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The Colosseum was designed to hold 50,000 spectators, and it had
approximately eighty entrances so crowds could arrive and leave easily
and quickly.
The plan is a vast
ellipse, measuring externally 188 m x 156 m (615 ft x 510 ft), with the
base of the building covering about 6 acres. Vaults span between eighty
radial walls to support tiers of seating and for passageways and stairs.
The facade
of three tiers of arches and an attic story is about 48.5 m (158 ft)
tall — roughly equivalent to a 12-15 story building.
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On
18 April
1968, Rennie's bridge was sold to the
American entrepreneur
Robert P. McCulloch of
McCulloch Oil for US$2,460,000. A popular
urban legend is that he believed mistakenly
that he was buying the more impressive
Tower Bridge, although McCulloch denied this.[7]
As the bridge was disassembled, each piece was numbered to aid
reassembly and those markings can still be seen today. The bridge was
reconstructed at
Lake Havasu City, Arizona and re-dedicated on
October 10,
1971.
The reconstruction of Rennie's London Bridge
spans a man-made canal that leads from Lake Havasu to Thomson Bay, and
forms the centrepiece of a theme park in English style, complete with
mock-Tudor
shopping mall. Rennie's London Bridge has
become
Arizona's second-biggest tourist attraction,
after the
Grand Canyon.
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At the
time the tower was built many people were shocked by its
daring shape. Eiffel was criticised for the design and
accused of trying to create something artistic, or
inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to
engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, as renowned
bridge builders however, understood the importance of
wind forces and knew that if they were going to build
the tallest structure in the world they had to be
certain it would withstand the wind. In an interview
reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said:
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Now to what phenomenon did I give primary
concern in designing the Tower? It was
wind resistance.
Well then! I hold that the curvature of the
monument's four outer edges, which is as
mathematical calculation dictated it should be
(...) will give a great impression of strength
and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of
the observer the boldness of the design as a
whole. |
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