WONDERS OF THE MODERN WORLD

Updating the list of the Seven Wonders of the World listed by Antipater of Sidon twenty-two hundred years ago, Joseph Gies describes thirteen wonders of the modern world, all technological feats where function comes first and beauty, if in evidence, is a by-product. There is the first nuclear powered merchant vessel, the Savannah II; the fastest railroad, the Tokaido Line from Tokyo to Osaka; the biggest bridge, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Long Island and Staten Island; the longest tunnel, the Simplon; the tallest building, the Empire State; the biggest road, the Interstate Highway System. There are projects to drive back the sea in the Dutch Delta, and to harness the Nile with the Aswan Dam, now in process. There are the touchstones of our era: the ICBM sites, Telstar, and automated factory. There is the difficult urban problem of sewage disposal as handled by Chicago. Mr. Gies covers these achievements with enough facts to inform and interest.