yard’s name came from Edd H. Bailey, who once ran Union Pacific. 

Footprint bigger than a European city-state

Bailey Yard is more than 25 times bigger than Vatican City. The train station is around 11.5 km², or 4.44 square miles, while Vatican City is just 0.44 km², or 0.16 square miles. Bailey Yard also has about 315 miles of track inside its boundaries. That’s enough track to drive from New York City to Baltimore.

How it stacks up against big U.S. yards

Yes, there are many massive yards across America, but Bailey still dominates in terms of size at roughly 2,850 acres. BNSF’s Argentine Yard in Kansas City is about 780 acres, while Norfolk Southern’s Moorman Yard in Ohio is smaller, too, at 620 acres. That’s even after a huge expansion. 

Where it ranks in the world by area

Outside the U.S., only a few facilities come close to Bailey Yard in size. Germany’s Maschen yard is just under 700 acres, and China has some huge classification yards, including Zhengzhou North & Wuhan North. But Bailey Yard is still the largest railroad classification yard in the entire world.

Track layout built for mass sorting

The yard also has a maze of tracks, including over a hundred that are used simply for sorting railcars. It’s arranged east–west, with the “bowl” tracks lining up side by side so that it’s possible to juggle thousands of cars every day. And workers here do it all without the train station getting jammed up. The west bowl alone fits over 5,500 cars.

Twin humps and their measured heights

In the middle of all that track are two mounds, called humps, where cars roll down by gravity to get sorted. The east hump is taller at around 10 meters, while the west one is closer to six. Every day, thousands of railcars glide over those humps and make their way through the train station. 

Daily workload in cars and trains

As you might expect, traffic at the station doesn’t stop. More than 10,000 railcars pass through daily & about 4,000 of those are reshuffled for new routes. On top of that, around 32 coal trains stop at the station each day, just for fuel & quick checks. Then, these trains continue rolling west. 

Repair work happens around the clock

The yard has a repair zone that never really quiets down, with crews coming in at all hours to deal with whatever’s acting up. Sometimes it’s small stuff like brakes, other times, it’s swapping heavy parts. But the shop never shuts its doors because the trains don’t stop coming. Instead, they handle the problems right there, rather than waiting somewhere else.

Fueling stations are built like mini truck stops

Of course, engines don’t leave here thirsty. Bailey has its own fueling spots that are designed to handle a lot of locomotives without slowing everything down. Workers refuel the trains while they’re still in the yard, and they have the capacity for multiple engines to line up. The whole thing’s timed to keep traffic flowing.

A specialized tower oversees every movement

Above the tracks is a control tower, where a small team keeps an eye on everything going on down below. They’re the ones juggling departures & watching switches to make sure that nothing is blocking an important track. Every train that rolls out of the yard passes through their plans first.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. The Location-Allocation Model for Multi-Classification-Yard Location Problem in a Railway Network
2. Modeling of Railway Stations Based on Queuing Networks
3. Dwelling on the positive at UP’s Bailey Yard
4. Union Pacific Bailey Yard
5. Norfolk Southern names its largest freight train classification yard in honor of Wick Moorman
6. BNSF’s Argentine Yard gets facelift in less than 48 hours

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

The construction pause

Work on the monument hit a wall in the 1850s after money ran out & politics got messy, so construction simply stopped. The crews walked away and left the walls standing at around 150 feet tall. Eventually, the workers came back, but that was more than 20 years later. They now had to use new stone.

Texas, Maryland marble

The first batch of blocks came from Texas, Maryland, which is just north of Baltimore. All those chunks were cut & set before the project ran out of steam between 1848 & 1854. This marble has a slightly different grain and tone. As such, the bottom part of the monument looks warmer and a bit creamier. But that’s not the end of the story.

Early builders used different shims & mortar mixes

Near the base, the first crews set stones with lead shims & a lime mortar blend that included river sand and gravel. The shim thickness wasn’t consistent early on. As a result, they switched to heavier lead when the edges started chipping at the joints, and those early layers are still underneath everything that came later.

A four-course band

A few courses near the middle came from Sheffield, Massachusetts. These were just four layers that were added when work finally started up again, but the supplier had issues, so the deal didn’t last long. Yet those four courses are still there. They form a thin belt around the monument that’s quite difficult to see, but it’s there.

Cockeysville marble

Once that Sheffield marble didn’t work out, they switched to stone from Cockeysville, which is also in Maryland and is from the Beaver Dam quarry. This is a few miles from the earlier Texas source. After 1880, this was the only material they used all the way to the top, and that upper stone came in lighter. It gave the shaft that clear two-tone look.

Different mineral makeup

Yes, the two Maryland quarries were close, yet the rock wasn’t exactly the same. The early stone was mostly calcium carbonate, which is rather chunky & pure white, while the later stuff had more magnesium in it. It was also finer-grained. Over time, they’ve both weathered differently, and that’s another reason you can spot that seam so easily now.

Other details

The color break is at about 150 feet up. When they resumed in the 1870s, the workers actually chipped away some older blocks to stabilize them before building upward again. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took control of the monument & Thomas Lincoln Casey oversaw the second round.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Washington’s Building Stones
2. Washington Monument Historical American Buildings Survey
3. The Washington Monument: A Technical History and Catalog of the Commemorative Stones

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Where is it 

The airport is a short drive south of downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Some travelers & all pilots know it by its codes, which are ATL if you’re booking a ticket, KATL if you’re looking at air traffic maps. It has been the city’s gateway for decades & is built right into one of the biggest airline systems in the country.

How many flights move each day

The airport has more than 2,900 takeoffs & landings every day. Yes, daily. And when you compare that to many countries’ total daily air traffic, it’s clear that ATL is ahead by a long shot. John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, for example, has around 1,200 flights each day.

Country totals that sit below one big airport’s day

Interestingly, some countries don’t even hit Atlanta’s daily flight count across their entire national systems. Iceland has only one airport, Keflavík International Airport, and it has only 104 flights a day. As for Dallas-Fort Worth, it has only 2,000 flights per day, while the second-busiest airport in the world, Dubai International Airport, has between 2,000 & 2,500 flights per day.

Planes depart roughly every 30 seconds during peaks

Morning pushes and late afternoon waves are when the airport really kicks into gear. Multiple departure runways work at once and allow jets to roll almost back-to-back without creating backups at the thresholds. During these busy moments, it’s common for controllers at ATL to clear departures about every 30 seconds.

The five-runway, east–west setup

To deal with so many flights, designers had to carefully plan the airport’s runways, and they went to five huge runways, all pointing east–west. Such a layout lets multiple planes come & go at the same time without stepping on each other’s paths. ATL squeezes every minute out of those runways.

Independent parallel approaches in use

Most airports can’t land big jets side by side on runways that close together. But Atlanta can. It uses something called PRM, which is essentially a fancy radar system, along with special approach rules. Two planes can come in at once, safely, even when visibility’s tricky. ATL is one of the few places where this happens regularly.

Delta’s hub 

Delta’s home turf is Atlanta, and they’ve made sure their schedule runs like clockwork. Years ago, they reworked how flights connect, reducing the huge waves & raising the number of steady streams each day. This change helped increase their daily departures to over a thousand, while connecting to hundreds of destinations, without the usual chaos.

The underground train that feeds the gates

It’s not easy to walk through ATL from end to end as it’s gigantic. And beneath all that pavement, there’s a train called the Plane Train that takes people back & forth, linking every concourse and the terminal underground. Passengers can keep moving fast enough to make tight connections that would be impossible on foot.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Air Traffic by the Numbers 2024
2. Airport capacity profile: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
3. Precision Runway Monitor (PRM) Training
4. Dynamic Airline Scheduling
5. History of APM Systems and Their Roles at Airports
6. Air Traffic by the Numbers 2025
7. Aircraft movements at Keflavik airport 2017-2025 by Month and Flight Traffic
8. DXB records highest annual traffic in 2024, celebrating a decade as the world’s busiest international airport

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Permafrost and thaw settlement

A large portion of Alaska sits on frozen ground, and that ground doesn’t always stay put. When the ice under the surface melts, the roadbed can slump, and in some areas, engineers don’t even bother trying to build past those unstable sections. It would cost an absolute fortune to keep the pavement from sinking. So they don’t bother.

Ending where the work is

Other stretches of road were never meant for family road trips, such as the Dalton Highway. It wasn’t built to connect towns, but rather, to get people & equipment to the oil fields. This meant that the pavement ended as soon as the pipeline did, as there was no reason for it to continue going.

A canceled bridge

Originally, there was supposed to be a bridge between Ketchikan & Gravina Island, and the state even paved part of the highway for it. But then plans for the bridge were axed. As a result, that perfectly good road goes absolutely nowhere and just stops at the water. It has now become nicknamed the “Road to Nowhere.”

Glacial rivers washed out a highway

Mother Nature has her own way of taking charge, and that’s rather obvious along the Copper River Highway. Floods & shifting channels knocked out several bridges, causing the rest of the highway to become a stranded stretch of pavement. No amount of planning is going to help when a river decides to move locations. 

Ferry terminals

The ocean itself does the connecting in Southeast Alaska, as highways there often stop right at a ferry dock. The state tries to avoid building expensive roads through mountains & icefields, and instead, it relies on the Marine Highway ferries to carry vehicles between communities. Only Haines, Skagway & Hyder connect by road to the continent.

Short construction seasons

In Alaska, the building season is very short, and crews must work like crazy during the warm months. Everything then shuts down when winter hits. Any big projects will need to be split into chunks over several years, meaning that a temporary end may actually stick around for a while. Some of the unfinished portions are just waiting for their next piece.

Winter ice roads replace pavement

There are some areas where the seasonal ice roads extend the highway route during the coldest months. Trucks use these frozen paths to reach oil fields & remote camps. Then, when spring arrives, the ice melts, meaning that the highway is suddenly gone until the next deep freeze. 

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. Access, Equity, and Safety in Rural Road Development: Historical Evidence from the Dalton Highway, 1974-2024
2. Application of the Multi-Dimensional Surface Water Modeling System at Bridge 339, Copper River Highway, Alaska 
3. Alaska moves 2050: Long-range transportation plan & freight plan transportation assessment

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.

The earthquakes that set it off

The trouble started late at night on December 16, 1811, when a huge earthquake hit the New Madrid region of Missouri, shaking an area bigger than most states. Two more followed in January & early February. However, these weren’t small tremors you might sleep through. They were actually so strong that even places far to the east felt them rumble through the ground.

Where on the river it happened

The February quake struck the area from New Madrid up to a bend near Kentucky. That stretch sits right on top of a fault that cuts across the riverbed, with the bend jerking upward in some spots & dropping in others. Such a sudden shift happened exactly where the river flowed. As such, the water reacted in a rather dramatic way.

What can make a great river run upstream

Earthquakes can throw big chunks of land upward in just a few seconds. When that happens under a river, the water slams into the new “wall” of land, and in the case of the Mississippi, parts of the riverbed went up so quickly that the current reversed. There were also powerful wave surges that raced back upstream.

How long the upstream surge lasted

The old reports talk about the river “running backward.” However, they don’t mean it flipped directions for days on end, as the backward flow only lasted a little while each time the quakes hit. It didn’t reverse continuously for three days. Rather, the region shook over & over for months, so different towns experienced different moments of the river acting strangely.

Why “three days” became part of the story

So where did the “three days” idea come from? It’s because people told & retold the story over time, with those separate events eventually sounding like one big, drawn-out episode. Yes, it flowed backwards, but it was for a short while, and not three days straight.

What else changed on and around the river

However, the quakes messed with more than the water’s direction. They also changed the landscape, as fault movement created sudden drops in the ground, which trapped streams. This turned parts of northwest Tennessee into what became Reelfoot Lake. Riverbanks also slumped into the water, and some areas along the river even had temporary waterfalls.

How researchers pieced it together

Nobody had seismographs back then, and it took a while for scientists to figure out what happened. It was only years later that they managed to use geological evidence & reports to trace where the faults run under the river. They then matched these with descriptions from people who lived through the shaking.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article:

1. On the Modified Mercalli intensities and magnitudes of the 1811/1812 New Madrid, Central United States, earthquakes
2. The Enigma of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–18121
3. Faulting along the southern margin of Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee 
4. Accounts of the New Madrid Earthquakes
5. The New Madrid seismic zone of the Central United States