Pingualuit Impact Crater in Canada

In the far north of Quebec, a province in Canada, lies an excellent natural wonder a circular lake of blue waters confined within the walls of an ancient but well-preserved meteorite crater. Largely unfamiliar to the outside world, the lake-filled crater had long been known to local Inuit who knew it as the "Crystal Eye of Nunavik" for its clear water. The beautiful lake was first observed by the crew of a US Army Air Force plane in June 1943, who used the lake’s strange shape and color for navigation, but pictures of it weren’t made public until 1950.

When Ontario diamond prospector Frederick W. Chubb saw the photographs, he really interested in it, and hoped that this might be an extinct volcano and there was a possibility to find diamonds nearby. Frederick W. Chubb sought after the opinion of geologist V. Ben Meen of the Royal Ontario Museum, who right away saw the possibility of an impact crater. V.Ben Meen organized an expedition to this remote area together with Chubb. It was on this outing that Ben Meen proposed the name "Chubb Crater". After that Meen organized two more expeditions to the crater, and from the data collected from the site, concluded that the structure was a meteorite crater produced from an impact roughly 1.4 million years ago.

The Lake name was later changed to "New Quebec Crater" at the request of the Quebec Geographic Board. In 1999, the lake name was again changed, to "Pingualuit". The crater and the surrounding area are now part of Pingualuit National Park. Pingualuit crater is 3.44 kilometer in diameter. The stunning crater rises 160 meters above the surrounding tundra and is 400 meters deep. A 267 meters deep body of water fills the depression, forming one of the deepest lakes in North America. The lake also holds some of the clean fresh water in the world, with a salinity level of less than 3 ppm. The lake has no inlets or apparent outlets, and water accumulates solely from rain and snow and is only lost through evaporation. The crater is one of most transparent lakes in the world with visibilities up to 35 meters.

Ward Charcoal Ovens of Nevada

Ward Charcoal Ovens are a collection of beautiful six 30 feet high, beehive-shaped charcoal ovens situated inside the Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park in the Egan Mountain Range roughly 18 miles south of Ely in Nevada, in the USA. In between 1876 to 1879, the beehive shaped Charcoal Ovens were built to produce charcoal from pinyon pine and juniper. After their function as charcoal ovens ended, they served miscellaneous ideas, such as sheltering stockmen and prospectors during foul weather and even serving as a hideout for stagecoach bandits. These days they are the chief attraction in Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park. The charcoal ovens take their name from Thomas Ward who discovered a local mining district in 1872. The mine generates gold and silver ore that is essential high burning temperature that can only be provided by charcoal, inspiring the construction of the ovens in the mid 1870s. The parabolic shape of the beehive ovens caused heat to be reflected back to the center where the wood slowly burned to produce charcoal.

Each of the 6 ovens stood 30 feet tall and was 27 feet in diameter at the base. The walls are 20-inches thick, prepared from rocks with three rows of vents. Wood was cut into 5-foot to 6-foot lengths and stacked inside the ovens vertically using the lower door. The loaded oven was ignited and the metal door was cemented shut. Normally it took 13 days to burn and empty a 35-cord Klin. (one cord is 4-feet high by 4-feet wide by 8 feet long). In the long run, charcoal ovens were phased out by the discovery of coal, by depleted ore deposits, and by the shortage of available timber. The method of burning wood to manufacture charcoal can be traced back to traditional Old World practices. Centuries ago, woodchoppers initiate that slowly burning timber in an oxygen-starved environment produced charcoal, which was trouble-free to transport and burned at a higher temperature than wood. Charcoal production was particularly ordinary in the Alps, in Scandinavia, and in Eastern Europe. Charcoal burners traditionally used shallow pits without the benefit of permanent structures.

Immigrants brought the method of charcoal burning to Nevada mining districts where it was predominantly helpful when milling stubborn ore bodies that needed high temperatures. The charcoal burners consumed pinyon and juniper, which was of modest utilize for building or for mine supports. The industry receive a place in Nevada history with the famed Charcoal Burner's War of 1879, when Italian and Swiss immigrants fought wealthy mill owners of the Eureka Mining District to the east of the Ward mines. After suffering from vandalism and natural erosions, the long-abandoned ovens became a state park in 1957, and these Ward ovens are the best-preserved of their kind in Nevada.

Floating Golf Course at Luxury Coeur d’Alene Resort

It began with an impulsive flash of inspiration, when in 1991, the first ball was struck onto the floating green on the 14th, and Duane Hagadone’s vision was on its way to becoming one of the best-loved icons in golf. The Coeur d’Alene Resort is a luxury resort hotel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, United States situated on the north shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene, the Coeur d Alene Resort is well-known for its amazing 18-hole golf course, a piece of which is perched on a movable artificial island is the middle of a lake. Coeur d’Alene’s celebrated 14th hole is situated on a boat and it well moves around Lake Coeur d’Alene, never to stay in one place for more than a day. The surroundings here are hard to beat, with the sights of Lake Coeur d’Alene, the Famous Floating Green and the gorgeous Resort Golf Course grounds. You can arrive by car, boat or Coeur d’Alene Resort shuttle. It is built on a barge on submerged tracks; the green is moved daily by computer. Hitting the turf is tricky since the distance keeps varying. Water taxis transport golfers to and from the hole. The golf course is simply the best, and nothing is spared to deliver the ultimate golfing experience. It is best known America’s most beautiful Resort Golf Course by Golf Digest. If you’re a golfer, then you can reach its meticulously manicured fairways with a ride in a sleek mahogany boat, and that’s just for starters. With the attention of your personal forecaddie, the comfort of your luxury custom cart, gorgeous lake views on every hole, and every item expertly attended to, you’re in for the golf game of your life.This luxury golf course and floating green is designed by Scott Miller, and the course opened for play in 1991. It has since been ranked between the best resort golf courses in the USA by Golf Digest, Golf Magazine and others. The award-winning round comprises a wooden boat ride from The Coeur d’Alene Resort, over-the-water driving range, personal forecaddie, custom golf cart and plenty of incredible views.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Golden Horn Bridge

Italian Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci remains one of the most prominent artist, engineer, architect, scientist, naturalist and inventor from his or any other generation. Several of his concepts were hundreds of years ahead of their time, and Golden Horn Bridge is a just right example of that. In 1501, Leonardo da Vinci made a sketch of a 240-meters long single span bridge that was to be built over the Golden Horn a natural inlet of the Bosphorus Strait dividing the city of Constantinople, present day Istanbul. This was the first time hear, that such a long single span bridge was proposed. The construction techniques that would be required to build such a structure would not come into use for another three hundred years. As a result, the bridge could not be constructing because it was too advanced for the builders of that time. For 500 years, Leonardo’s elegant design remained an obscure, tiny drawing in a corner of one of Leonardo’s voluminous notebooks, until 1996 when contemporary Norwegian artist, Vebjørn Sand, saw the drawing at an exhibition of Leonardo’s engineering designs. Sand was impressed by it that upon returning to Oslo, he proposed that the Norwegian Public Roads undertake the construction of the project. For the next few years, Vebjorn Sand dedicated his time and endeavor to transforming the Leonardo Bridge Project from a delusion into reality. In 2001, a little pedestrian footbridge based on Leonardo’s original design was built near the town of Ås in Norway, on highway E-18 linking Oslo and Stockholm. Converting the fundamental design in reality was done by Architect Selberg. The pedestrian bridge is constructed on the similar model as Leonardo da Vinci's original drawings, but in its place of a colossal arch stone bridge, the one in Ås has three glulam beams which run in an arc across the road. On top of the Glulam beams one can walk or cycle on. The entire length of the bridge is 108 meters with main distance width of 40 meters, height 10 meters and clearance of 5 meters. According to the Leonardo Bridge Project’s website, the Turkish government has decided to construct a fully fledged bridge spanning the Golden Horn based Leonardo's design.

The Incredible Magdeburg Water Bridge in Germany

Water bridges structures are that carry navigable waterway canals over other rivers, valleys, railways or roads. It is uncommon concept in the world and this helps in small ships and boats ply on these waterways. The most famous water bridge is the Magdeburg Water Bridge in Germany, the longest and the most impressive in the world. The Magdeburg Water Bridge is a navigable aqueduct in Germany that attaches the Elbe-Havel Canal to the Mittelland Canal, and let ships to cross over the Elbe River. At 918 meters, it is the longest navigable aqueduct in the world. The Elbe-Havel and Mittelland canals had in the past met near Magdeburg but on opposite sides of the Elbe. Ships moving between the two had to make a 12 KM detour, descending from the Mittelland Canal through the Rothensee boat lift into the Elbe, and then sailing downstream on the river, before entering the Elbe-Havel Canal through Niegripp lock. Low water levels in the Elbe often prevented fully laden canal barges from making this crossing, requiring time-consuming off-loading of cargo. The construction of the water link was begun in the early 1930s but due to the World War II and subsequent division of Germany the constructions remained suspended till 1997. The bridge took six years to build at a heavy cost of about half a billion euros, and will enable river barges to avoid a lengthy and sometimes unreliable passage along the Elbe. The stunning aqueduct was finally completed and opened for public in 2003.