Lifting Gear Hire took a look at the heaviest things ever lifted by humans.  Read on for their discoveries:

Here at LGH, we know a few things about lifting heavy objects.  We’ve had clients come to us with all kinds of requests we never would have imagined, so nothing surprises us anymore.  We love new challenges and are always up to the task of finding new and better ways to use what we’ve got. We recently decided to look into the heaviest things ever lifted by humans.  Though we weren’t there to assist at any of these mammoth, history-making lifts, we were surely there in spirit.

10.  Cape York Meteroite

Have you ever heard of a railroad being created just to transport a huge rock?  Well, that’s what happened in Greenland in 1894 when explorer Robert E. Peary finally located the 4.5 billion-year-old Cape York meteorite and decided it belonged in NY’s American Museum of Natural History.  The 3-year transportation process involved the construction of Greenland’s only railroad.

9.  Big Rig

“Go big or go home,” is Canadian strongman Rev. Kevin Fast’s motto.  He goes big.  Fast has a couple of entries in the Guinness Book of World Records for towing big rig trucks by sheer human force.  His latest record is for towing a 63.1 ton truck in 2008.

8.  Boulder Art

All in the name of art, right?  It was when it came to moving a 340-ton boulder from Riverside, CA to Los Angeles for artist Michael Heizer’s project “Levitated Mass.”  They used lifting equipment to load the boulder onto a truck that had 176 wheels, and they closed roads in order to make the 10-day journey at 10 mph.  If you’d like to check it out, visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where you can walk along a concrete tunnel that runs below the rock.

7.  The Big Engine that Could

Supposedly, everything is bigger in Texas.  That was certainly true for the 850-ton steam turbine engine that was transported 250 miles across the state in 2010.  To move the engine, a custom vehicle had to be created – it was made of two truck beds and was the length of a football field.  Check out the video if you want to see the action!

6.  Ship Haul

Though hauling a ship by hand is not altogether necessary, it certainly is remarkable.  In 1999, strongman Simon Ford hauled the 2,000-ton HMS Lancaster and its 157 crewmembers 25 feet.  Though he collapsed immediately following the feat, it was all in the name of charity.

5.  Rocket Power

Rockets are built to launch way into space, but have you ever thought about how they make it to the launching pad in the first place?  Well NASA had to think about it, and had to actually build a vehicle just to do the job.  In the late 60s, the Saturn V rocket, which sent astronauts moon-ward, had to make it a few miles down the road to the launch pad. NASAbuilt the crawler transporter to move the 3,100-ton rocket along a road whose surface was covered in river rock to cut down friction.  Though it was never tried, the transporter was actually created to be able to bear the load of 3 Saturn V rockets.

4.  Portable Accommodation

What do you do with a building that just too historic to demolish?  Move it, of course.  That was the decision made about the Hotel Montgomery in San Jose, CA.  The 4,800-ton, 4-story hotel was moved just 186 feet in 1989, when a new hotel was planned to be built on its site.

3.  Middle East Evaporator

In the beginning of 2012, a Saudi Arabian lifting company moved a 4,891-ton evaporator (a piece of equipment for a water desalination plant) on a truck with 688 tires.  The evaporator was the length of the football field and was just the first of many that the company plans on moving in the future.

2.  Titanic Proportions

In 1911, when the ill-fated cruise ship was moved from the shipyard where it was built to its launch site, it was the biggest object ever moved.  The ship, weighing 26,000 tons, was eased down the slipway with the help of a thick layer of tallow and soap.

1.  Drilling Platform

The Troll A platform holds the records for both the heaviest and tallest object ever moved by man.  At 1.2 million tons and 1,548 feet, the drilling platform had to be moved 174 miles across water from the Norwegian coast.  It was a job of 10 tugboats moving at just one knot per hour.

More than likely, your moving needs aren’t as record-breaking as these gargantuan objects, but they’re big enough to require some serious assistance.  Fortunately, LGH is there for you and your lifting needs.  And we promise, we’ll send more than just a Guinness record-breaking strongman.  Visit Lifting Gear Hire’s website for more information on their products and services: www.lgh-usa.com