People say you can fight progress but can’t stop it because change is inevitable. This is true. Nothing stays the same, not even mountains that are impacted by the wear and tear of nature. Gradual change isn’t as visible. For instance, the amount of sand on the beach is constantly changing. The patina on my sterling silver necklace wasn’t there yesterday, or was it?

Change is a fact of life.

Mother Nature continues to produce and catalog evidence about change with great illustrations. Time brings about change, whether it’s winter, spring, summer, or fall.

Today, the Great Pyramid of Giza is the only structure left of The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Now we have The Seven Wonders of the Modern World and others.

Depending on your search input, there’s more than one list of engineering wonders. Try googling the following: 7 wonders of the world, 7 wonders of the modern world, or 7 new wonders of the world.
There’s a seven wonders list compiled by the Swiss Corporation called the New Seven Wonders that includes ancient structures. Several lists include more modern ingenuities.

The American Society of Civil Engineering compiled the wonders listed below to include the greatest modern achievements. These achievements were constructed as early as 1914 and as late as 1997 or 25 years ago.

The Seven Wonders of the Modern World

1.       The Golden Gate Bridge in California is one of the most photographed bridges in the world. The bridge is named for the Golden Gate, the strait that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean.

2.       The Empire State Building is 102 stories and is one of the first skyscrapers and the most famous building in New York. The Art Deco building in Midtown Manhattan is named after the state of New York’s nickname. The 1,454 feet building is the 9th tallest in the U.S. and the 54th tallest in the world.

3.       The Canadian Tower (CN) in Toronto, Canada, is the tallest free-standing construction in the Western Hemisphere. The 1, 815.3 feet concrete communication and observation is in Ontario, Canada, and named for the railway company that built it.

4.       The Channel Tunnel is in France. The trains run 100 miles per hour in the 31.35-mile railway tunnel that is beneath the English Channel. Also called the Chunnel, the tunnel’s lowest point is 250 feet below the sea bed and 380 feet below sea level.

5.       The Itaipu Dam is between Paraguay and Brazil. The dam is a binational hydroelectric project run by both Paraguay and Brazil. The name Itaipu means ‘sounding stone.’

6.       The Delta Works/Zuiderzee Works is in the Netherlands. The dual works consist of man-made dams, water drainage, dykes, and land reclamations to help agriculture. The Zuiderzee is an inlet of the North Sea.

7.       The Panama Canal connects the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic as an artificial waterway to provide international trade. The canal is 51 miles and divides North and South America. The canal cuts out the Cape Horn route and greatly reduces ship travel time between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The wonders of the world lists will continue to change due to time and change.

Stay safe.