River Over A River

[TimothyBFan]

I thought this was neat.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e136/williehoo/ATT41583.jpg

Water Bridge in Germany . What a feat!
Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long.......now this is engineering!
This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany ,
as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg , near Berlin .
The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.
To those who appreciate engineering projects, here's a puzzle for you armchair engineers
and physicists.
Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of ship and barge traffic,
or just the weight of the water?



Answer:
It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!
Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship,
regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

[MikeA]

I'd seen this before, but always wondered "WHY?" "Because we CAN?" Certainly is a "landmark" but I'd think not very practical <LOL> Of course it may be the location where water transportation is the primary means of getting from here to there. Would need to get the GPS coordinates and see where it is located.

[sodascouts]

Very cool, but I'm moving this to Cheap Talk and Wine so nobody thinks someone died! ;)

[UK TimFan]

This isn't so much as river over a river as 'canal to canal'.
This video (http://www.ntgraphics.co.uk/attractions/falkirkwheel.html) requires Flash 10 or above, but it has some interesting details (including the bit about ships/boats displacing water!) beneath the 'video box'.

More information (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel) about the Wheel, though obviously there's loads of stuff if you google.

It's certainly amazing what can be achieved nowadays, though when you look at things such as the Pyramids in Egypt, and the old cathedrals in Europe, those buildings are even more mind-blowing as they were built purely by man-power. Nowadays although men (and women!) are involved there is so much machinery too.