🏗️ Curling Bridges and Paddy Saving Balls.

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Hello Fellow Engineers!

Welcome to Real Civil Newsletter - the only newsletter where bridges get rated, goblins run salad shops, and dogs are the best engineers.

This week, we dive into an underwater cruise terminal (yes, actually underwater), rate a bridge that folds like mechanical origami, and watch my dog Paddy heroically retrieve a ball from compost like he’s on an HSE mission. We’ve also got zombie simulations, exploding bridge girders, and a CAPTCHA game that somehow turned into a corporate nightmare (and I loved it).

Read on for feats of real engineering, gratuitous architect slander, and clicky chaos.

Let’s dive into it 👇

Want a chance at the next one? Vote for your favourite bridge in the poll below! 🌉🔥This week, we’re giving away FOUR copies of Aloft! 🌬️🏝️

Love floating islands, survival crafting, and engineering your own skybound sanctuary? Then Aloft is your chance to defy gravity!

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for… 🥁

🏆 luckiesteve 🏆
🏆 sylverlyghtning 🏆
🏆 kaylacrouch1234 🏆
🏆 matthewmundt13 🏆

Check your inbox for your game key and prepare to build the sturdiest skybase this side of the stratosphere! 🛠️☁️

Missed out? Don’t worry more giveaways are on the way!

Want a chance at the next one? Vote for your favourite bridge in the poll below! 🌉🔥

👷‍♂️ Truss Me, I’m an Engineer…

Buried Treasure: The Galataport Terminal That’s Literally Underwater

If you thought engineers were just steel and spreadsheets, guess again. Istanbul’s Galataport proves we’re the true artists, just with better math. While architects were busy arguing over curtain wall aesthetics, engineers buried an entire cruise ship terminal... beneath the street... next to the Bosphorus.

Yes, really.

Instead of cluttering Istanbul’s historic coastline with another vanity project shaped like a bird or a crescent moon (looking at you, architects), engineers pulled off the world’s first underground cruise terminal. It’s sleek, secure, invisible, and, bonus, it doesn’t block your waterfront view while you eat a simit.

What makes it legendary?

• Submerged Terminal: Ships dock, and sidewalks literally rise to reveal access ramps. Like James Bond, if Bond wore a hi-vis vest.

• Movable Plazas: Parts of the city surface lift open when needed, then disappear. Sorry architects, your retractable glass panels ain’t impressing anyone anymore.

• Historical Sensitivity: Engineers preserved ancient artifacts while still building under one of the busiest waterfronts in Europe. Archaeology + logistics? We multitask.

While architects were busy sketching glass triangles, engineers quietly reshaped an entire urban coast.

⚡ Cool Links

🤯 UTSA smashes a 40‑ton bridge girder to break new ground
University of Texas researchers crushed an 80‑ft pre‑stressed steel girder under 500,000 lbs of load to test its structural limits, real testing, not just an architect doodling curves.

🌉 World's highest bridge to open in China this summer
The upcoming Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge (deck 2,051 ft above the ground) will claim the title of highest bridge on Earth.

🎚️ Rusty’s Retirement ignites idle game boom
This indie farming idle sim sold over half a million on Steam, inspiring clones and coasting at the bottom of screens everywhere.

🧟 Quarantine Zone: The Last Check hits 1M wishlists
In a zombie apoc sim by Brigada Games, you play FEDRA-style quarantine manager making tough moral calls. Viral success with Devolver backing it now, true systems design.

🏗️ Civil Draft

You asked for it, we listened - accessories are happening! 👷‍♂️👀

We’re working on some fun Civil Draft add-ons behind the scenes. Stay tuned for more details coming soon!

In the meantime, keep up to date here

🐕‍🦺 Paddy’s Corner

Paddy saves ball from deadly compost heap!

Paddy bravely rescued his ball from a compost heap in a sheep field, true hero, terrible site manager.

👾 Indie Game of the Week:

Ever wondered what it’s like to be trapped in a never-ending cycle of CAPTCHA puzzles, corporate debt, and goblin-powered salad production? No? Well too bad, Infiniclick exists.

In this chaotic clicker, you're tricked into working for a shady corp called Funkorp, paying off a debt of 2.2 million L’s by solving captchas, issuing fake traffic fines, and automating black-market vegetable stands. It’s capitalism, but with more goblins. I built a smoothie empire, lost all my money to viruses, and somehow still had fun.

🛒 Grab Infiniclick on Steam and start clicking your way into debt today.

It’s time for a Bridge Review!

Ah yes, the Rolling Bridge, real ones will remember we featured this curly little legend back in the earliest editions. It’s still one of the most gloriously overengineered solutions to “How do we let a boat through?” that we’ve ever seen.

Located at Paddington Basin, this bridge folds itself into a tight steel circle using hydraulics and hinged segments, like a Transformer with a degree in mechanical engineering. No unnecessary glass panels, no dramatic wings, just pure functional flair.

Engineering wins:

• Folds up in under two minutes like a good set of site drawings.

• Hydraulics? Chef’s kiss.

• Maintenance nightmare, but that’s job security.

Score: 8.4/10

🏗 r/realcivilengineer Spotlight

🤔 Thoughts from an Engineer