All language subtitles for Impossible Engineering s04e04 Trains of the Abyss.eng

All over the world, one of our
railroad's most impressive feet is

nature's great divides.

This is an extremely busy waterway.

There are thousands of boats that go
through.

From deep river gorges to wide open
seas, these impossible

crossings create engineering challenges
that could stop a railroad in its

tracks. If we leave it very much longer,
it will fail.

Requiring ingenious solutions.

For me, it is the masterpiece of
engineering.

I love it.

They make the impossible possible.

I may say a little bit, but it's
awesome.

From the world's wildest waters to its
mightiest mountains,

railroads have set out to conquer them
all.

What a feat of engineering.

Absolutely amazing.

Driven by daring engineers for whom no
obstacle is too great.

I truly love this structure. It's
magnificent.

Staten Island in southwestern New York.

Sandwiched between mainland New Jersey
and Brooklyn, it's a critical gateway

into this busy metropolis.

One which trains must access.

Today, alongside tons of cargo,
Professor Eric Lima is experiencing an

view of the railroad.

Oh man, we're on the front of a diesel
train right now.

The power on this thing is amazing.

This freight service is huge for New
York.

But getting locomotives into Staten
Island means overcoming a tricky

geographical problem.

It's the artery that brings... All of
the goods and services that we use on a

daily basis, and we don't think about it
when we're in the city, but New York

City is completely surrounded by water.

So for trains, this is easier said than
done.

In New York, the stretch of water
separating Staten Island from New

known as the Arthur Kill, may only
measure around 560 feet across.

But it's packed with both.

This is an extremely busy waterway.
There are thousands of boats that go

through. And if you're going to have a
railway across, you're going to have to

have clearance for those boats to go
under.

For a pedestrian or car bridge, getting
this clearance is no problem, as rubber

tires and soles can cope with an
incline.

But steel -wheeled trains faced with a
quick ascent can start to spin.

In 1959, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
found a monumental solution to this

problem.

Wow, this is amazing.

It's the world's largest lift bridge,
the Arthur Kill.

But it's this bridge's extraordinary
actions, rather than its colossal scale,

that makes the Arthur Kill Bridge a
standout structure.

I mean, that's an engineering marvel.

With a lift span of almost 560 feet, the
Arthur Kill is the longest single -span

vertical lift bridge in the world.

When lowered for train... It clears the
water by 30 feet. But when raised, the

fan towers 135 feet high, leaving
clearance for even the biggest shifts.

here at the AK Bridge, we have the
bridge drop scheduled for 9 .45 a .m. Do

see any problems with that as far as
vessel traffic goes?

But for Supervisor of Structures, Ryan
J. Wagner, it's not all smooth sailing.

To minimize disruption, the bridge can
only be lowered three times a day for

just half an hour.

Okay, yeah, I see. She's coming
northbound, right?

I'll call when I know she's clear, all
right?

Okay, roger. Will do.

For our bridge drops here, we have to
coordinate with the Coast Guard based on

the tremendous amount of vessel traffic
coming through the Arthur Kill Channel.

We have about a half -an -hour time
frame to get the train over and then to

the bridge back in the fully open
position.

Lowering and raising a 2 ,200 -ton lift
span in such a short window requires

supersized engineering.

The bridge is fitted with a powerful
system of counterweights and cables,

by motors installed at the top of each
tower.

Security, security, security, AK
railroad bridge coming to a close.

Security, security, security, AK
railroad bridge coming to a close.

With all shipping being kept at bay,
Ryan is putting this cutting -edge

technology into action.

I've enabled the controls.

That's enabled power to go to both drive
motors. Once the drive motors are fully

energized, I give the command for the
bridge to go into the span seated

position, and then the bridge starts
coming down.

All right, here we go. It's starting.

The concrete -filled steel boxes used as
counterweight.

Each weigh an enormous 1 ,100 ton.

You can see the counterweights moving up
right now in the perfect balance to the

bridge that's coming down.

You really want the bridge to come down
exactly level.

Both the motors have to work
simultaneously, and so that there's no

trains can go across, and then we can go
across.

After just two and a half minutes, The
span enters its final leveling, a

critical phase demanding millimeter
precision.

So right now you have the bridge going
through its skew correction system. We

have a variety of sensors that are
basically detecting all kinds of

gearing, physical track structure like
the rails.

If the tracks don't line up, the trains
will miss their crucial slot.

If all those checks are not correct, the
dispatcher will not be able to allow a

train to pass over the bridge. That
caused a variety of issues.

Train delays, it impacts vessel traffic
because now we have the bridge seated

and it cuts into our half an hour time
frame.

With the bridge successfully locked, now
the goods trains and Eric can carry on

their journey.

All right, we saw it come down.

and now we get the pleasure of actually
going across it. What a piece of

engineering. I'm looking at it now. I
see the giant counterweights above.

We're on it seamlessly.

You can hear the banging and the
clashing, and I see the water

What a brilliant bridge.

It's really hard to imagine that this is
actually 100 feet higher in the air on

a normal basis.

The 560 -foot shortcut between New
Jersey and Staten Island takes a matter

seconds.

The race is now on to get the waterway
moving.

Roger.

So right now we're starting the process
for the bridge opening.

You have the warning indication to
notify anybody that's on the span that

bridge is going to be opening.

Ryan and his team now have less than
three minutes to open this impossible

bridge.

See the counterweight coming down right
here right now.

So at this point now the span and the
counterweight are approximately the same

elevation.

Over 50 years after it first operated,
the Arthur Killed Bridge still manages

return to its open position right on
schedule.

Every day, there's always something new
to be learned.

There's always something that can be
improved upon in terms of its operation

make it more efficient.

Yeah, it's certainly something that I
enjoy working with.

Every day, the ingenious mechanics of
this towering bridge allow tons of

to be carried in and out of Staten
Island.

Without it, there would be no crossing.

But with this bridge, the train just
went right across.

It seems so simple, and yet it's an
engineering marvel, and it's really,

gratifying to see it work.

But getting trains across the world's
great chasms demands many different

solutions. To get the train across this
massive gorge, this would have to be a

bridge of epic proportions.

dreamt up by the engineers of Impossible
Railroad.

Nestled on the east coast of New
Zealand's North Island lies the Mohaca

Gorge.

Its extreme landscape is perfect for
outdoor adventures.

But you would think its towering ravines
and fast -flowing river would put the

brakes on any railroad.

But one bridge builder proved otherwise.

Hey, buddy. How's it going?

Good, good, good.

Let's go.

Chuck a life jacket on there, like a
backpack.

Make sure you get all four buckles up,
including the one right down the bottom

there. For heritage advisor Karen
Astwood, there's only one way to

how engineers traverse this impossible
chasm.

So this is the Mohaka River, and when
you look up, you get a really good sense

of the huge challenge that the engineers
had here.

To get the train across this massive
gorge, They had to put up a structure

was 350 feet tall, making it the highest
in Australasia and the fifth tallest in

the world at the time it was
constructed.

This would have to be a bridge of epic
proportions.

And here it is.

This is the Mohaca Viaduct.

That is a truly impressive structure.

What a stunning piece of engineering.

I'm actually a little bit speechless.

It's awesome.

It's really great. I love that
structure.

Spanning around 980 feet across and 312
feet high.

The Mohaca Viaduct has conquered nature.

Not only is the Mohaca Viaduct a thing
of beauty, the engineering that made it

possible is just as impressive.

Completed in 1937, this was a bridge
born from an isolated community's

need.

On New Zealand's North Island, the town
of Waira sits on the northern shore of

Hawke's Bay, herds on the mouth of a
major river.

A wild landscape that 80 years ago posed
many problems.

Waira could be often cut off from the
rest of the world for weeks at a time

because the basic dirt roads became
impassable and bad weather.

And also there's a treacherous sandbar
out there in the river mouth, making it

difficult for even the smallest vessels
to access the town.

A rail connection to the city of Napier,
50 miles to the south, and Gisborne to

the northeast, would offer Waira a
crucial lifeline.

But construction of this vital link was
complicated by a series of shattering

setbacks. and the immense engineering
challenges posed by the North Island's

rugged terrain.

And no challenge would be greater than
the deep ravines surrounding the Mohaca

River.

But engineer John Cull believed he could
beat the odds with his design for a

prefabricated supersized steel
structure.

Work started in 1930.

With concrete foundations in place, a
death -defying workforce carefully began

its construction high above the valley
floor.

But the real engineering challenge was
getting 2 ,090 tons of steel to these

dizzying windswept heights.

If you can imagine these two ladders are
towers either side of the gorge.

Then a cableway was strung across the
gorge like this.

Suspended from the cable way,
represented here by these carabiners,

which moved independently along like
this.

What this meant is that once you had
attached a steel component to the crane

hook, like so, it could be moved out
into the gorge.

It could then be manoeuvred into place
and affixed really quickly.

The engineers took this remarkable
solution one step further, flinging two

cables across the ravine, each one
working independently, allowing super

steel components to be twisted and
swung, positioning them with pinpoint

accuracy.

And because the steel components were
prefabricated and then brought to site,

the viaduct could be assembled like a
giant Meccano set, and progress was

really, really quick.

Incredibly, Cole's rail bridge was
completed ahead of schedule and for half

estimated cost.

The Mohaca Viaduct was the final link in
the line to Waira, allowing goods and

residents in and out of the once
isolated region.

Today, Waira was totally transformed.

Thanks to one of the world's tallest
railway bridges, this once largely

inaccessible town has been given a whole
new life.

Creating super high spans is a huge
achievement.

But when it comes to crossing chasms,
railroad engineers often face an equally

taxing problem.

Fast flowing water.

Whether traversing channels or
seascapes, trains often have to

crossings.

And it was one such problem affecting
Scotland's capital, Edinburgh, during

19th century.

For this booming city, open countryside
to the south and west allowed easy

access for trade.

But to the north lay the Firth of Forth.

A vast estuary renowned for its harsh
weather and fast -flowing waters.

For a railroad to overcome this would
take a crossing like no other.

The fourth bridge.

The largest steel structure the world
had ever seen.

Spanning one and a half mile, 58 ,400
tons of steel and six and a half

million rivet ensures this feat of
engineering stands strong against the

battering of the North Sea.

The engineering that was involved was
the very best of its day.

The forefront of engineering, the very
best of materials.

and we ended up with a magnificent
bridge.

It's the brainchild of engineers
Benjamin Baker and John Fowler, who

improbable challenge of an 8 ,200 -foot
-long bridge with a game -changing

design.

Their solution, based on balance, was to
cantilever the bridge.

Three giant diamond -like structures act
as center points for cantilevered arms.

A concept best appreciated from an
unrivaled view above, as Senior Project

Manager Ian High explains.

Where we are just now is on the tower,
one tower of the bridge.

And from each tower, there are two
cantilevers.

Effectively like one arm poking out in
either direction, stretching out. And

these two arms are what's called a
balanced cantilever.

So each balances that other one off.

But it wasn't just the scale of the
Firth of Forth that created problems.

In 1879, its predecessor, the Tay
Bridge, succumbed to a major storm.

Its collapse tragically killing 75 on
board a crossing train.

To withstand the Firth's fierce weather
and fast -flowing waters called for rock

-solid foundations.

But in the deep estuary, this was far
from easy.

If you can imagine the space between the
water to the deck level, you've got

that same depth of water below there.

So it's incredibly deep water.

It's deep in the North Sea, a lot of it.

Building 12 mammoth cylindrical concrete
foundations here would be far from

straightforward.

What the general public see, It's
actually very top end. If you think of

iceberg, there's a huge amount of work
below this actual masonry here.

This is the top of a foundation that
goes down 30 feet into the actual bed

itself. And that's where the caisson was
used to actually create the foundation.

The caissons were gigantic twin -walled
cylinders floated out and sunk in the

estuary.

Once pumped out, 20 to 30 men would then
excavate the seabed.

creating the foundations.

With the underwater works complete,
Baker and Fowler constructed enormous

to take the weight of 2 ,200 -ton trains
and over 55 ,000 tons of steel.

These piers take an enormous load.

All the load of the bridge has to come
down onto each of these four points on

each of the three towers.

The most important part of the whole
bridge.

As with everything on this impressive
bridge, the solution was supersized.

This is a very special place on the
bridge.

There's basically very few people have
actually been allowed to stand here.

Each one of those blocks of stone is a
ton.

So multiply that by several thousand,
that's the scale of one of these

foundations. of which we are 12 right
through the bridge.

Paul and Baker were at the very
forefront of engineering ingenuity.

To even imagine a bridge such as this
was in many ways risky.

Has the risk paid off?

No question at all.

Absolutely.

Building the fourth bridge is a feat of
railway construction.

But ensuring it stands the test of time
also pushes engineers to their limits.

In this part of the bridge alone, we
have 190 repairs.

The size of this thing, they're
constantly playing catch -up. The race

keep the force bridge safe.

Scotland's birth of fourth.

Home to the staggering one -and -a -half
-mile -long Forth Bridge.

Designated a World Heritage Site, this
game -changing cantilevered structure is

engineering on an epic scale.

That basically was one Eiffel Tower, so
have we got six Eiffel Towers?

I think we have.

Completed in 1890, its jaw -dropping
size is down to a pioneering use of

which, unlike its iron -built
contemporaries, is super strong,

was once the world's largest bridge.

Guys, what we're going to be doing this
morning is we're taking the safety net

out. Today, however, the 58 ,400 tons of
steel create an ongoing battle for

consultant coatings inspector John
McDonald.

Biggest problem is dropped objects can't
happen. Okay?

Everybody happy with that? Yeah.

All right, great.

Salt water and 87 -mile -per -hour winds
relentlessly take their toll.

We need to put a scaffold in.

to give access to a steel worker to come
in, to do some cutting for us, to do

some welding.

With 200 trains a day passing above,
it's crucial this engineering team

maintains the bridge in perhaps the
nation's most precarious workplace.

The net is at the moment tied firmly to
the bridge, and we're just untying it so

we can start to deploy it. It's kind of
a curtain system that opens it up.

So, should we unfortunately drop
anything, it will land inside the net.

We're

good

on this side.

Although 95 % of the bridges' steel
still exist, the race is on to remove

unsound metal.

In this part of the bridge alone, I
think we have scheduled 190 repairs.

They're all small scale, but put
together, that's quite a lot of work.

The repair itself might take two hours,
but the logistics of getting to the

repair, we could be looking at four or
five men working for a week.

And today, like practically every other
day, action needs to be taken.

We have two pieces of steel make up this
component.

This one is in very good condition,
except for a bottom corner here, we have

just a great deal of corrosion.

So we're reaching a point where if we
leave it very much longer, this part of

the member will actually become detached
from the bridge.

It will fail.

We're going to do the repair.

This is a very small repair.

But eventually you would start to affect
the integrity of the bridge if we

didn't do these repairs on a regular
basis.

And it will be replaced with a new
insert welded in place.

But perhaps this bridge's biggest
challenge is seen through its iconic

How many coats is this, Peter?

Second coat.

I'll miss on that one.

Yes. Okay.

John and his team must keep almost 2 .5
million square feet of protective red

oxide paint in good shape.

Squads of men go to a select area, chip
away, paint, move on to another area,

chip away, paint, because the size of
this thing, they're constantly playing

catch -up.

But now a new solution, developed from
the North Sea oil rig, is brushing away

this problem.

On a microscopic scale, it has flakes of
glass suspended in the paint.

When it's applied, as it cures, these
tiny bits of glass settle down

flat onto each other, a bit like the
scales of a snake, and make more or less

glass cover over the steel, impermeable.

25 years, safeguarding the future of
this magnificent railroad crossing.

This bridge is in better condition than
it has been for the past 75 years,

possibly in the best condition it's been
in since it was built.

Sometimes you just stand back and look
at the structure and think to yourself,

it's a privilege to be here.

I came along here for six months and
stayed for 23 years.

I just love it to a bit.

For any railroad bridge to remain
standing, keeping it in top condition is

crucial. But the key to any super strong
structure is getting its design right

in the first place.

In Germany, one rift in the landscape...
pushed engineers to their limits.

This bridge is an amazing piece of
engineering.

The Gulch Valley in the German state of
Saxony is a spectacular sight.

at just over 1 ,600 feet wide and 230
feet high.

But as Professor Lutz Niedner is finding
out, in the 19th century, it was also a

seemingly impossible hurdle for the
railroad.

In the beginning of the 1800s, the
engineers had a task to build a new

connection between the towns Leipzig and
Hof, and their problem was to cross

this valley.

It's a very huge valley and the valley
sides are very steep. So the trains of

the time had the problem that they
hadn't enough friction on the rails.

Heavy steam engines of the day struggled
on any significant floats.

So building a line down into the valley
was out of the question.

A bridge was the only answer.

This bridge has to be a very enormous
span and has a very enormous... load

capacity to hold all the trains rolling
on them.

The bridge would be unlike any other in
the world.

And even today, for those that cross
it... After the corner,

we cross the bridge.

This railroad's mind -blowing solution
still takes the breath away.

It's a very nice picture, driving over
the bridge.

I'm lucky.

This is the greatest bridge in Europe.

The Gulch Viaduct is the largest brick
-built bridge in the world.

The simple solution is always the best.

That's what you can see here, the Gulch
Tower Viaduct.

Stretching almost 1 ,900 feet across.

and towering 256 feet high.

When opened in 1851, it was the tallest
railroad bridge on the planet.

For me it is a masterpiece of
engineering.

I love it.

The bridge's extraordinary dimensions
are down to one man.

engineer and mathematical genius Johann
Andreas Schubert.

He knew that spanning such massive
distances while taking the strain of a

could only be achieved by one simple
shape.

Schubert was the first engineer who
proved the stability of his

a mathematical way on the paper.

He relied on the mathematical principle
of an arch shape.

For centuries, the strength of this
classic shape has defied belief,

allowing buildings and even the most
surprising everyday items to withstand

incredible loads.

On the first side, an egg seems to be a
very fragile thing.

If you tap it on a hard surface, it can
be easily broken.

If you can see here, the egg is shaped
like an arch.

And we want to try to stack some bricks
on them.

So this is the crucial point.

The load from the brick is distributed
to the four edge shells.

Let's see what happens if we stack
another one on it.

So we have just doubled the forces in
the shells of the egg.

Let's see if there is a third brick.

The total load of all these bricks is
concentrated on the four points of the

eggshells. The load is distributed
through the compressive strength of the

of the egg onto the table.

That's what we have in the bridge behind
me.

The arch shape is an essential element
of civil engineering.

With the load -bearing capacity of
arches proven time and again, Could they

withstand lateral pressure like that
from a train?

Schubert created a mathematical formula
proving they could do just that.

Schubert's formula has a very great
effect on bridge construction in that

because he was able to prove in a
mathematical way.

that such a simple design has a very
high load capacity to carry rolling

on top and to transform these tensions
into compressive ones.

Safely crossing trains across the
enormous Gulch Valley would take 81

built over four stories.

An elaborate design, which also had to
be built on a budget.

Sourcing materials locally.

Schubert's solution was to build with
bricks, an inexpensive and easy option

with clay pits in the area.

It was quite unusual in that time to use
bricks for such enormous constructions

because bricks don't have so much
compressive strength.

So what you need to do is to combine a
lot of them so you have a lot of area to

put forces through.

It would take over 26 million bricks to
span the chasm.

A normal worker would have to do 1 ,600
bricks a day. And this is a very

challenging work.

After six years, nearly 2 ,000 workers
finally completed this record -breaking

structure in 1851.

Looking from this point, I feel very
small compared to this massive bridge.

This chasm crossing still stands up to
modern engineering, as intercity trains

traveling at over 62 miles per hour
glide over its historic arches.

It is incredible what has been built 165
years ago.

This bridge is an amazing piece of
engineering.

History's bridges are undoubtedly
pioneering.

But the challenges for today's engineers
are staggering.

It's difficult to build because we have
16 kilometers from Denmark to Sweden.

When creating impossible railroads.

Many of the world's greatest crossings
have been built for the railroad.

Straddling deep gorges.

Traversing wide open valleys.

Keeping our journeys on track.

But sometimes the obstacle can appear
insurmountable.

The Orison Strait.

An immense waterway.

forming a natural boundary between
Denmark and Sweden.

With its notoriously busy shipping
channel and close proximity to an

it's the last place you'd expect to find
a railroad crossing.

For centuries, it was only possible to
cross by boat, and even that isn't easy.

We have 16 kilometers from Denmark to
Sweden, and during wintertime, for

example, you can have ice in this area.

We've had up to 40 centimeters of ice,
so you can actually not go by boats many

days during wintertime.

So there were days where we couldn't
come from Denmark to Sweden.

For many, building a transport link to
connect Sweden's Malmo and Denmark's

capital, Copenhagen, was just a dream.

It's quite difficult to build because we
need to have the road traffic and the

train traffic in the same structure. So
it's a very, very big structure we talk

about.

The solution would have to be like no
other.

The Orisind Bridge.

The longest cable -stayed rail and road
bridge in the world.

At almost five miles long, engineering
on this scale required around 157 ,000

tons of steel.

It was seen as one of the biggest
engineering challenges.

Engineers came from all over the world
in order to see what we had done here.

Despite its size, for civil engineer
Niels Lukenberg, the biggest challenge

its location, at one of the world's
busiest shipping lanes.

Due to the very large number of vessels
passing through Ørstund, we had to leave

a stretch of water open for the traffic
in order to avoid congestion.

The answer, a colossal centerpiece off
the Swedish shoreline.

Construction began in 1995.

Huge sections of the bridge were
prefabricated and towed into position.

Out of the water grew a pair of pylons,
roughly 660 feet high, built to support

a span almost a third of a mile long for
ships to pass beneath.

This bridge is designed for navigation
purposes with a clearance height of 55

meters, so even very large ships can
pass through.

However, in this almost 10 -mile -wide
strait, a shipping passage is also

off the Danish coast. But here, a bridge
is out of the question.

There is a special problem because we
have the Copenhagen Airport, which is

quite a big airport, so close to the
strait here. We could not build a bridge

the Danish side simply because the high
pylons, they would conflict with the

runways.

Remarkably. Instead of going over, they
decided to go under.

This is a bridge that morphs into a
tunnel.

We are just on top of the entrance to
the tunnel.

The tunnel itself is constructed by
prefabricated tunnel elements.

which are 40 meters wide and 60 to 80
meters long, floated to this location

and submerged into the trench.

We ended up with a four kilometer long
tunnel.

That had never been done in that scale
before.

It is the biggest immersed tunnel ever
constructed in the world.

Digging the trench with this record
-breaking tunnel produces over 264

cubic feet of material from the seabed,
used to create the Orison's third

astonishing landmark.

A two -and -a -half -mile man -made
island in the middle of the Baltic Sea.

This was a...

Opened in 2000, this hybrid link has
transformed the region, connecting two

countries.

Before it took more than one hour just
to pass the water.

Now it can be done in seven, eight
minutes.

While 20 ,000 cars pass over the bridge
every single day, 60 % of those crossing

take the train.

And the shipping lanes continue
uninterrupted.

Is it a dream job?

Yes, of course it is.

I've been on many projects in my
lifetime, but this one will stand out as

the biggest challenges we had and one of
the biggest.

successes we've had for this type of
link.

For over 150 years, bridges have opened
up the world to trains,

allowing them to cross seemingly

impossible divides.

We think about technology, but it's the
hardcore bridges.

They're the things that really make
everything possible.

Thanks to Inspired Solutions,

engineers continue to create their
impossible railroads.

Bridges are among the most important
components of railways all around the

world, helping trains reach their
destinations by overcoming formidable

obstacles that stand in their way.

It's really, really gratifying to see it
work.

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