Fast facts about world famous ancient and modern buildings
Spiral staircases in medieval castles rung clockwise because all knights used to be right-handed.
There are 365 steps on the front of the US Capitol Building – one for every day of the year.
Most of the small schools in the USA of yesteryear were painted red because it was the least expensive paint color.
Because heat expands the metal, the Eiffel Tower always leans away from the sun.
The Christ The Redeemer statue in Rio de Janero, Brazil is the highest statue in the world.
World’s tallest church is the Chicago Methodist Temple, standing 568 ft (173 m) high; it was completed in 1924.
The 16th century Escorial palace of King Phillip II of Spain had 1,200 doors.
The Pentagon is the world’s largest administrative building.
The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania is the world’s largest palace; it has 1,100 rooms of which 400 are bedrooms, 55 kitchens, and 120 sitting rooms. 70% of it is empty. Completed in 1997, it is the fourth biggest building in the world. By weight, it is the heaviest building in the world, sinking every year by .2 inches (6 mm).
Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest, Romania
The Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkey has 1,150 rooms. It cost $600 million to build and was inaugurated in 2014.
The Kerimski Church in Finland is world’s biggest church made of wood.
The world’s largest four-faced clock sits atop the Allen-Bradley plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. See more famous clocks and watches.
The smallest post office in the United States is in Ochopee, Florida in the heart of the Everglades.
The world’s first skyscraper was the 10-storey Home Insurance office, built in Chicago in 1884. (During Roman times buildings were up to 8 stories high.)
Home Insurance Building, Chicago: 1884 – 1931
The shopping mall in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada has the largest water clock in North America.
There are more than 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building.
The Statue of Liberty’s tablet is two feet (60 cm) thick.
The highest bridge in the world is the Aizhai Bridge in China.
The World Trade Center towers used to have two zip codes, 10047-10048, one for each building.
Approximately 25,000 workers died during the building of the Panama Canal, and approximately 20,000 of them contracted malaria and yellow fever.
Duracell, the battery-maker, built parts of its new international headquarters using materials from its own waste material.
Bill Gates’ house in Seattle is said to have been designed using a Macintosh computer.
Honolulu is the only place in the United States that has a royal palace.
It took 20,000 men 22 years to build the Taj Mahal.
The Solkan bridge on the Bohinj railway line is the second-longest stone bridge in the world.
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 started in a barn belonging to Patrick and Katherine O’Leary but their own house was one of few that survived the fire. Soldiers had to gaurd the house for weeks afterwards because enraged residents wanted to burn it down.
There are more than 13,000 knives, forks and spoons in the White House.
The air circulators in the Holland and Lincoln tunnels under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York circulate fresh air completely every ninety seconds.
Each year there is one ton of cement poured for each man, woman, and child in the world.
Mustard gas was invented in the McKinley Building on the American University campus. The preliminary work on the Manhattan Project was also done in that building. The government used the McKinley Building because of its unusual archticture. If there would be any type of large explosion inside the building, the building would implode onto itself, containing any lethal gas or nuclear material. The building now houses the Physics Department.