Meet The World's Largest Dam

Infrastructure as tourism: The massive, 1.4-mile long Three Gorges Dam is rapidly becoming a hot tourist destination, with three reputable cruise lines now visiting the dam.

1 minute read

September 29, 2006, 1:00 PM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"The dam demands superlatives: it is the world’s largest concrete structure and the largest dam in terms of water displacement, flood control and power generation... When it becomes fully functional in 2009, the dam’s 26 turbines should produce 84.68 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year, meeting nearly one-tenth of China’s needs.

...Whatever the pros and cons, the dam is fast becoming a beacon for tourists, a Great Wall across the Yangtze. The Chinese expect it to attract more than a million visitors this year. They come to see an engineering marvel, a hulking edifice that consumes the river and then spits it out in a pressurized spray that arcs hundreds of feet into the sky."

Wednesday, September 27, 2006 in The New York Times Style Magazine

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