They Built the World's Largest Dragline — Then Sold It for Scrap скачать в хорошем качестве

They Built the World's Largest Dragline — Then Sold It for Scrap

In 1969, the Bucyrus-Erie Company completed the 4250-W dragline for the Central Ohio Coal Company in southeastern Ohio. Known as Big Muskie, it stood 22 stories tall, weighed 13,500 tons, and required 340 railcars and 260 trucks just to deliver its components. It was the largest single-bucket digging machine ever built, and only one was ever made. For 22 years, Big Muskie ran around the clock, removing over 608 million cubic yards of overburden, twice the volume moved during the construction of the Panama Canal. After the Clean Air Act reduced demand for high-sulfur coal, the machine was retired in 1991. It sat abandoned for eight years before being sold for scrap at $700,000, a fraction of its $25 million construction cost. Only the bucket survives today, displayed at Miners Memorial Park in McConnelsville, Ohio, while the land it once stripped is now home to The Wilds, one of the largest wildlife conservation centers in North America.