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In this video, we'll reveal why there are so many fake buildings in New York City. Yes, you heard that right. Fake buildings. Buildings that look real from the outside, but are actually hollow shells that hide something else inside. What are they hiding, and why are they there? Let's find out! #brightside #brightsideglobal TIMESTAMPS: 0:01 Fake buildings of New York 08:12 New York's unique bugs 18:33 Weirdest buildings of the world This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:00Wow, looky here. It's New York City. The Big Apple. The city that never sleeps. Hong Kong on the Hudson.
00:08The greatest city in the world. New York, New York. The city so nice, they named it twice.
00:13Alright, I'll stop.
00:15You thought you knew this city so well, but underneath all that glitz and glamour is a facade. Literally. New
00:22York is populated with some of the most iconic urban buildings in the world and home to some of the
00:27most unique and famous towers.
00:29Who would have known that New York was a front for fake buildings? And the cool thing is that there
00:35are plenty to search for.
00:36Okay, I'm adding that to my bucket list. So, the question is, why do they put these fake buildings all
00:43over New York?
00:44The city is one of the most vibrant places in the world and requires many infrastructures to keep the city
00:49in motion. That means having many industrial structures and buildings in every major district.
00:55New York is charming for the design and the buildings. Imagine having industrial structures right next to your favorite pizza
01:03parlor or hot dog stand.
01:04The designers thought ahead and decided to disguise those industrial infrastructures as fake buildings.
01:11They blend with the city so well that they don't stand out. They look like your good old apartment or
01:17housing unit with a front door, real-life windows, and even charming balconies where people would hang out.
01:23The only thing is that there's nothing behind the facade and no one is allowed inside.
01:28So, where in the world can you find these fake buildings?
01:32For starters, one of the most popular fake buildings is in Brooklyn. At 58 Juralamon Street, you can find a
01:39very typical neighborhood.
01:41But between the buildings stands a brick building with a slightly deeper shade than the rest.
01:46It has bright open windows that blend in with the rest of the buildings in the neighborhood, except that they're
01:51blacked out.
01:52At first glance, you might not think of it as anything.
01:55But if you pay close attention, the building looks like a glitch from a video game.
02:00It was built in 1847, way before New York was considered glamorous.
02:06Originally, it was meant to be a regular building, but in 1908, they converted it into a fake building.
02:13Don't think you can just try to break in.
02:15Even if you could, it's pointless, because it's part of a ventilation fan for the subway.
02:21It also serves as an emergency exit for some of the surrounding buildings.
02:25Actually, throughout New York, many fake buildings exist to disguise the subway vents for the smoke to escape.
02:32All the way to 415 Bruckner Boulevard, the Bronx, this townhouse was designed by the Switzer Group, which is an
02:40interior architect company.
02:41It's not as charming as the one at 58 Juralamon Street, but it serves a similar purpose.
02:47To hide an electric substation for New York's utility company.
02:51The city needs these substations to reduce the high-voltage electricity to a lower voltage so it can be distributed
02:58locally.
02:59Having a building like this popping out of the middle of your neighborhood isn't exactly the smartest way to attract
03:05people to the Bronx.
03:06That's why the fake townhouse facade is the perfect camouflage.
03:10Now, some of these fake buildings don't really hit the mark and stick out like a sore thumb.
03:16The people of Manhattan describe the Mulry Square infrastructure as a complete clunker.
03:21After plenty of redesigns and back-to-the-drawing board meetings, the result is still not pretty.
03:28The locals compare it to a concrete box.
03:30They created windows without glass, which doesn't allow the building to blend in with the rest of the neighborhood.
03:36But it beats a typical subway ventilation plant either way.
03:41There are just so many places to visit and cross off your bucket list.
03:45But if you live in China, you can literally stay in the country and visit many iconic cities around the
03:51world.
03:52The replica cities began when the Chinese economy started booming in the early 90s.
03:57They wanted the lifestyle of the rich and famous without wanting to leave their country.
04:02They can be comfortable eating their local food and get the feeling of being abroad.
04:07The Chinese province of Guangdong has an identical copy of the historical Australian alpine village, Hallstatt.
04:15The real Hallstatt is centuries old and one of the most charming places to discover.
04:20The local people of Hallstatt also had no idea that their home was being built in China.
04:26Some people thought that this was controversial, probably because it cost around $940 million to build it.
04:33Paris is undoubtedly one of the most charming cities you could ever visit.
04:38Its rich history and vibrant culture are enough to catch the first plane to go there.
04:43For residents of Tian du Cheng, that's something they can do anytime they want.
04:48The city is also known as Sky City and has a replica of the Eiffel Tower that looks eerily like
04:54the iconic one in Paris
04:56and built buildings to match the city's visual charm.
04:59One of the main things that will break the charm is the farmland surrounding the city.
05:04There's barely anyone there and the streets are always empty, very un-Paris-like.
05:09Still, you can find some nice fountains and statues scattered along the streets to give it some spirit.
05:15There's laundry hung everywhere, even on the trees.
05:18The picturesque fountains are dry and many apartments are empty.
05:22Only a few stores are open for business.
05:25Even though this looks like a fake city, it's quite real.
05:29Some people live here because it's more affordable than other places.
05:33Two hours away from this town is another version of Paris' Pont Alexandre III
05:37and a carbon copy of London's Tower Bridge, but with four towers instead of two.
05:43Hey, such a bargain!
05:45You can also visit the closest thing to Italy, but this time you can go shopping.
05:49Clarencia Village is an outlet mall that offers an array of shops to lose yourself.
05:55The good thing is that this was built by an Italian developer to capture the essence of an Italian village.
06:02It has fountains, canals, and mosaics for proper aesthetics.
06:06It began in 2011 and has more than 200 shops with many Italian brands and British, U.S., and Chinese
06:13brands as well.
06:14The place is so popular that it gets between 10,000 and 25,000 visitors per day.
06:20China also has other replica towns that put you in a mini-Manhattan called the Yuzhiapu Financial District.
06:28The developer's goal was to make this place the financial center of the world.
06:32It was complete with the right landmarks, like the Rockefeller and Lincoln Centers,
06:36but the project was halted in 2019, leaving it mainly empty.
06:41You can find a typical English town with cobbled streets, Victorian homes, and restaurants that make Thames Town.
06:48This place was meant to recreate a European lifestyle fantasy without leaving Shanghai.
06:54China also has a Dutch town that has some elements of Amsterdam with windmills and famous canals.
07:00They even decided to copy some of the landmarks, like the Netherlands Maritime Museum.
07:06Here's a bonus story of Lebanon's thinnest building built out of a dispute.
07:10It's the story of two brothers who both inherited unequal plots of land.
07:15One of the brothers happened to get a very thin plot of land and couldn't help but be jealous of
07:20his brother's nice plot of land.
07:22He wasn't pleased.
07:24Both of the lands overlooked the Mediterranean Sea in a lively neighborhood of Beirut.
07:29So, it's no wonder that both brothers couldn't agree on how they should develop their lands.
07:34It was obvious that the brother with the most land could build a proper building.
07:39The other brother had to improvise.
07:41He decided to obstruct his brother's property by constructing a thin building,
07:46enough to only fit 14 feet at its widest and 2 feet at its most narrow.
07:51It was constructed in 1954, and the locals of the area know it as the Grudge.
07:57The crazy thing is that the place was once habitable with many visitors enjoying their stay.
08:03It's not easy to live there, but it's part of living the experience.
08:07The building is still standing, but is empty.
08:12Wow, every morning, 8.5 million people wake up in New York City.
08:16But the Big Apple doesn't belong only to humans.
08:19This is the city of ants.
08:22There are 17 billion of them here.
08:25They live in houses, hide in the grass, crawl under asphalt, and climb trees.
08:30For every New Yorker, there's a sneaker box filled with ants.
08:34City ants are more fortunate than their forest cousins.
08:37They don't have any need to look for food.
08:40Millions of people leave behind tons of hot dog crumbs, pizza slices, and coffee drips.
08:47Insects just have to wait for a lunch break in an office building.
08:50Then they gather around benches in the park or cafe tables.
08:54A lot of food is waiting for them there.
08:58Over 1 billion!
09:00That's how many ants are running through the streets and parks of Manhattan.
09:03And in this ocean of insects, scientists have been able to spot tiny reddish-brown creatures.
09:09These insects don't fit into any of the 13,000 ant species known to science.
09:15They're unique and only live in Manhattan.
09:18Their kingdom is between 63rd and 76th streets.
09:22Scientists don't know how long the Manhattans have evolved in isolation.
09:28They arrived in the U.S. on ships from Europe and were cut off from the rest of the city's
09:32infrastructure.
09:33But why go anywhere else if there's enough food?
09:37The Manhattan ant loves fast food, especially corn syrup.
09:41Because of such a diet, the insect's body has an increased carbon content.
09:45This isn't a problem for the ant, though.
09:47Carbon helps it adapt to the dry, warm weather of the concrete jungle.
09:52Around 20% of New York City is parks and green spaces.
09:57White-footed mice live in these places.
09:59Scientists have found out that the mice that live in New York have evolved.
10:03They're different from their village relatives.
10:06These changes are genetical.
10:08It's caused by the diet of white-footed rodents that feed on human food waste.
10:13For example, New York mice need enlarged livers to process fatty acids from fast food.
10:20Central Park in New York is almost twice the size of the Principality of Monaco.
10:24A unique centipede is only found in this green area.
10:28The creature, called Hoffman's dwarf centipede, doesn't grow any longer than 0.4 inches.
10:34It lives in heaps of dry plants and runs on 41 pairs of legs.
10:40This crustacean, measuring only a bit more than 0.3 inches, is called the Socorro isopod.
10:47It's one of the rarest animals on the planet.
10:50The creature can only be found in a small thermal spring near Socorro, New Mexico.
10:56The isopod lives in the water as warm as 90 degrees Fahrenheit and covered with a layer of algae.
11:02These are ideal conditions for the creature.
11:07To get to Mobile Cave, you'd have to rappel 65 feet down.
11:11That's the height of a four-story building.
11:14After that, you'd crawl through narrow passages and swim along a canal with cold water.
11:20Sunlight can't get into the cave.
11:22The air is poisoned by vapors of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.
11:27This extreme place has been isolated from the outside world for 5.5 million years.
11:33A unique ecosystem is formed in this toxic atmosphere.
11:37Of all the animals that live there, 33 species of millipedes, scorpions, spiders, and leeches
11:43can't be found anywhere else on Earth.
11:46These creatures are mostly blind and colorless.
11:49Well, why would you need eyes in disguise if you live in complete darkness?
11:54Mobile's coolest guy is the venomous centipede.
11:57Scientists have nicknamed this animal the king of the cave.
12:00It doesn't grow more than 2 inches.
12:02But for this world, it's a giant.
12:05The blind salamander would feel great in the company of strange animals from Mobile.
12:10But these little monsters are separated by the ocean and thousands of miles.
12:15The Mobile Cave is located in Romania, where these beauties live only in Texas.
12:21Their home is an underground body of water in the San Marcos area.
12:25These salamanders grow to be 5 inches long.
12:28The name makes it pretty clear that the animal is blind.
12:31It does have eyes, but they're pretty much useless.
12:35This doesn't stop the salamander from being a skilled snail and shrimp hunter.
12:40It senses other animals by feeling the underwater waves they create while moving.
12:46The Scottish wildcat lives in the north of Scotland.
12:50This animal is different from domestic cats, which love sleeping on the couch.
12:54Unlike them, it's a perfect hunter.
12:57The creature is 25% larger than the average cat.
13:01It's muscular and long-legged.
13:03The wildcat's tail is blunt and fluffy, covered in black rings with a black tip on the end.
13:11The quokka is called the world's happiest animal.
13:14Just look at its smile.
13:16This fluffy animal seems to always be ready for a photo shoot.
13:21Quokkas are only found in Australia.
13:24Around 10,000 animals live on Rottenest Island and several other locations.
13:29The creature's cute smile is an evolutionary trait.
13:32An open mouth helps it breathe and regulates its body temperature.
13:36Oh, by the way, if you try to feed a quokka, you'll have to pay a fine of more than
13:40200 bucks.
13:42This baby will feel comfortable even if you put it on your little finger.
13:46The animal lives only on the island of Madagascar.
13:50Scientists have found just two tiny reptiles, a male and a female.
13:54The researchers have named the nanochameleon Brochysia nana.
13:59It's a mystery to them why it doesn't grow larger than a sunflower seed.
14:03The next animal on the list also lives only in Madagascar.
14:08Locals call this creature aye-aye.
14:11The unusual lemur spends most of its life in trees and leads a nocturnal lifestyle.
14:16This might explain why it looks so tired.
14:19Even though the aye-aye is a lemur, its teeth are like those of a rodent.
14:24Its claws resemble sloth's claws.
14:26And its body looks like that of a monkey.
14:29The animal's fingers and toes are especially frightening.
14:33They're long and thin, with pointy claws.
14:39Get a clip for any season with brand new Brightside Merch.
14:42Click the link and grab your print.
14:45This is a giraffe with its trademark long neck.
14:48A zebra is grazing nearby.
14:51Black and white stripes on its body help the animal reflect sunlight during the day
14:55and keep it warm at night.
14:58But what if you combine these animals?
15:01No need.
15:02Nature has done this work for you.
15:03The okapi looks like a giraffe with a short neck, horse body, and zebra stripes on its legs.
15:10The okapi has a long tongue.
15:13Males have small giraffe horns on their heads.
15:16You can only meet these unusual animals in the African rainforest.
15:21If you decide to travel around Africa afterward, you must visit the Ethiopian highlands.
15:28That's where you see unique gelata monkeys.
15:31And no, they're not named after the Italian ice cream.
15:34That's gelata.
15:35Don't mix that up.
15:37Males look like rock stars from the 70s.
15:39They're bright and have cool hair.
15:41But don't mess with these animals.
15:43They aren't too friendly.
15:45Gelatas spend most of their time on the ground.
15:48And the main part of their diet is the grass they collect during the day.
15:52Scientists believe that gelatas are the remaining members of an ancient gang of critters.
15:57It lived millions of years ago in vast spaces from South Africa to India.
16:03Now, imagine people the size of the Statue of Liberty living next to us.
16:07Sounds like science fiction.
16:08But for the animal world, this is reality.
16:11The world's smallest tortoise species, the speckled tortoise,
16:15doesn't grow more than 4 inches long.
16:18But the Galapagos Islands are home to giant tortoises that reach the length of 5 feet.
16:23They also weigh like a sports bike.
16:25The largest of them had an incredible weight of 1,000 pounds.
16:30The giant Galapagos tortoise lives for 100 years and sleeps 16 hours a day.
16:35Due to its slow metabolism, the animal may not eat or drink water for a whole year.
16:42Millions of years ago, lizards from South America climbed onto a log.
16:47Sea waves carried the log to the Pacific Ocean.
16:50The lizards traveled hundreds of miles and ended up on the Galapagos Islands.
16:55They had to evolve to adapt to new conditions.
16:58Scientists believe this is how the marine iguanas appeared.
17:02These unique animals look like dangerous dragons.
17:06But, in fact, they feed on plants and are totally harmless.
17:10Iguanas spend most of their lives in water.
17:13To get rid of sea salt that accumulates in the body, these animals literally sneeze salt.
17:19Achoo!
17:20The lyre bird lives only in southeastern Australia and the island of Tasmania.
17:25The bird has such a strange name because of its tail.
17:29It looks like a lyre, a stringed instrument of the ancient Greeks.
17:33Lyre birds are known for their ability to imitate other birds.
17:37And not only them.
17:38The bird copies animal screams, human voices, chainsaw noises, car and fire alarms, and even the click of a camera.
17:50About 12,000 years ago, a salt lake appeared on one of Palau's islands.
17:55Today, it's called Jellyfish Lake.
17:58This 1,500 by 500 foot reservoir is home to 5 million golden jellyfish.
18:04These unique creatures swim to the west shore of the lake every morning.
18:08There, jellyfish wait for the sunrise.
18:10Then, all day long, they follow the sun.
18:13Algae lives in the tissues of the jellyfish, feeding them with energy.
18:17These algaes can't live without sunlight.
18:19Have you ever seen a skyscraper that can change its shape?
18:23The creators of the FNF Tower in Panama City had a concept and only $50 million,
18:29which isn't a lot in skyscraper money.
18:32So, they couldn't afford a mistake.
18:35And they finished a concrete structure,
18:37with the 39 upper floors rotating 9 degrees around an axis from the first attempt,
18:43without spending any extra time or materials.
18:47Dubai's rotating tower will look different every time you see it, once it's finished.
18:52Each of its 80 floors will rotate 360 degrees individually around the center of the building.
18:58The lucky residents will be able to control that rotation,
19:01which means they can choose their view from the window.
19:04A complete lap should take about 90 minutes.
19:07And, no, the tower won't be a huge waste of electricity.
19:11It will produce its own energy.
19:13Wind turbines between the floors will drive the rotations.
19:18If you've ever wanted to live inside a video game,
19:21book an apartment in the King Power Mahana Khan building.
19:25This pixelated skyscraper around the height of the Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Thailand.
19:31The secret behind its looks is the horizontally and vertically divided glass windows.
19:36It took five years to finish this beauty with over 200 apartments, a hotel, luxury shops, restaurants,
19:44and one of the most breathtaking viewpoints in the world.
19:48The Libyan International Building features one of the world's tallest artificial waterfalls running right down its side.
19:56No worries, they only turn it on on special occasions, and it uses a mix of recycled tap water and
20:02rainwater.
20:03When it started running for the first time, the non-informed locals even reported a huge water leak.
20:10The Cyber Texture office building in Mumbai looks like a huge egg made of glass and steel.
20:17It was actually inspired by a vessel that, like our planet, has its own ecosystem.
20:23To bring down the heat levels inside, the architects chose the ideal orientation
20:28and added sun shading and an underground cooling system.
20:33The Marina Bay Sands in Singapore seems like a Stonehenge lookalike,
20:38but its architect claims that he was inspired by a house of cards.
20:42The horizontal one is balanced on the three vertical ones.
20:46They are three 55-story hotels with restaurants, nightclubs, gardens, shops, museums, and movie theaters.
20:54The horizontal card is an infinity swimming pool with the best view of the city for up to 4,000
21:00visitors.
21:01The pool hangs at the height of the 57th floor, and it feels like nothing is holding it.
21:08The dancing house definitely stands out among the more traditional architecture in Prague.
21:13The nickname for the house is Fred and Ginger.
21:16The stone tower symbolizes the famous dancer Fred Astaire,
21:20and the glass tower, his partner Ginger Rogers.
21:23There's even imaginary hair on top of Fred's tower.
21:26Ninety-nine concrete panels support the dancing shape, all of them of different dimensions.
21:34Umeda Sky Building, twice the height of Big Ben,
21:37consists of two towers of glass and steel to the north of Osaka Station.
21:42The floating garden observatory connects the towers on top.
21:46Although the building is in a huge city,
21:48the skywalk is so high in the clouds that the only thing you'll hear up there is the wind.
21:54If you're scared of heights, you can visit an urban garden, a theater, an art museum,
21:59or one of the many offices closer to the ground inside the building.
22:05Architect Octavio Mendoza owns probably the largest piece of pottery in the world.
22:11If you're ever in Colombia, ask the locals for directions to the Flintstone House.
22:16Yes, they call it that for a reason.
22:18The official name is Casa Terracotta, and the architect only used clay to build it.
22:24He let it bake and harden in the sun, which transformed the pliable material into solid ceramic.
22:31Every curve of the building is designed after the surrounding hills.
22:35All the furniture inside is also made of clay.
22:38Mendoza is determined to work on the casa for the rest of his life.
22:44Artists Dennis Sullivan and Francis Conklin have been saving money for 15 years,
22:49carving smaller wooden dogs to create their dream project.
22:53The Dog Bark Park Inn in Cottonwood is a 12-foot beagle that stands proud in the Idaho prairie.
23:00There is a bedroom and a living area in its body, and an extra bedroom in the head.
23:07Have you ever wondered what it's like to be inside a huge carpet?
23:11Me neither.
23:12But checking out the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum is definitely worth it anyway.
23:17It shows the history of this important local craft in every detail.
23:22Austrian architect Franz Jans designed the construction, and it took six years to finish it.
23:29The Basket Building in Ohio looks exactly like a real shopping basket, except it's 160 times larger.
23:37It even has two attached handles.
23:39The building served as the headquarters of Longaberger Basket Company,
23:43then was sold to become a luxury hotel.
23:48A giant whale?
23:50An airship?
23:51Can you guess what's inside this building in Graz, Austria?
23:54Two British architects won the Europe-wide competition to design this art museum.
23:59The biomorphic construction has around 1,000 acrylic glass elements on its skin.
24:05During the night, it can send light signals and messages to people on the other side of the river.
24:11It takes in daylight from the north through nozzles on its top.
24:14The needle is a viewing platform.
24:18The Half House in Toronto, Canada, was built in the late 19th century
24:23and was one of six identical houses standing next to each other.
24:26When developers came to this area, the owners of all the other houses agreed to move,
24:31and this one wouldn't go.
24:34A demolition crew showed some impressive skills
24:36as they managed to tear down the neighboring house
24:39without doing any damage at all to what is now the Half House.
24:43The white exterior wall used to be load-bearing,
24:46dividing the neighbors' bedrooms and living rooms.
24:49One wrong move of the excavator, and the entire construction would become ruins.
24:55The Shell House in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, stands by the ocean,
25:00was inspired by the ocean, and looks like one of the ocean's symbols.
25:05The house is shell-shaped and covered with shells from nearby beaches.
25:09Architect Eduardo Ocampo designed this beauty
25:12as he wanted to have a one-of-a-kind house for his brother to come and visit more often.
25:17Now it's up for rent for vacationers.
25:21The Bubble Palace, not far away from Cannes in France,
25:25was designed by a Hungarian architect and purchased by Pierre Cardin.
25:30In case you have a couple of spare million, you can buy this interesting property.
25:34You'll get 10-bedroom suites decorated by contemporary artists,
25:38gardens, water ponds, a swimming pool,
25:41and a 500-seat outdoor auditorium with an awesome view of the Bay of Cannes as a bonus.
25:48Can you find one house standing straight here?
25:52I know, I also failed.
25:54All the cubes in the Cube House in Rotterdam are tilted 45 degrees at their side.
26:00The idea here was to make the most of the space.
26:03Dutch architect Piet Blom designed the houses in the late 70s to look like an abstract forest.
26:09Each triangular roof represents a treetop.
26:12The houses stand at three floors tall, with an entrance on the ground floor,
26:17an open kitchen, and a living room on the first floor,
26:20as well as a bathroom with two bedrooms on the top floor.
26:25The Boot in Tasman, New Zealand,
26:27is a hotel that looks like it comes straight out of a children's book.
26:31It even has legit shoelaces.
26:33There's a spiral staircase, cozy fireplace, kitchenette, and a bedroom with a balcony.
26:40If you ever find yourself in Mitchell, South Dakota,
26:43be sure not to miss out on their key tourist attraction, the Corn Palace.
26:48The locals have always been so proud of prairie gold
26:51that they first built a palace out of corn back in 1892
26:55to prove to the rest of the world how fertile their lands are.
26:59What you can see now is the rebuilt version.
27:01Every year, they put new corn in 13 shades to form new beautiful murals.
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