This has got to be the world’s largest can of 7 Up, and even better – it’s actually full of 246,051 litres (65,000 gallons) of 7 Up!

(OK that’s not entirely true. The 19 metre can is actually a water tower, but the water which passes through it really does get turned into 7 Up.)

7 Up was launched in 1929 named “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda”, which was caramel coloured and contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug. They changed the name almost immediately, but the psychiatric medicine stayed in until 1950.

More info at Roadside America and Wikipedia.

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.

It seems that some evil genius has invented a shrink-ray, and the first thing he shrunk was the whole of Australia! Well, it was too big anyway.

Thanks to a very tiny Adam Lewis.

It’s been a while since we had a good bridge shadow, so here is the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward bridge – more commonly known as the Dames Point bridge, in Jacksonville, Florida. Opened in 1989, the 2 mile long bridge is the longest concrete cable-stayed bridge in the United States. I think it’s also a rather beautiful contruction. Well, you know… for a bridge.

Live Local has some incredibly high resolution imagery of the bridge – detailed enough to make out which models of car are driving across I’m sure. Our other Live Local thumbnail is of the very top of one of the tower verticals, where you can see a 15 foot wide platform and the stairs leading up to it.

Impressive stuff, however I’m still not sure about Live Local – I find the interface for the bird’s eye images clunky and confusing. More importantly, I think Microsoft are missing the point slightly, as one of the reasons I like satellite maps is the geek factor – they’re pictures, **taken by satellites***, I mean, that’s just cool, right?

Thanks to David Fletcher.

* Yes, I’m fully aware that some of Google’s best imagery is aerial photography, but that’s not the point!

In 1924 this former coral rock quarry near Miami was transformed into Coral Gables Venetian Pool, complete with cascading waterfalls, coral rock caves and a palm-fringed island. Apparently it is the only pool in the US to be included in the National Register of Historic Places.

Today the pool has over one hundred thousand visitors a year, and the official site says that at one time:

orchestras serenaded pool side dancers as they swayed beneath the stars on outdoor terrazzo dance floors. Bathing beauties by the hundreds promenaded across specially constructed walkways, while visiting dignitaries passed through the circular aquarium room entry to tour the “world’s most beautiful swimming hole.”

Many thanks to… (drum-roll please…) Phillip Lockwood-Holmes!!