12 Most Unusual Bridges of the World

12. Kawazu-Nanadaru Loop Bridge, Japan

Kawazu-Nanadaru Loop Bridge
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The Kawazu-Nanadaru Loop Bridge consists of two spirals, each 1.1 km long, 80-meter in diameter - the only way for traffic to get down the mountainside into the valley, too steep for any other usual road-building solutions. 

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The busy Route 414 serves the weekend crowd from Tokyo, intent to wind down at the hot springs resort of the Izu Peninsula. The "winding down" bit obviously starts at this bridge.Built in 1981, the double-spiral structure demands careful driving - the speed limit on the bridge is only 30 km/h, which also helps to better enjoy the views.

11. Hureai Bridge, Japan

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This unique circular pedestrian bridge is located at the foot of the Hiyoshi dam near Kyoto, Japan. It is part of  Hiyoshi Spring spa resort and was designed by Japanese architect Norihiko Dan, who also planned the landscaping of the spa resort and park. 

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Built in 1998 the bridge known as 'Friendship Bridge' has a diameter of 80 metres.

10. Wind-Rain Bridge, China

Chengyang Wind-Rain Bridge
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The Chengyang Bridge or Chengyang Wind-Rain Bridge, Liuzhou, Guangxi Province (very north of Guangzi), People's Republic of China. It's in Dong Minority Region. It's a special covered bridge and one of Fengyu Bridges (a special bridge type in local Dong Minority Region). It was completed in 1916. It has many other names including Yongji Bridge and Panlong Bridge.

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The bridge is a perfect combination of painting, bridge, corridor, veranda and Chinese pavilion. It has two platforms (at the two ends of the bridge), 3 piers, and 4 spans, 5 pavilions, 19 verandas, and three floors. The piers are made of stone, the upper structures are mainly wooden, and the roofs are covered with tiles. The bridge has wooden handrails on both sides.The bridge has a total length of 64.4 meters, and its corridor has a width of 3.4 meters. The net height above the river is about 10 meters.

9. Ponte Vecchio, Italy

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The Ponte Vecchio is a Medieval bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewellers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. It has been described as Europe's oldest wholly-stone, closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge, but there are far older segmental arch bridges such as Alconétar Bridge.

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The bridge first appears in a document of 996.The bridge consists of three segmental arches: the main arch has a span of 30 meters (98 ft) the two side arches each span 27 meters (88 ft). The rise of the arches is between 3.5 and 4.4 meters (11½ to 14½ feet), and the span-to-rise ratio 5:1.


8. Langkawi Sky Bridge, Malaysia

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Langkawi Sky Bridge is a 125 metre curved pedestrian cable-stayed bridge. It is located700m above sea level at the peak of Gunung Mat Chinchang on Pulau Langkawi, an island in the Langkawi archipelago in Kedah.The Langkawi Sky Bridge is accessible by the Langkawi Cable Car.

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The Langkawi sky-bridge in Malaysia offer magnificent views of the Andaman Sea and Thailand’s Tarutao Island. The Andaman Sea and Thailand’s Tarutao Island can be seen in the distance. Platforms at each end allow the visitors to take a breather before venturing across. There are also signs telling visitors to get off the bridge quickly in the event of an electrical storm. 


7. Aiola Island Bridge, Austria

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Located in the center of the Mur river in Graz, Austria, it has a sunbathing area, a trendy bar and a coffee house. Aiola Island Bridge is a unique offering of coolest bridge cum bar. Known as  ‘Aiola Island’, it is positioned right in the heart of the Mur River in Graz, Austria. The island was built in 2003 by a New-York based artist Vito Acconci.

Aiola island-bridge bar in Austria
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This exclusive installed masterpiece got the deserving attention within months. It features asunbathing area, fashionable bar and a coffee house and also allows you an access to cross the Mur river from one shore to other. I haven’t come such an elite masterpiece before.

6. Tianjin Eye bridge, China

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It is a gigantic Ferris wheel built on Yongle Bridge over the Haihe river. It can lift people 120m up into the air. Tianjin Eye is a 120m-tall (110m-diameter) Ferris wheel built on the Chihai Bridge over the Hai River in Tianjin, China. It is claimed to be the only such wheel to have been constructed over a bridge.

Construction started in 2007 (main body completed on 2008-Dec-18) and it opened to the public in on 2008-Apr-07. The electric-powered wheel has 48 capsules, each with a capacity of 8 passengers, and takes 30 minutes to complete a rotation, giving a capacity of 768 passengers per hour.

Tianjin Eye at night
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At the time of construction, only the 135m London Eye and 160 m Star of Nanchang were taller, however even larger wheels have since been built, including the 165m Singapore Flyer, and the 185m Great Berlin Wheel and 208m Beijing Great Wheel are under construction.

5. Henderson Waves, Singapore

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At a height of 36 meters or 12 storeys from the road, it's the highest pedestrian bridge inSingapore. Henderson Waves is a 274-metre (900 ft) long pedestrian bridge. At 36 metres (120 ft) above Henderson Road, it is the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore. It connects Mount Faber Park and Telok Blangah Hill Park.

Henderson Waves at night
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The bridge has a wave-form made up of seven undulating curved steel ribs that alternately rise over and under its deck. The curved ribs form alcoves that function as shelters with seats within. Slats of yellow balau wood, an all-weather timber found in South-East Asia, are used in the decking. The wave-forms are lit with LED light at night from 7pm to 2am daily. 


4.Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, Japan

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The Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, also known as the Trans-Tokyo Bay Highway, is a bridge-tunnel combination across Tokyo Bay in Japan. It connects the city of Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture with the city of Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture, and forms part of National Route 409. With an overall length of 14 km, it includes a 4.4 km bridge and 9.6 km tunnel underneath the bay—the fourth-longest underwater tunnel in the world. 

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At the bridge-tunnel crossover point, there is an artificial island called Umihotaru with a rest area consisting of restaurants, shops and amusement facilities. Air is supplied to the tunnel by a distinctive tower in the middle of the tunnel, called the Kaze no Tō, which uses the bay's almost-constant winds as a power source. The road opened on December 18, 1997 after 31 years of construction at a cost of 11.2 billion USD at the time of opening. The Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line reduced the drive between Chiba and Kanagawa, two important industrial regions, from 90 to 15 minutes.


3. Falkirk Wheel, Scotland

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It restored navigability across Scotland on the historic Forth & Clyde Canal and Union Chanal. The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It is named after the nearby town of Falkirk in central Scotland. The two canals were previously connected by a series of 11 locks, but by the 1930s these had fallen into disuse, were filled in and the land built upon.

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The Millennium Commission decided to regenerate the canals of central Scotland to connect Glasgow with Edinburgh once more. Designs were submitted for a lock to link the canals, with the Falkirk Wheel design winning. As with many Millennium Commission projects the site includes a visitors' centre containing a shop, café and exhibition centre.

Falkirk Wheel at work (video below):

2. Banpo Bridge, South Korea

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The Banpo Bridge is a major bridge in downtown Seoul over the Han River, South Korea, connecting the Seocho and Yongsan districts. Banpo Bridge is on top of Jamsu Bridge, forming a "double deck" bridge. When the water level rises too high, the Jamsu Bridge becomes covered with water and gets closed off. The lower deck incorporates pedestrian and bicycle paths that provide easy access to the Banpo Hangang Park from the north side of the river. Banpo Bridge is a girder bridge and was completed in 1982.

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The bridge has 38 water pumps and 380 nozzles on either side, which draw 190 tons of water per minute from the river 20 meters below the deck, and shoots as far as 43 metershorizontally.

Bridge - Fountain at work (video below):

1.Magdeburg Water Bridge, Germany

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The Germans took over 80 years to build this 918m bridge over Elbe river near the town ofMagdeburg. Canal engineers had first conceived of joining the two waterways as far back as 1919, and by 1938 the Rothensee boat lift and bridge anchors were in place, but construction was postponed during World War II. After the Cold War split Germany, the project was put on hold indefinitely by the East German government.

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With the reunification of Germany and major establishment of water transport routes made the Water Bridge a priority again. Work started in 1997, with construction taking six years and costing €500 million. The water bridge now connects Berlin’s inland harbour network with the ports along the Rhine river. The aqueduct's trough structure incorporates 24,000 tonnes of steel and 68,000 cubic meters of concrete. Until the opening of the water bridge in October 2003, ships moving between the Midland Canal and the Elbe-Havel Canal used a 12-kilometre, through the Rothensee lock, along the River Elbe and back up Niegripp lock. 

Source: The World Geography

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'Man with the golden arm' saves 2million babies in half a century of donating rare type of blood

An Australian man who has been donating his extremely rare kind of blood for 56 years has saved the lives of more than two million babies.

James Harrison, 74, has an antibody in his plasma that stops babies dying from Rhesus disease, a form of severe anaemia.

He has enabled countless mothers to give birth to healthy babies, including his own daughter, Tracey, who had a healthy son thanks to her father's blood.

Mr Harrison, dubbed 'the man with the golden arm', is still donating every few weeks at the age of 74. He is thought to have saved 2.2million babies

Mr Harrison has been giving blood every few weeks since he was 18 years old and has now racked up a total of 984 donations.

When he started donating, his blood was deemed so special his life was insured for one million Australian dollars.

He was also nicknamed the 'man with the golden arm' or the 'man in two million'.

His blood has since led to the development of a vaccine called Anti-D.

He said: 'I've never thought about stopping. Never.' He made a pledge to be a donor aged 14 after undergoing major chest surgery in which he needed 13 litres of blood.

'I was in hospital for three months,' he said. 'The blood I received saved my life so I made a pledge to give blood when I was 18.'

Just after he started donating he was found to have the rare and life-saving antibody in his blood.

At the time, thousands of babies in Australia were dying each year of Rhesus disease. Other newborns suffered permanent brain damage because of the condition.

The disease creates an incompatibility between the mother's blood and her unborn baby's blood. It stems from one having Rh-positive blood and the other Rh-negative.

After his blood type was discovered, Mr Harrison volunteered to undergo a series of tests to help develop the Anti-D vaccine.

'They insured me for a million dollars so I knew my wife Barbara would be taken care of,' he said.

'I wasn't scared. I was glad to help. I had to sign every form going and basically sign my life away.'

Mr Harrison is Rh-negative and was given injections of Rh-positive blood.

It was found his plasma could treat the condition and since then it has been given to hundreds of thousands of women.

It has also been given to babies after they are born to stop them developing the disease.

It is estimated he has helped save 2.2 million babies so far.

One of the mothers he has helped is Joy Barnes, who works at the Red Cross Blood Bank in Sydney.

She has known Mr Harrison for 23 years but has only just told him she is one of the countless mothers he has helped.

Ms Barnes, who miscarried at four and five months before having treatment, said: 'Without him I would never have been able to have a healthy baby.'

Speaking to Mr Harrison on an Australian TV show, she said: 'I don't know how to thank you enough.'

His own daughter, Tracey, also had to have the Anti-D injection after the birth of her first son.

She said she was 'proud' of her dad for continuing to give blood, even after the death of her mother after 56 years of marriage.

Mr Harrison said: 'I was back in hospital giving blood a week after Barbara passed away.

'It was sad but life marches on and we have to continue doing what we do. She's up there looking down, so I carry on.'

Mr Harrison is expected to reach the 1,000 donation milestone in September this year.

Source: Dailymail

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Eye catching Real Wallpaper for Windows 7

Loved it??????????

Download this type 47 photo's in a theme pack as Wallpaper 

for Windows 7

Source: Internet

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A true story of Mother’s Sacrifice

This is a true story of Mother’s Sacrifice during the China Earthquake.

After the Earthquake had subsided, when the rescuers reached the ruins of a young woman’s house, they saw her dead body through the cracks. But her pose was somehow strange that she knelt on her knees like a person was worshiping; her body was leaning forward, and her two hands were supporting by an object. The collapsed house had crashed her back and her head.

With so many difficulties, the leader of the rescuer team put his hand through a narrow gap on the wall to reach the woman’s body. He was hoping that this woman could be still alive. However, the cold and stiff body told him that she had passed away for sure.

He and the rest of the team left this house and were going to search the next collapsed building. For some reasons, the team leader was driven by a compelling force to go back to the ruin house of the dead woman. Again, he knelt down and used his had through the narrow cracks to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement,” A child! There is a child! “

The whole team worked together; carefully they removed the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a 3 months old little boy wrapped in a flowery blanket under his mother’s dead body. Obviously, the woman had made an ultimate sacrifice for saving her son. When her house was falling, she used her body to make a cover to protect her son. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up.

The medical doctor came quickly to exam the little boy. After he opened the blanket, he saw a cell phone inside the blanket. There was a text message on the screen. It said,” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” This cell phone was passing around from one hand to another. Every body that read the message wept. ” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” Such is the mother’s love for her child!!

Source: Internet

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Ghost city appears above Xin'an River

Tall buildings miraculously appeared on the normally clear Xin'an River. Picture: ITN

• City appears over Chinese river
• Residents think it's a "vortex"
• Scientists say it's a great mirage

IT looks like any other city skyline with skyscrapers, a few mountains and trees - except it isn't real.

The giant mirage appeared across the skyline near in East China earlier this month after heavy rainfall and humid conditions along the Xin’an River.

As mist settled over the river at dusk, tall buildings appeared to rise from nowhere, leading residents in nearby Huanshan City to speculate that the vision may be a "vortex" to a lost civilisation.

Scroll down to see amazing footage of the ghost city

"It's really amazing, it looks like a scene in a movie, in a fairlyland," one resident told UK news channel ITN.

The mysterious city had vanished just as quickly as it had come.

Scientists have quashed the vortex theory and, as per usual, have a simple explanation for the incredible sight.

They believe it may have been a mirage, caused when moisture in the air becomes warmer than the temperature of the water below.

When rays of sunlight cross from the colder air into the warmer air they are refracted or bent – creating a reflection in the air that looks similar to a reflection in water.

It's a common sight for many travellers on Australian roads. But we Australians tend to see puddles of water that disappear when you get close, not entire cities floating on rivers.

Don’t get it? Here’s a scientist to explain

Source: News.com.au

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Guinness names Filipino as world's shortest man

SINDANGAN, Philippines (AP) — A poor Filipino blacksmith's son who stands less than 2 feet (60 centimeters) tall was declared the world's shortest man by Guinness World Records on his 18th birthday Sunday, sparking a celebration in his hometown.

Junrey Balawing smiles as he is presented by Craig Glenday, second from left, with a Guinness World Records certificate for being the world's shortest living man following the last of a series of measurement conducted at Sindangan Municipal Hall, Sindangan township, Zamboanga Del Norte province in Southern Philippines, Sunday June 12, 2011, his 18th birthday and coincidentally the Philippines' Independence Day. Balawing was officially measured at at 59.93 Centimeters (23.5 inches) dislodging Nepal's Khagendra Thapa Magar with a measurement of 26.4 inches. At left is Sindangan Mayor Filomeno Sy, and at right is Balawing's father Reynaldo. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

The title was bestowed on Junrey Balawing in Sindangan in the southern Philippines, with his parents, villagers and officials showering the coastal town's newly famous resident with a feast of roasted pigs and seafood, cake, balloons and cash gifts.

Balawing measured 23.5 inches (60 centimeters) during the ceremony attended by about 100 villagers and journalists at the town hall. Guinness World Records representative Craig Glenday presented Balawing with official recognition of his status as the shortest adult man in the world, with the framed certificate nearly reaching the ears of the standing recipient.

Balawing, who wore a white shirt emblazoned with the Guinness seal, took over the title from Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal, who is 26.4 inches (67 centimeters) tall, Glenday said.

Dozens of journalists descended on Sindangan, a fishing and farming town of 90,000 located about 450 miles (730 kilometers) south of Manila, to cover the event.

"Thank you," Balawing told the crowd in a local dialect which was translated by his father, Reynaldo. Balawing tried repeatedly before managing to blow out the candles on the cake and clapped heartily each time the crowd applauded. He was later heard saying "Kapoy," or "I'm tired."

Balawing — who is about the size of a toddler and has a child's demeanor — needs to hold onto something to stand because of weak knees. He was photographed propping himself up with empty Coca-Cola bottles, which were taller than his waistline.

Balawing's mother grew teary-eyed during the ceremony, saying she was happy with her son's instant fame.

Glenday said he was struck by Balawing's lively personality and constant smile.

"Although he's short, he takes that in stride," Glenday told The Associated Press. "He has this cheeky smile."

Aside from the Guinness certificate, the crown does not come with any cash award. Glenday said he hopes the international fame will bring in gifts and donations, particularly medical supplies to ensure Balawing's health.

Nobody could explain why Balawing stopped growing two months after his birth, his father said, adding that he first walked with help from his parents when he was 5 years old.

Sindangan Vice Mayor Bess Jagonio, a doctor, speculated that he may have had an endocrine or a birth-related defect.

Balawing's brother and two sisters are all average size.

His family said they tried to send Balawing to school but withdrew him after he distracted other children's attention.

Local officials got the idea of informing the Guinness records committee about Balawing from journalists who learned about his size.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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