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.

The Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi has 120,000 square meter roof constructed from a 3 large concrete shells. My first thought was that it looked a lot like the Olympic Stadium in Montreal so it’s no surprise that both were designed by Roger Taillibert, a French architect who clearly thinks he’s designing spacecraft rather than buildings. There’s ground level photos and design sketches on Tallibert’s website.

Thanks to Tggb3k (We noticed your submissions eventually!)

Home of the Oregon Ducks American Football team is Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. The central “O” and end-zone “Oregon” is clearly visible in signature yellow on green.

Thanks: John Armitage

Stadion Dziesięciolecia (Polish for 10th Anniversary Stadium) is the biggest stadium in Warsaw but was abandoned in 1983. It is now home to the Jarmark Europa market, which runs every weekend. In the satellite photo you can see the stalls of over 5,000 companies (More info).

Thanks: pradera

In the waters of Shatt al-Arab in Basrah, Iraq, lie the wrecks of several ships, some just lying there floating on their sides, others half-submerged and seemingly covered in rust (or perhaps it’s actually damage from explosions?)

They look like oil tankers (at least I don’t think they look like military craft) but I guess that these shipwrecks are a litle different to the ones we usually post. However, they’re still fascinating to look at from up here.

There’s actually loads of these ships lying around in varying states of decay. In fact it’s all a bit creepy…

Thanks to Serge Lyubomudrov, Ian Luria and James.