Down the beach from the Burj Al Arab and four kilometers into the Persian Gulf, another mammoth construction project is underway. This one won't break any records for height, but The World will become the largest man-made group of islands ever created. Requiring more than 320 million cubic meters of sand, The World will recreate a map of the globe in the form of 300 islands. After it''s completed, 250,000 people are expected to become residents of the World Island Wonder.
Of course, the best plans require the best materials. A variety of buildings, from the Roman Pantheon to the Panama Canal, have stood the test of time because of concrete.
Over 9,000 years after inventing bricks, we're still using them by the billions. And speaking of the world's most amazing buildings, it's impossible to ignore steel. The past and future of these amazing building materials are revealed in Megastructures: Concrete, Megastructures: Brick, and Megastructures: Steel.