🏗 Load Bearing Bones?

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Hello Fellow Engineers!

We’ve got the Burj Al Arab, a hotel so fancy it needed its own island; the Whalebone Bridge from Skyrim, proving that bones can be load-bearing; and the Costa Concordia salvage operation, which somehow doubled in cost (classic). Plus, Paddy conducts bridge stress tests, and I play a game where I quite literally beat around the bush.

Intrigued? Of course you are!

Let’s dive into it 👇

🎉 GIVEAWAY TIME! 🎉

This week, we’re giving away 1 copy of Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles – Evolution and FOUR DLCs! 🏰⚓

If you love city-building, naval strategy, and defending your empire from the high seas, you’re in for a treat!

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

🏆 ardoneff 🏆

Check your email for your game key and get ready to build, defend, and conquer! ⚔️🏗️

Missed out? More giveaways are on the way! 

Want a shot at the next one? Vote for a bridge in the poll in this email! 🌉🔥

👷‍♂️ Truss Me, I’m an Engineer…

The Burj Al Arab – A Sail, Some Steel, and No Architects Allowed

Alright, folks, grab your calculators and throw your protractors at the nearest architect, because today we’re talking about one of engineering’s greatest flexes—the Burj Al Arab. This beast of a building sits on its own man-made island (because why build on land when you can just make your own?), and it stands 321 meters tall, looking like a giant sailboat that decided to drop anchor in Dubai.

And let’s be real—this was not an architect’s doing. No, no. If an architect had their way, they’d slap some weird angles on it, call it “modernist,” and forget how gravity works. Instead, engineers stepped in and said, “You want a hotel on the water? Light work.”

✅ A Fake Island That Works – The Burj Al Arab isn’t just on an island; it’s on 250 concrete piles driven 40 meters into the seabed to keep it from floating away. Take that, nature!

✅ The Massive Steel Exoskeleton – Instead of making the structure rely on boring old walls, engineers built a giant steel truss exoskeleton that holds the whole thing up. Essentially, it’s a bridge disguised as a hotel—because bridges are cooler.

✅ The World’s Tallest Atrium – At 180 meters tall, the atrium could fit the Statue of Liberty inside it. But let’s be honest, Lady Liberty wouldn’t be fancy enough for this place.

If you’re wondering what staying in peak engineering feels like, you can check into The Royal Suite—for a cool $24,000 per night. Back in 2012, CNN Go ranked it #12 on the world’s 15 most expensive hotel suites, which means there are 11 even more ridiculous ways to waste money on a bed. But hey, at least this one comes with a gold-plated iPad and your own personal butler—so you don’t have to lift a single gold-plated finger.

So next time you see the Burj Al Arab in a fancy travel vlog, just remember: it’s not just a hotel, it’s an engineering mic drop. 🔧🏗️

⚡ Cool Links

🧘‍♀️ A zen garden building indie game…
Finally—a game where your plants won’t immediately die because you forgot to water them! Dream Garden lets you build the ultimate chill oasis, whether it’s a Zen retreat or a fish-filled paradise. No weeds, no bugs, no architects—just pure, stress-free garden perfection.

🚢 Raising the sunken ferry - The Costa Concordia
How they raised the Costa Concordia with a mix of engineering genius and a blank check, turning a regular cruise into a $300M+ salvage saga. You could say it Costa fortune.

🌍 Drilling to the CENTER OF THE EARTH
Nothing says corporate greed like drilling straight into a planet’s core for profit! In Drill Core, you’ll manage workers, research wild tech, and fight off aliens—because apparently, they don’t like us strip-mining their home.

🐕‍🦺 Paddy’s Corner

A big stick on a long bridge!

Paddy’s out here auditioning for a beaver colony—clearly, I’ve been playing too much Timberborn. Watch as he attempts the ultimate bridge stress test with the biggest stick he can find!

👾 Indie Game of the Week:

Ever wanted to beat around the bush—literally? 🌿 

Well, someone made a whole game about it, and naturally, I had to check it out. What started as a simple bush-smacking simulator quickly turned into a wild fever dream featuring deer explosions, cryptic veterans, philosophical crab battles, and a suspiciously mobile bush. Oh, and there’s a dating ad for single bushes in your area—because of course there is.

At one point, the game even tried to convince me to stop playing—but joke’s on them, I have no self-control and maxed out every possible upgrade. Now I can obliterate red circles at 2 million quid per hit while questioning my life choices. 10/10 would beat around the bush again.

Also, the game is FREE, so go beat your own bush HERE!

It’s time for a Bridge Review!

Now, you might be thinking, “Wait, this is a bridge from a video game—why are we reviewing it?” Well, let me remind you: engineering standards do not take days off. If a bridge exists—real or digital—we will review it, critique it, and most importantly, bully any architectural crimes it commits.

The Whalebone Bridge, found in the icy landscapes of Skyrim, is an absolute unit of a bridge, constructed entirely out of the massive ribcage of a dead sea creature. Now, normally, we’d expect bridges to be made of steel, stone, or at the very least, wood, but here we are—crossing a chasm on a skeleton. Who needs concrete when you've got nature's scaffolding?

✅ Sustainable Materials – No quarries, no deforestation, just 100% organic bones. Some might call this "recycling," but I call it "brutal efficiency."
✅ Tension and Compression Done Right – Those ribs are perfectly spaced to handle weight like a natural arch, meaning some clever Nord engineer actually thought this through.
✅ Minimalist Design – No unnecessary decorations, no fragile glass balustrades—just pure, structural integrity.

Despite the questionable ethics of using an animal skeleton as a load-bearing structure, the Whalebone Bridge is an unexpected engineering triumph. It’s functional, resilient, and refreshingly free of pointless design fluff.

Final Score: 8.3/10 – Solid structure, great use of materials, but loses points for bone brittleness and lack of redundancy. Also, unclear planning permission—did they even submit an environmental impact report?

🏗 r/realcivilengineer Spotlight