Krupp Digging Machine - World's Largest Digging Machine

This is the largest digging machine (or trencher or rotating shovel) in the world. It was built by Krupp and is shown here crossing a road in Germany on the way to its destination, an open air coal mine. Although at the mine the treads are unnecessary, it was cheaper to make the machine self-propelled than to try and move it with conventional hauling equipment. The machine is 95 meters high and 215 meters long (almost 2.5 football fields in length). Weight is 45,500 tons (that's equivalent to a bumper to bumper line of jeeps 80 miles long). It took 5 years to design and manufacture at a cost of $100 million.