WEBVTT - What's the Biggest Building on Earth?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum here, come with me for just a moment.

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<v Speaker 1>Back to the mid nineteen sixties, when airspace giant Boeing

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<v Speaker 1>was preparing to build the original Boeing seven forty seven.

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<v Speaker 1>It would be the world's first jumbo jet, two and

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<v Speaker 1>a half times bigger than the largest existing airliners, The

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<v Speaker 1>seven forty seven would revolutionize air transportation by making it

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<v Speaker 1>possible to fly more people in cargo at a lower

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<v Speaker 1>cost than ever before. But before the seven forty seven

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<v Speaker 1>could get off the ground, Boeing and it's then president

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<v Speaker 1>and chairman of the board, William M. Allen, needed to

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<v Speaker 1>build a facility that was huge enough to accommodate the

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<v Speaker 1>construction of the massive plane. Bowing considered building a new

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<v Speaker 1>plant in California, but the seven forty seven s head

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<v Speaker 1>engineer Joe Sutter reportedly resisted putting the facility that far

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<v Speaker 1>away from Boeing's Seattle headquarters, arguing that all that travel

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<v Speaker 1>time might slow the project. Instead, the company ended up

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<v Speaker 1>picking the site of a former military airport in Everett,

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<v Speaker 1>twenty two miles that's thirty five kilometers north of Seattle.

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<v Speaker 1>It was a remote area filled with woods that were

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<v Speaker 1>home to bears that occasionally had to be shoot away

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<v Speaker 1>from the first folks who arrived. Working at breakneck speed,

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<v Speaker 1>and a little more than a year, construction workers erected

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<v Speaker 1>what was and still is the world's biggest factory. No

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<v Speaker 1>report on where the bears went, but we do know

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<v Speaker 1>that a railroad spur had to be built to the

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<v Speaker 1>site to rush building materials there and holloway debris. It

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<v Speaker 1>all cost more than one billion dollars, more than Boeing

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<v Speaker 1>was worth at the time, and is considered a feat

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<v Speaker 1>of human industry and resourcefulness. More than half a century

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<v Speaker 1>after its completion in nineteen sixty seven, Boeing's Everett factory

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<v Speaker 1>is still producing planes and inspiring off from the hordes

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<v Speaker 1>of visitors who've turned it into a major Washington tourist attraction.

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<v Speaker 1>So just how big is the plant? It covers ninety

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<v Speaker 1>eight acres and its interior measures at four hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>seventy two million cubic feet. That's a little over thirteen

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<v Speaker 1>million cubic meters. For perspective, the entire Disneyland theme park

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<v Speaker 1>could fit in side with room to spare. It's so

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<v Speaker 1>massive than what it was initially built. Accumulation of warm

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<v Speaker 1>air and moisture inside actually caused clouds to form just

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<v Speaker 1>below the ceiling until equipment was set up to keep

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<v Speaker 1>the air circulating. The ceiling is ninety feet that's twenty

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<v Speaker 1>seven meters above the factory floor, high enough to fit

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<v Speaker 1>an eight story office building. Inside. There are six doors

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<v Speaker 1>on the south side of the factory. The four to

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<v Speaker 1>the west are eighty two feet high that's about thirty

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<v Speaker 1>meters and three hundred feet wide over nine The two

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<v Speaker 1>to the east are about the same height but fifty

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<v Speaker 1>feet wider that's about fifteen meters. They open at the

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<v Speaker 1>push of a button, but it takes about five minutes

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<v Speaker 1>for them to do so. Inside the plant has approximately

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<v Speaker 1>one million overhead lights and twenty six overhead cranes that

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<v Speaker 1>run on thirty nine miles that's sixty three kilometers of

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<v Speaker 1>ceiling tracks, which lift and move big pieces and sections

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<v Speaker 1>of planes as they're being built. The aircraft are assembled

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<v Speaker 1>on a production line that moves about an inch and

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<v Speaker 1>a half that's three point eight centimeters per minute. Under

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<v Speaker 1>the floor, there's an elaborate two point three three mile

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<v Speaker 1>that's three point seven kilometers system of tunnels which contain

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<v Speaker 1>the water, sewer, and electrical utilities, and also allow workers

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<v Speaker 1>to move around the facility without getting in the way

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<v Speaker 1>of the aircraft production. They use one thousand, three hundred

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<v Speaker 1>bicycles and tricycles to cover the distances more quickly. The

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<v Speaker 1>Everett plant is the equivalent of a small city, with

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<v Speaker 1>thirty six thousand workers on site every day. It has

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<v Speaker 1>its own fire department, banks, daycare facilities, a fully equipped

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<v Speaker 1>medical clinic, and a water treatment plant. One thing that

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<v Speaker 1>the Everett Factory doesn't have, though, is air conditioning. If

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<v Speaker 1>it starts to get too warm inside, workers open the

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<v Speaker 1>factory doors and use fans to draw air inside to

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<v Speaker 1>cool the facility. Conversely, if it gets too chilly, they

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<v Speaker 1>turn on more of the overhead lights to heat the

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<v Speaker 1>air inside. A Seattle's relatively mild climate enables these measures

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<v Speaker 1>to work out just fine. The original building was expanded twice,

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<v Speaker 1>first in nineteen seventy eight to accommodate production of the

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<v Speaker 1>Bowing seven sixty seven, and then again in ninety nine

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<v Speaker 1>two for the Boeing seven seventy seven program. Recently, additional

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<v Speaker 1>buildings have been added to the factory site to handle,

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<v Speaker 1>robotic assembly of the seven seventy seven fuselage and fabrication

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<v Speaker 1>of the composite wings of the seven seventy seven X.

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<v Speaker 1>The murals on the Factory six massive doors are the

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<v Speaker 1>biggest digital graphics on the planet, covering more than a

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<v Speaker 1>hundred thousand square feet that's over nine thousand square meters.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Patrick Jake Tiger and produced

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<v Speaker 1>by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of

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<v Speaker 1>other enormous topics with intricate detail, visit our home planet,

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<v Speaker 1>how Stuff Works dot com.