Largest Man made structure on Earth

Well, most of us might say the Great Pyramids or the Great Wall of China and some smart dorks might say Mubarak al-Kabir Tower, Kuwait, but then most of us are wrong. The largest single cohesive man made structure is Fresh Kills, a rubbish dump on Staten Island, New York.

It was opened in 1948 and soon became the largest structure on earth eventually trumping the Great Wall of China in terms of volume. The site is 12 sq.km in area, and when operational 20 barges shipped in everyday, each carrying 650 tons of garbage. At its peak it was 25 m taller than the statue of liberty.

The landfill was closed in March, 2001 following protests by the local population, only to be opened again to cope with the enormous amount of debris created during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. It has now completely shut down and landscaping has also been completed. It now looks somewhat like this.