The Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest stadium, took five years to complete

and was China’s centrepiece for the 2008 Olympic Games. It is an architectural wonder constructed with
more than 42,000 tonnes of steel. It is the largest steel structure in the world.

One of New York’s most iconic buildings, the Empire State Building, was constructed in 1931 and has
been amazing people ever since. The building’s steel frame weighs a hefty 57,000 tonnes, while the
beautiful Art Deco exterior is composed of 200,000 cubic feet of limestone and granite, 10 million bricks
and 730 tonnes of aluminium and stainless steel. And, it only took 13 months to build.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the world’s largest steel arch bridge (not the longest) and is Australia’s
most renowned international symbol of Australia. The total steelwork weighs 52,800 tonnes, with
39,000 in the arch. Its 49m wide deck carries an incredible eight lanes of traffic, two train lines, a
footpath and a cyclepath.

Currently the world’s tallest manmade structure, the Burj Khalifa stands at 829.8m. Using a bundled
tube design to reduce the amount of steel required, the building has 163 floors, an 11h park and a 275m
long fountain that shoots water 150m into the air. Interestingly, the amount of steel rebar used is
31,400 metric tonnes, laid end to end this would extend one quarter of the way around the globe.
Another of New York’s icons, the Brooklyn Bridge deserves a place among the top 10 as it was the very
first steel-wire suspension bridge built in 1869. The steel is so thick and construction so challenging, it
took a decade to complete.