Some places are worth visiting for the extraordinary problems their builders had to solve. Engineering Landmarks explores structures where ambitious ideas met difficult terrain, limited space or demands that seemed impossible to satisfy. We focus on places where visitors can discover the engineering for themselves, whether through a guided tour, an exhibition, a viewpoint or simply by moving through a structure that is still in use.
A visit can bring the scale of a structure into focus in ways that photographs cannot. You might descend beneath a busy station, follow the route of a railway or look out across a dam and the landscape it transformed. Information panels and guided tours can explain the work; walking through the place helps you grasp its size, setting and continued use.
This collection is for travellers who want to spend a little longer looking at how a place works.
Travel beneath the English Channel and discover the engineering behind the Channel Tunnel. Explore its three-tunnel design, meet the construction story at Coquelles’ heritage centre, and visit Samphire Hoe’s reclaimed coastline. Then consider how this remarkable connection changed the London–Paris journey — and the choice between taking a train and flying.
Grand Central Terminal combines a monumental public space with a working railway. Its electric tracks, two underground platform levels and hidden systems explain how the station keeps New York moving. Follow the engineering story, then look up at the Main Concourse ceiling and discover the details you can still see during a visit.
Explore Grand Central Madison beneath Manhattan, from its deep platforms and long escalators to the engineering that made the station possible. Discover the contemporary mosaics and digital art that make the journey through New York’s newest rail terminal an experience in itself.
Discover Hoover Dam, one of America’s great engineering landmarks. Explore how engineers diverted the Colorado River, cooled millions of cubic yards of concrete and built a structure that still controls water and generates power today — while tours, exhibitions and viewpoints reveal the remarkable story behind its construction.