These are the Sails of the South, found beside the M275 near Portsmouth, England. Unveiled in March 2001 as part of the Gateway Project regeneration scheme, it represents a masted tri-sail in homage to Portsmouth’s maritime heritage.

Er, a bit like the Spinnaker Tower in, um… Portsmouth then?

Just to the south you can see the Tipner Bridge which received refurbishment as part of the same project – there’s several masts on it which light up at night, just like the sails do. And there’s a submarine here too!

Thanks to Dee.

Unfortunately we missed posting this giant iPod sighted in Australia last week – but we don’t mind as it seems that most of the rest of the net was taken in by the stupidly obvious April Fool that was doing the rounds alongside the link.

However, to prove that we’re always down with the kids, Google Sightseeing is proud to present… the very latest in cutting edge audio technology – The World’s Largest Record Player! Built by Technics to celebrate their 1 billionth pair of 1200s sold, this giant deck is fully-functional – it plays 6,000 inch vinyl at a speed of 0.01 RPM!

Thanks to Tggb3k, Yablo, infredible and Orion.

Check out the awesome twin shadows of two bridges linking Devon and Cornwall over the River Tamar, England. The suspension bridge to the north is the Tamar Bridge which at the time of its opening was the longest suspension bridge in the UK. In 2001 it became:

the world’s first suspension bridge to be widened using cantilevers, and the world’s first bridge to undergo strengthening and widening work while remaining open to traffic.

Just to the south is the Royal Albert Bridge which was designed in 1855 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel no less!

Here in Niigata, Japan, we can see what may well be the world’s largest football! Presumably it’s a gas tank of some sort – can anyone translate the japanese?

It’s likely that this ball was decorated for the 2002 World Cup, as some of the games were held at the nearby 42,300 seater Niigata “Big Swan” Stadium, so named for the super-cool roof, which apparently represents the wings of a resting swan.

Thanks to Jerome.

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is the world’s longest cable-stayed concrete bridge, with a length of over 29,000 feet. It connects St. Petersburg in Pinellas County to Palmetto in Manatee County, Florida.

A two lane bridge was built in 1954 and upgraded to four lanes in 1971. In 1980 disaster struck when the SS Summit Venture collided with the bridge in a storm, destroying 1200 feet of the southbound bridge. The northbound bridge took all of the traffic whilst construction of the current bridge began in 1982 and finished in 1987 at a cost of $245 million. The original bridge was then demolished but the approaches were left to be used as fishing piers. Just to be careful, the piers of the main span of the new bridge are surrounded by large concrete barriers called “dolphins” that can apparently protect the bridge from collisions with freighters much larger than the Summit Venture.

Thanks: drinklime, Jeff, Infinity & Eric T. Simon.