Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.
In 1994 the SS American Star was being towed to Thailand to become a floating hotel. Disaster struck while passing the Canary island of Fuerteventura and a strong storm beached the ship and broke her in two. Today you can still see the bow of the ship sitting on the beach and rusting away.
Make sure to visit these amazing ground level photos of the ship.
Thanks: Jonathan Hoppe, Stephen Arms, Ryan Roemmich, Fai Sheng, Quebrantahuesos
This seems to be some sort of Bullet Trainyard in Tokyo (perhaps that should be Bullet Train train-yard?). I can count 15 with 4 more slightly south. Also, could this be part of one of the Doctor Yellow trains we were looking for in our previous Bullet Train post?
Many thanks to sathish for sending us this.
Portugal has some pretty cool bridges!
First up is the Arrábida Bridge over the Douro River in Porto. The bridge is 493 metres long, and at the time of its construction in 1963 it had the largest concrete span of any bridge in the world. If you look closely on the eastern side you can see the curve of the arch underneath the bridge (compare with the image on Wikipedia to see what I mean).
Next up is the Ponte 25 de Abril, which crosses the Tagus river in Lisbon. It was originally named Salazar Bridge but after the Carnation Revolution, the bridge was renamed to 25 April Bridge, the day when the revolution occurred. It’s interesting to have a look at the north side of the shore, where the bridge curves spectacularly over loads of buildings before it eventually touches down (Wikipedia page). We couldn’t work out what this monument on the south bank was though… This monument on the south bank is the Monumento do Cristo-Rei, an imitation of the more famous statue in Rio.
Finally we have the spectacular Vasco da Gama Bridge, which also crosses Lisbon’s Tagus river, but at a much wider point! The Vasco da Gama has a total length of over 17 kilometres and is the longest bridge in Europe. Again, there’s a rather cool curve visible in this one and some cool shadows too (Wikipedia page).
Thanks to Manuel Freitas, Bodo Möller, Jan Brasna, grufo and Joao Ramires.
