My Minuscule Little Pea Brain Was Totally Blown After Seeing These 60 Absolutely Incredible Pictures For The Very First Time Last Month

1.This is what the face of the Statue of Liberty looked like before it was installed onto the monument:

The Statue of Liberty's face

Very Star Fox 64.

NPS Photo / Alamy Stock Photo

2.Redwood trees are really, really, really, really big:

A woman standing next to a redwood

Shout out to big trees.

Yenwen / Getty Images

3.This is how thick one of the cables that holds up the Golden Gate Bridge is:

A cable from the Golden Gate Bridge

Quite!

Valerie Loiseleux / Getty Images/iStockphoto

4.This is what economy class on a commercial plane looked like in the 1960s:

A very wide plane interior with two aisles and rows of four comfy-looking seats in the center and two or three seats on the side

Hmmm. I don't know about you, but I much prefer today's system of being shoved into the tiniest seat imaginable and having the most miserable four hours of your life.

- / AFP via Getty Images

5.This is Charlotte and Marjorie Collyer, a mother and daughter who survived the wreck of the Titanic in 1912:

Charlotte and Majorie Collyer

6.This is what the inside of a hedge looks like:

Inside a hedge

It's... it's... a little tree. Don't know why I never considered that.

imageBROKER / Alamy Stock Photo

7.And this is what the inside of a quarter looks like:

Inside of a quarter

8.The Liberty Bell is super tiny in real life:

Closeup of the Liberty Bell

9.Panda caretakers in China wear disguises to avoid spooking the cubs and to help acclimate them to their new lives outside of captivity:

Caretakers in panda costumes sitting around a real panda cub
Xinhua / Alamy Stock Photo

10.This is how an offshore oil platform is transported to the location where it will be installed:

An oil platform on its side with tugboats surrounding it in the water

Add this to the list of things I had never thought about in my life.

Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

11.This is what Mount St. Helens looked like before it erupted in 1980, becoming the deadliest volcanic eruption in US history...

Mount St. Helens before it erupted
USGS / Alamy Stock Photo

12.And this is what Mount St. Helens looked like after the 1980 eruption:

Mount St. Helens after the eruption

Absolutely decimated.

Education Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

13.This is what the blowhole on a humpback whale looks like:

A whale's blowhole

It's like a big nose. IT'S A BIG NOSE!

Juergen Schonnop / Alamy Stock Photo

14.And this is what a hummingbird egg looks like compared to an ostrich egg:

A hand holding an ostrich egg and a hummingbird egg

I seriously doubt you can guess which is which.

Picture Alliance / dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images

15.In 1903, Edward Llewellen (left) made history by breaking the world record and catching the biggest sea bass ever caught off the coast of Catalina Island:

Edward Llewellen

It weighed 425 pounds.

Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo

16.Speaking of big giant animals, here's Hiram (center), the world's largest horse as of 1907:

Hiram

Folks, do we stan Hiram, aka the largest horse in the world?

Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo

17.This is the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki compared to a human:

A man standing next to a replica of the Atomic Bomb

This is a replica inside the Atomic Bomb Museum located in Nagasaki.

Christian Ender / Getty Images

18.This is what EPCOT in Disney World looked like while it was under construction:

Construction workers standing on a spherical outdoor edifice

Neat!

Kevin Fleming / Corbis via Getty Images

19.This is what a stairwell that doesn't loop around and only goes in one direction looks like:

A steep, seemingly endless series of steps leading upward

20.Car seats for children were incredibly dangerous in the 1940s:

A child sitting forward in a car with thin wires and straps attaching them in a seat

No restraints, no extra safety components, just vibes.

H. Armstrong Roberts / H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock

21.This is a rafflesia, the biggest flower in the world:

A person kneeling next to a very, very big, five-leaf flower above the ground

22.This is what the Space Shuttle Endeavour looked like as it left Earth and traveled to outer space:

Space Shuttle Endeavour taking off

It looks like a little toy.

Futuras Fotos / Alamy Stock Photo

23.This is what $700 worth of platinum looks like:

A hand holding a very thin, small rectangle of platinum

24.In 1969, Niagara Falls was "drained" in order to remove a large number of boulders that had accumulated at the foot of the falls:

The falls with minimal water falling

25.Speaking of which, this is what a canal in Venice looks like fully drained:

A drained canal in Venice between two buildings with an irregular surface

This is done to clean the canal and search for any mysterious clues to unsolved mysteries. Okay, maybe just the first part.

Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

26.This is what a turtle's skeleton looks like:

A turtle skeleton

Not sure what I expected, but it wasn't this.

The Natural History Museum / Alamy Stock Photo

27.This picture, taken in 1925, is the last known photo of a Barbary lion in the wild:

A Barbary lion in the wild

28.This is what the Statue of Liberty looks like from the back:

The back of the Statue of Liberty

29.This is what Gutzon Borglum's original model for Mount Rushmore looked like:

A model for Mount Rushmore

There's still time to remedy this. We need giant coats on our big giant rock presidents.

GL Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

30.This is what the view of downtown Manhattan looked like from the Empire State Building the year it opened in 1931...

New York in 1931
Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

31.And this is what that same view looks like today:

New York now

I spy a couple more buildings.

IndustryAndTravel / Alamy Stock Photo

32.This is how good Disney World is at hiding their rides, specifically the Haunted Mansion:

Haunted Mansion ride

33.You can see Queen Elizabeth get older and older through coins bearing her likeness:

Coins with Queen Elizabeth's image

34.Speaking of which, here are two new coins that feature the just-coronated King Charles:

Coins with King Charles on them

His coins will go from very old to very, very old.

Vandervelden / Getty Images

35.This totally not terrifying ancient, 9,000-year-old mask is considered to be one of the earliest depictions of a human:

Closeup of a mask

It was found near Jerusalem. Ah, the way we were!

Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

36.This is what the first class bathroom on board a high-speed Japanese bullet train looks like:

A bullet train bathroom

37.This house, located in Alexandria, Virginia, is the thinnest house in the United States:

A very narrow, two-story blue house with one window on the second floor and abutting two buildings

38.This is the last picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt ever taken, snapped just one day before his death:

Closeup of FDR

39.This is what olive oil looks like when it's freshly squeezed:

Light green oil in a container and some in a sink

Shrek water.

Carlos Gil / Getty Images

40.The very first iteration of Ronald McDonald was created by Willard Scott in 1963:

Man in a clown costume waving and smiling with a McDonald's cup and fries in front of him

And it was so, so terrifying.

Everett Collection Historical / Alamy Stock Photo

41.This is what the bottom of a lily pad looks like:

Bottom of a lily pad

Not nearly as pleasant to look at as the top.

Mike Eaton / Alamy Stock Photo

42.This is what the battleship USS Independence looks like outside of water:

USS Independence

Looks like it should be flying in outer space.

PJF Military Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

43.This is what a Quetzalcoatlus, the largest flying animal ever recorded, looks like compared to a human:

A replica of a Quetzalcoatlus

44.This is the "American Candy" section in a British gas station:

An American candy section in a foreign store

45.This is a picture of 107-year-old Civil War veteran Bill Lundy posing with a fighter jet in 1955:

Bill Lundy

46.This is what one college student's dorm room looked like in the 1910s:

A man in his dorm room

Some absolutely scandalous wall decorations.

Hum Images / Alamy Stock Photo

47.Curved escalators are a thing that exist:

A curved escalator

48.Traffic lights are absolutely enormous:

A traffic light

49.This is what a tumbleweed looks like before it...tumbles:

A fresh tumbleweed

50.This, my friends, is what the inside of a bag of microwave popcorn looks like:

Inside a bag of microwave popcorn

51.This is what the control room on a British submarine looked like in the 1960s:

A control room in a submarine

Looks simple enough.

Malcolm Fairman / Alamy Stock Photo

52.This is Henry Ford cruising around in the first car he designed, the Quadricycle:

Henry Ford riding a quadricycle

Looks like this baby can go zero to six in no time at all.

Apic / Getty Images

53.Helmets really, really work:

A crushed helmet

54.Here's Hannes de Jong, the 1970 Pole Sitting World Champion, well, sitting on a pole:

Hannes de Jong sitting on a pole

55.This 12-foot-tall behemoth is an octobass, the largest string instrument in existence:

A man standing on a step alongside a huge, cello-like instrument and playing it, and it's still taller than he is

56.This right here is a once state-of-the-art piece of armor that used to be worn by golf course workers sent out to retrieve range balls:

A man wearing armor while retrieving golf balls

Imagine that little tiny cage is all that separates you and getting clocked upside the noggin with a shot from someone's 2-iron.

Gainew Gallery / Alamy Stock Photo

57.This is what the inside of a Coca-Cola Freestyle machine looks like:

A machine with lots of slots showing brands of various beverages

58.This is what a penguin's skeleton looks like:

A penguin skeleton

59.This is what the first-class bathroom aboard Emirates Airline looks like:

A small shower area, toilet, and marble sink with marble floor and small mirrors

Imagine showering on a plane and the pilot turns on the "Fasten seatbelt" sign.

mauritius images GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

60.And, finally, in 1961, auditions were held for the role of the black cat in the film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat." Lots of black cats showed up:

Women standing with black cats on leashes