Hello everyone! Seeing as I have a lot more free time now, I am going to try to highlight some of my favorite builds from the Build the Earth project each week! I had a look at the Build The Earth - UK YouTube channel, and found this cinematic highlight of London. In the post to follow, I will discuss several of the builds the video highlights!

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London Bridge

The cinematic view of London Bridge in this video is absolutely breathtaking. I had only heard of the London Bridge from that old folk song which talks about it falling down, but had never actually seen it.

Upon further wikipedia research, I learned that the bridge displayed is also called Tower Bridge, and it crosses the River Thames downstream from the bridge that is actually referred to as London Bridge. In the latter part of the 19th century, demand for another bridge crossing the river came with commercial development in the East End of London. The reason why a normal bridge could not be built was because it would cut off some ships from reaching the ports in the Pool of London. Because of this, many designs were submitted, and parliament eventually approved the final design in 1885. They specified the dimensions it had to fit, and that it had to be built in the Gothic style.

London Eye

The London Eye was an attraction I had heard of, but I had never really understood why it was made. I have a feeling that my lack of knowledge goes to show that I was born after 2000 because according to Wikipedia, it was made to mark the turn of the millennium in 2000. Its purpose is as a cantilevered observation wheel, and it is one of London's most famous attractions. One thing I've noticed about a lot of London's attractions is that they include London in the name. I'm not sure why that is, but I wonder if it is a branding technique to help people remember that the attraction is in London. Perhaps we should rename the Empire State Building to the New York State Building (yes I'm aware that New York is nicknamed the Empire State).

The Shard

This sky scraper is really cool in Minecraft, and the way the light interacts with the glass in the shaders is just incredible. According to wikipedia, the Shard was completed in 2012, and is the tallest skyscraper in the Uk, and the seventh tallest building in Europe.

St. Paul's Cathedral

One thing that surprised me was that this building is a cathedral. When I first watched the video, I thought it was some kind of government building (probably because a lot of American government buildings look similar to this). However, when I looked up what St. Paul's Cathedral looks like, I realized this building is a cathedral.

According to designingbuildings.co.uk, Saint Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican building, and was built in the aftermath of the Great Fire. The architect, Christopher Wren, utilized a baroque style, and attempted to blend the styles of the cathedrals of medieval England with Inigo Jones' classical style, and the style of French buildings. The dome of the Cathedral was influenced by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

One of the cool things about this build, is that the team also made the interior of the cathedral!

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Here is the full video from the UK team's YouTube channel. I invite you to go look at the other work they are doing, and to support them as they continue to work on building the UK in Minecraft!

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this! I hope this post helped you learn something! Feel free to comment what your favorite build from the video was! If you have not already, please check out this week's construction hunt and consider participating for a chance to win up to 50 Steem! Have an amazing day!