Abandoned Engineering

Synopsis

These are some of the most spectacular examples of abandoned engineering the world has ever known. The series explores how and why they were built, consider the financial and social costs of their failure and examine the environmental and ecological impacts. The series also explores how experts came up with plans to make something beautiful or useful from the ruins.

First Air Date: 2017-02-18

Last Air Date: 2025-11-26

Number of Seasons: 15

Number of Episodes: 145

Networks: U&Yesterday

View Technical Specifications on IMDb

Top Cast

Tom Ward as Self - Narrator
Jim Meigs as Self
Rob Bell as Self
Lynette Nusbacher as Self
Sascha Auerbach as Self
Dominic Selwood as Self
Geoff Wawro as Self
Dougal Jerram as Self
Michele Mitchell as Self
Alicia Gutierrez-Romine as Self

Seasons

Series 1 (2017) - (6 Episodes)

Series 2 (2018) - (8 Episodes)

Series 3 (2019) - (8 Episodes)

Series 4 (2019) - (12 Episodes)

Series 5 (2020) - (8 Episodes)

Series 6 (2020) - (11 Episodes)

Series 7 (2021) - (12 Episodes)

Series 8 (2021) - (12 Episodes)

Series 9 (2022) - (12 Episodes)

Series 10 (2022) - (12 Episodes)

Season 11 (2023) - (8 Episodes)

Season 12 (2023) - (8 Episodes)

Season 13 (2024) - (8 Episodes)

Season 14 (2025) - (8 Episodes)

Season 15 (2025) - (12 Episodes)

Series 1 (2017)

No overview available for this season.

Episodes:

Ep. 1: Silent Cities (2017-02-18)

Empty buildings and infrastructures are full of the echoes of real people and vanished lives, leaving many questions unanswered and mysteries unsolved. We explore the worlds strangest engineering projects that created empty silent cities. We ask why a ruined cold war air base has become a no-go area and how a tiny Japanese mining island become the most over-crowded place on the planet. We find out if the street layout of the Soviet Union's model city become a matter of life or death for its population. And how did Nazi Germany create a huge mind control facility at a holiday resort?
Ep. 2: Mission: Space (2017-02-25)

We aim for the stars and find out why unwanted battleship guns allow the United States to gain vital information about the borders of space. We ask how the shattered remains of a secret Nazi base became the first on the path to a new world, with the development of the ground-breaking V2 rocket. We explore a forgotten structure deep in the Arizona desert to ask if it is the true home of America's space programme. And we reveal the bizarre link between a discarded oil drum and a Cold War struggle to survive in zero gravity.
Ep. 3: Lost Bridges (2017-03-21)

Soaring across some of the widest rivers and deepest valleys on the planet, bridges have always been at the cutting edge of engineering. We travel high into the mountains of the Colorado desert to find out why a hidden engineering masterpiece could disappear at any time. We ask why a stretch of overgrown concrete in a Czech reservoir is known as 'Hitler's bridge'. We find out how the highest bridge in the world collapsed in less than one minute. Finally, we uncover the story behind Cape Town's invisible bridge, which never carried a single vehicle.
Ep. 4: Ghost Ships (2017-03-28)

Exploring ship graveyards, including Scapa Flow in Orkney, where German warships were scuttled after the First World War, and Mallows Bay, home to 200 wrecks colonised by wildlife.
Ep. 5: Quest for Power (2017-04-04)

How Europe's most advanced power station became a film set. Plus, the structures made by scientific pioneer Nikola Tesla in his thwarted quest to prove the US with free electricity.
Ep. 6: Roads to Nowhere (2017-04-06)

Hear how a crumbling hill in the Peak District and dunes in California caused the closure of two roads. Learn why a route used by the French Resistance shut in 2003.