For the final episode of season 2 we’re heading to Moscow on suggestion of a listener to learn about the history of the famously colourful St Basil’s Cathedral. St Basil’s Cathedral is a monument of many colours and many names, with Vivan describing it as “a Disneyland looking castle with colourful vaguely onion shaped domes”, and John describing it as “the Sean ‘Puff Daddy’ Combs” of churches. Located in Moscow’s Red Square along with the Kremlin, St Basil’s Cathedral is actually a combination ...
Oct 02, 2020•46 min•Season 2Ep. 12
This episode we’re back on the road(s) again! Vivian’s been itching to do another roads episode ever since the Via Appia all the way back at the start of season 1, and today we’re not just exploring one road but an entire road system: Norway’s tunnel highways. The decision to take this podcast road trip through Norway started when Vivian was sent a YouTube video of one of Norway’s road systems, a tunnel leading to a roundabout inside the tunnel, with one leg exiting the roundabout into a giant s...
Sep 18, 2020•53 min•Season 2Ep. 11
From Basilica to Cathedral to Mosque to Museum, this episode’s monument spans across 1,600 years, multiple empires, and centuries upon centuries of dedicated engineers and architects keeping it in proper repair: The Hagia Sofia In the city that today is known as Istanbul, the first iteration of the Hagia Sofia was built in 360AD, at a time when the city was still known as Byzantium. Constructed out of wood, it was burned to the ground during riots, then rebuilt once again out of wood in 415AD on...
Sep 04, 2020•45 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Just how many black rhinos could Canada launch into orbit? What exactly is a satellite constellation? What is the Canadian Space Agency doing to help protect Canadians from natural disasters? With the help of special guest Geneviève Houde, Systems Engineer for the CSA , we answer all of these questions in this week’s episode. Nearly all of our episodes so far have focused on civil engineering monuments, and certainly all of them have been securely planted on earth. With this episode taking us of...
Aug 21, 2020•51 min•Season 2Ep. 9
This episode comes via special request from a listener, and is the first engineering project of its kind on the podcast: The Port of Buenos Aires. Being the first port on the podcast we get the opportunity not just to discover the history of the project itself but also to learn about the complex multidisciplinary field of port engineering. This field requires a wide array of expertise ranging from naval architecture and the hydrodynamics of ships to geotechnical engineering, record keeping, secu...
Jul 24, 2020•48 min•Season 2Ep. 8
For our first monument on the African continent we examine the The Great Zimbabwe. This Iron Age city in southern Africa lies mostly in ruins today, but at the height of its power between the 11th and 15th century housed as many as 20,000 people. We’ll discuss what we know about this site today, and how colonialism stands in the way of a more complete picture of its history. The ruins of The Great Zimbabwe extend over an enormous 80 hectares or 800,000 km², dwarfing the size of modern cities suc...
Jul 10, 2020•44 min•Season 2Ep. 7
In honour of International Women in Engineering Day on June 23rd we’re breaking the usual format to share a panel-style interview featuring current and former colleagues of Vivian, Pippa Higgins and Arianne Cowx. Throughout this episode John interviews Vivian, Arianne, and Pippa, looking for insights from their personal experiences within the engineering industry. Throughout this discussion we explore concepts including workplace diversity, being bullied by clients or having their credentials qu...
Jun 26, 2020•54 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Spanning over 20,000km and connecting eras of China’s history across more than two millennia, this episode we discuss an engineering monument visible from low earth orbit, The Great Wall of China. In the west we typically learn that the wall was built to protect northern China from Mongolian invaders but the true story is a bit more complicated. The history of the Great Wall dates all the way back to the 7th century BCE, before the unification of China. At the time the region that makes up moder...
Jun 12, 2020•51 min•Season 2Ep. 5
The topic for this episode comes straight out of our figurative backyard - The CN Tower! This iconic Canadian landmark was the world’s tallest building from its opening in 1976 right up until 2007 and today we find out how and why this concrete and steel behemoth was built. Originally built and owned by CN Rail, the CN tower was initially built to house UHF and VHF transmitters as Toronto’s skyline became more crowed in the 1960s and existing TV and radio transmitters had become more and more ob...
May 29, 2020•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 4
Building a hospital is no easy endeavour, requiring intense coordination, collaboration, and planning. Building a hospital in just 10 days is a feat all of its own, and this episode we discuss the Huoshenshan Hospital, which was built in just 10 days in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as the Leishenshan Hospital which was built in just 12 days. The Huoshenshan hospital is make-shift 1000-bed hospital in China’s Wuhan region, and was constructed specifically to treat patients suffer...
May 15, 2020•56 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Do you think you'd be able to escape from Alcatraz? This episode we discuss the 36 men who tried (including a few who might have succeeded), as well as the construction and history of this infamous prison. The island of Alcatraz is known by many as “The Rock” and for good reason. Before being the site of the infamous US federal penitentiary from 1934 to 1963 this 9 hectare island was used as a US military prison as far back as 1861 and as a military fort beginning in the early 1800s. Through its...
May 01, 2020•59 min•Season 2Ep. 2
We spent most of our between-seasons break in Australia, so naturally the subject of our first episode of the season should be too! This engineering monument is the world’s widest and heaviest arch bridge and the world’s 7th longest spanning, it’s on the Australian National Heritage List and the New South Wales Heritage Register: the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This iconic bridge connecting Sydney’s Central Business District with the north shore is affectionately known as “The Coathanger” and “The Ir...
Apr 17, 2020•48 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Coming next Friday April 17: Measured in Metric Season 2! Beginning next week we'll be taking you on a tour around the world while everyone is stuck at home, starting with Australia's Sydney Harbour Bridge. Check out our instagram @MeasuredInMetric to find out more. Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | Instagram Music by: John Julius - Bandcamp.com Edited by: Astronomic Audio...
Apr 10, 2020•1 min
In our Season 1 finale we conclude our two part episode on the Brooklyn Bridge, and later in the episode we speak with Unit Managing Director with Mott McDonald, Chris Mealing, about his history as a bridge Engineer and how he sleeps at night! In part one of our Brooklyn Bridge double feature we discussed some people who were a little crazy, and a little cool, but mostly both: The Roeblings. This family of Engineers were largely responsible for the design and construction of the bridge, which wo...
Oct 25, 2019•57 min•Season 1Ep. 12
This week we’re discussing a topic that keeps Vivan up at night: bridges. In the first half of this two episode topic we’ll be learning about the world’s first steel wire suspension bridge, the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge is a tale of three engineers , John Roebling, his son Washington Roebling, and his son’s wife Emily Warren Roebling . Prior to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge from 1869 through 1883 there was no crossing from Brooklyn to Manhattan and...
Oct 11, 2019•43 min•Season 1Ep. 11
We’ve tackled sewage and drainage before in our London Sewers episode, and today we explore the enormous lengths the city of Chicago has taken to address their water and sewage systems, and how their approach has evolved over more than 150 years. While Chicago has been a city since 1837, the hugely populated city constructed in low lying wetlands had no central drainage system until 1855 when Chicago’s Chief Sewage Engineer and former Chief Engineer for Boston’s Water Commission, Ellis Sylvester...
Sep 27, 2019•54 min•Season 1Ep. 10
In this special episode our topic is a little less about engineering and a little more about urban planning. We take a journey back in time to the now demolished Kowloon Walled City, a dense settlement occupying a small portion of British-controlled Hong Kong. The small territory remained officially under China’s control, but Britain’s control of the island of Hong Kong left China with little influence, and the abandoned administrative centre would grow organically into a free anarchist state. T...
Sep 13, 2019•52 min•Season 1Ep. 9
This episode we examine the Los Angeles aqueducts, which moves water over the Mojave desert and into Los Angeles by gravity alone, and supplied water for a population of 2 million people for over 20 years. The project is often referred to as the greatest engineering achievement since the Panama Canal, despite the fact that the project includes the construction of the St Francis Dam, which is widely considered the worst American civil engineering disaster of the 20th century. The very first time ...
Aug 30, 2019•52 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Today’s episode is all about Vivian’s engineering specialty: Railroads. We examine the unbelievable process of constructing Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railroad, which is not just an engineering monument, but a monument to making do without appropriate resources and the challenges that follow corner-cutting. The construction of the first phase of the railroad began in 1891 under the direction of Emperor Alexander III, and the 9,289km long line from Moscow to Vladivostok crosses at least 7 timezones,...
Aug 16, 2019•49 min•Season 1Ep. 7
This episode we discuss the highly controversial Three Gorges Dam built on the Yangtze River. Completed in 2012, it is the world’s largest and most expensive hydroelectric dam and the second most expensive project ever undertaken other than the International Space Station. The dam spans 2.3km, nearly 5 times the distance of the Hoover Dam, and cost approximately $30 billion USD over the 17 years it took to construct. The project was first suggested by China’s first President in 1919 and was offi...
Aug 02, 2019•55 min•Season 1Ep. 6
This episode we attempt to uncover the mystery behind Stonehenge, the 5000 year old monument that has had archeologists and ancient alien theorists alike scratching their heads for ages. If you’ve been living under a sarsen stone and have never heard of Stonehenge, superfan John has you covered: “They’re big rocks, it’s just like, they’re big, they’re really big.” Every episode we attempt to answer the Who, What, Why, and How behind an engineering monument, but this time we’ve found that about a...
Jul 19, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 5
This episode we discuss Japan’s Kansai Airport, in an episode of firsts: the first airport on reclaimed land, the first time building a mega project on top of holocene clay, our first vertical infrastructure episode, and our first "what went wrong" episode. After the building of Narita airport through re-appropriation of lands and the violent protests that followed, Japan was faced with an unprecedented challenge in constructing the Kansai airport. The airport is the first of it’s kind, built on...
Jul 05, 2019•50 min•Season 1Ep. 4
All roads lead to Rome, and this week we’ll be exploring the first road that led to Rome, The Via Appia. This 563km long early highway would put Rome on the map and pave the way for the Roman Empire. The Via Appia, also known as The Appian Way, was first constructed between 312 and 264 BCE as a response to the first Samnite War leading to the decimation of Capua, who had offered themselves up to Rome in exchange for protection. Unfortunately that offer of protection was moot, with Capua being to...
Jun 21, 2019•44 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Our second episode focuses on something most of us never think about until something goes wrong: sewers. In specific, we’ll be learning about the construction of London’s Interceptor Sewers, and the 318 million bricks that went into this monument. Sanitation in 1850s Victorian era London was a little different than our standards today. Despite the widespread use of the Victorian equivalent to a modern bathroom, the water closet, indoor plumbing as we know it today was still many years away and t...
Jun 21, 2019•46 min•Season 1Ep. 2
This episode we discover the history of the Panama Canal, an engineering monument more than a century in the making, a corridor for over 200 million metric tonnes of cargo every year, and a great place for boats. The ten hour journey through the Panama Canal made by over 13,000 ships each year was first conceptualized all the way back in 1534 by Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V, wanting a way to get ships through the Americas in hopes of an advantage over Portugal. This idea was f...
Jun 21, 2019•58 min•Season 1Ep. 1
