Fortified Mini Brick Mine - LEGO Dam Breach Experiment - Tsunami And Flood vs LEGO City Miners 

The dam actually worked. Dams are meant to hold bodies of water and to prevent massive flooding at once. Even though it breached, it was minimal damage and water leakage, and the wall stood its place even after a few bricks fell. Meaning, in a real life situation- it would have saved countless lives and damage, as it would allow for more time for evacuations to take place since the breach was small.

It ripped my heart out to see those two men embrace in their final few moments as their tiny air pocket rapidly vanished. It's sobering to think of the terror they must have experienced. At least they had each other down there in the dark.

Respect to all those lego people who sacrifice themselves to educate us.

This documentary brought to you by National Geographic The Lego City dam failure of 2003; how rushed construction, lack of training, budget cuts and cheap materials cost 5 workers their lives, and learn what we can do in the future to avoid these critical mistakes. On the morning of February 12th, 2003, the Lego City dam collapsed shortly after construction was completed. As the reservoir was being filled, the dam quickly failed, trapping five workers inside. Search and rescue operations lasted for almost 48 hours, to no avail, the five crew members did not survive the collapse. What caused the collapse, and how did the crew members not escape? Final plans for the dam came only a year after Octane Gas's main refinery shut down. The lost tax revenue left the city struggling to find it's infrastructure. The city lost nearly 200,000 studs a month as many of the workers at the refinery were now without jobs, and applied for unemployment. The dam began construction with cuts to it's budget. Rather than importing rock to fill the dam, the city found it best to fill the space with local soil, which was known to be very weak, and unable to support weight, as observed in the housing crisis over 10 years prior where an entire block of a neighborhood had to be abandoned after basement floods and movement of slabs and support beams. Many of the new workers in the dam were laid off Octane workers, with little training in the management of a hydroelectric dam. The dam was constructed with only one exit at the top, violating the cities fire codes. This also made search and rescue operations more difficult for the firefighters trying to gain entry. Rescue operations arrived 2 hours after the incident as the helicopter needed on scene was rescuing a man who had fallen into the river as the reservoir was being filled. The dam was constructed out of bricks with small empty areas running through, making the application of mortar difficult. The hallow space also allows for passage of water. Dam appropriate bricks were initially approved for the project, but after city budget cuts the board members settled on cheaper bricks. "Dam personnel should not have been inside the dam during reservoir full", according to Dave Brickston, the attorney representing the family of Robert Piece, one of the five killed in the collapse. With proper training and better spending future accidents can be avoided. Lessons learned aided in reconstruction of the City Dam in 2008, new jobs and generated power saved the city from bankruptcy during the recession.

The structure held remarkably well. No catastrophic failures at all. It was cool watching the sand wash away and fill it's self back in from top to bottom until the water pressure equalized

These demonstrations are very interesting, but I always shed a tear for the lego families of the workers.

Yeah the facing does a lot to protect the dam, if the sand inside was a lot more compacted (maybe even put in while wet, you would of probably had a dam that would not have failed. Also its intresting you drained it and restarted it cause its intresting to see how a damaged dam handles more flooding and it went as well as I expected lmao.

Love how the lego worker tried to save his buddy at 10:20, while the first one still leisurely snorchels around😁

Deaths: Gerald: Fell off ladder breaking his neck Dan: Drowned with Ian Ian: Drowned with Bob Thomas: Drowned while trapped under ladder Ryan: Trapped under sand and water flow Ashton: Drowned after desperately trying to climb up the dam before it collapses Don: Drowned after being stuck on a ladder Alan: Fell off tower

You should use wet sand to set everything and see how that does

Poor Timmy was the first to see all this happening. Didn’t even try to warn the others. Or even get back up and save his own life. He just accepted his fate!

Sand does not compact very well, nor does it cling together. I think this a great demonstration why real dams should avoid sand.

If the intention is to not flood, for science, vs flood, for scientific curiosity. Then you should have the red facing completely separate the sand at the base. From a content perspective its quite riveting to watch, especially with legos.

That's very interesting. The sand shrinks as it gets wet, leaving the top unsupported. If there were some kind of foam, rubber, or even a spring loaded foundation, it could prevent that damage. Edit: I think foam that expands when wet would work best. That way, as the leak moves through the bricks, the foam would expand, push the water back out, and seal the cracks with the expanding foam, as well. The worse the leak, the more the foam expands and then hardens as it dries.

Seems Like this Dam Had a few a few structural flaws which ended up costing alot of workers their lives.

Respect to the lego men who gave there lives for this

水没することの恐ろしさをこの動画を通して感じ取ることができるので、自然災害について考える上で良い勉強になる。

Interesting video! When looking at the side views, I noticed that you used some type of white putty or sealant on the middle edges of the dam. I wonder if the dam would hold up better if you also used it to seal the front portion of the dam? The bricks can't seal flush with the wall, and it seemed like a lot of water was able to make its way through by just squeezing through the sides

Thanks. Nice video. The side view was the most interesting view and the cutaways were frustrating. Could you do a split screen version so that the side view is always visible?

Respect to all those Lego men who lost their lives in these experiments. Their contributions to society will never be forgotten 😭😭

Remember watching these when I was younger, brings back memories

Just keep in mind that most of the water is going in from the side! Next time put glue or something on the side so you can see the full potential of your dam! Amazing video!

So,the main thing we have learned is that loose packed sand does not help in making a dam. Damm good info to have !!

I play a game while watching these. Who drowns, who gets buried alive, and who survives. I get a skittle for each one I get right.

Thank you. This was unsettling and entertaining.

I love how The guy falls off the ladder and breaks his neck lol! And that other girl Put in a way that she looks like she’s trying to climb up the wall away from the water! Anyways great job!

Next version: This, but on a table and with a siphon on the downstream side ensuring the water doesn't support the dam from that side.

This is really cool. The editing drives me crazy though. It keeps cutting back and showing the same time-slice from the same point of view.

I've never forwarded a video so much . That music was mind numbing also

It’s truly tragic that that one guy managed to live thru being buried alive and almost drowned, only to be crushed by a ton of bricks

I know these are just LEGO people, but I still feel bad for them. Prayers to ones lost IRL.

God damn, I must be getting old because this was fantastic to watch.

You should have water outlet on the right side, so the water level doesn't equalize and mayhem can continue, would be also more realistic as in real scenarios there is usually no reservoir downstream of dam, water just flows down and destroys

Peak content is spending 17 minutes of watching legomen drown

I would've loved this as a kid! I had a weird interest in flooding buckets and my parts of my yard with miniature towns and action figures, just seeing how the water washed them away and submerged everything 😆

the stern faced lego man floating by the camera is comedy gold.

I imagine that the little Lego people are real people in this type of situation and it stresses me out cos he’s DROWING AND ISNT DOING ANYTHING

My hat goes off for all the brave lego men and women that lost their lives!! Sad day 😭😭

im 16 and somehow i gawk at this like its the best. i really havent changed since i was six

Whoa, this was kinda... Dramatic, somehow? Cool.

First thoughts: I believe the issue causing this collapse was the sand inside the dam. A more durable material would've held up the dam, such as clay, or concrete. 10:33 the Lego man is trying to get inside by breaking through. 11:20 Sand begins to crumble, ruining dam structure 11:36 dam suffers damage from Lego man trying to escape water 12:31 water drains 12:50 water returning 13:01 we can see the true damage caused to the dam for a short while 13:24 Lego man finds a camera floating in the water. Possible hope in Lego man. 13:44 damage is now clearly visible. Dam will clearly fall soon. 15:28 Dam is put under stress. Parts can be seen falling. The dam has not much longer. 16:00 Dam finally splits. Hope for dam workers is lost. Final thoughts: there were many issues leading to the fall of this Lego dam, including the structural integrity, and the fact stated in my first thoughts.

That little Lego man floating face down just had me dying for some reason. 😂😂

13:29 "Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got here..."

Well... I can say I find this so dam interesting!

can you do a dam experiment with a solid tunnel under the dam and not a block style? I am interested in seeing the water collection and flow under and over the underground structure.

How many Lego men must we sacrifice for science? Oh, the travesty.

Id love to see a dam that can withstand the forces of water maybe cover the front in clay or concrete as one comment suggested id love to see the dam hold up and stop the water from spreading through the cracks and sand less destruction that way then again some people here might be watching for destruction either way it was a cool video!

So that's what happened at Sanford Dam , Michigan . Good thing Orroville didn't get to that stage aye ? You should try for some crowd source funding and see if you can simulate Orroville !!! That'd be cool !!!!

RIP those dambuilders.

This is Cruelty to LEGO minifigures. Those poor workers 😢. And no rescue teams made any effort to recover these men. All the LEGO city police and fire sets you would think they'd respond to a disaster like this. SMH

I feel like this could have used some better music - like the Rolling Stones "I can't get no Liquefaction!"

“Ricky! Come on, stop messing around down there! Get that bulge pump running! RICKY!?” RIP Ricky

I don't think I'm gonna hire these guys to build my swimming pool.

The red cap guy going up the internal ladder probably thought "thank goodness our shoddy engineering caused that hole to open up id have drowned"

4:34 seeing that guy on the bottom left inside the structure made me feel anxious, just imagine your last moment being in a claustrophobic environment and water just keeps pouring in while you can't move even a finger

I pretended all of them had scuba gear but not on the ladder on the front side of the wall

Enjoying the soundtrack provided by the Cure. 😝

You monster you killed those men. take this mans engineering license away...

i think if you put the same outer layer of the dam on the other side, it could have hold a lot longer.

I wonder if he has ever tried having both sides filled with water and, suddenly, removing the water from one side, sort of like the opposite of these?

idk about anyone else but the beat is hard asf

Jesus that dude who fell down the stairs, that's a nasty and fatal way to go

**No Lego People were harmed in the making of this film**

...and in a single day and night of misfortune, the double dam sank beneath the sea.

Okay I like these videos but I get so invested in the side camera view and then you keep switching cameras. Just stick with the main side one for the most part or do a multi screen setup where we can watch them all at once

I was a dam builder Across the river deep and wide Where steel and water did collide A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound But I am still around I'll always be around, and around and around And around and around and around and around

I why do I feel like I just watched the titanic or smth…Just gimme the tragic backstory for those leggos already 🤧

That worker didn’t bring his head to the surface so we can assume life was lost in this experiment

5:04 the Lego Figure in the bottim middle drowning is so realistic

How water gets in the sand:water could break sand and water can get trough bricks that way it breaks the sand

En este caso, la pared de ladrillos lo único que hace es empujar de manera uniforme la compresión por el agua, parte de la falla de estos experimentos es que la arena está solamente puesta ahí y no está compactada como lo estaría en cualquier escenario real, las construcciones interiores sólo tiene ladrillos superpuestos por gravedad (ninguno está pegado o cemento como en una realidad aceptada) por ende toda construcción sede por el agua

I guess its a good thing we dont make hollow sand-filled dams out of clay bricks with no mortar huh

0:44 Damn. He fell and smashed his head on that rock, either died instantly or drowned.

9:03 I would like to see how the water goes along the river like this staircase into some sea and gradually floods some village.

Sands and brick sounds like a disaster recipe to me

That guy on the back side of the dam got hit with literal quicksand.

Some concrete smeared between the bricks could have made a realistic difference, no? lol

Idk why I watched it, but I watched the whole thing. I'll most likely be back.

Probably better done with a cement foundation and cement in between the bricks for a stronger structure.

Would even prefer the actual sounds happening rather then the music.

I think I noticed the problem. This appears to have been built by Lego people but the bricks aren't Lego so their training is inadequate for this type of building. Next time they should hire people with the skills and training to know how to correctly build with these blocks. Such a needless loss of life because someone clearly wanted to save money by hiring unskilled labour.

seeing the first guy float that whole time face down just spinning all around made me laugh more than it should have

Engineers and Architects, eat your heart out

RIP for those workers

this is very entertaining to see how the water rises and in a moment everything begins to fall jaja

It looks to me that certain people have way too much time on their hands. Did anybody really think that it will hold. If you are getting paid for this, your boss needs to be fired!

5:25 "MICHAEL, DON'T LEAVE ME HERE, MICHAELLLL HELP MEEE"

We can all be thankful the world isn't made of sand.

At least now I know Legos float

Now give it a fish ladder.

A coupla cans of that spray n seal woulda worked nicely!

please make more vids like this (:

All I hear from the miners is MICHAEL MICHAEL DONT LEAVE ME HERE MICHAEL

PLAINLY DIFFICULT should review this disaster. ADVENTURES WITH PURPOSE will locate the bodies.

No me lo creo. es tan sencillo. pero entretiene, no se porque youtube me recomienda esto, pero bueno, esta bien 🤟🤟🤟🤟

I get the whole point of these videos is for the dam to fail, but if the sides had been water tight and used better filler material than sand the dam would not have failed so easily

A dam made of sand... What could possibly go wrong

It's easy to see the mistakes, don't understand why this was attempted.. Alot of Lego men are dead now from this miscalculation . RIP 😵🙏

This was one terrible dam but it made hell of a good vid.

Poor Steve, he couldn’t swim and died immediately then Rick was taken completely off guard and at almost 6 minutes terry is holding on for dear life flooded Willis so fast he got stuck under the ladder and now Ernie is just standing there on the ladder looking confused… well… terry is a goner, i guess Ernie is an adrenaline junky slowly climbing the ladder before he decides to try to swim down to save Rick and willis