GALERIE

Located at the Radisson Blu hotel in Berlin-Mitte, Germany, the AquaDom puts a transparent elevator right in the middle of an 82-foot-tall aquarium. The aquarium contains more than 260,000 gallons of seawater and is home to more than 1500 fish from 50 different species. It takes three to four divers and almost 18 pounds of food a day to keep the fish fed. It resides in the lobby of Berlin's Radisson Blu Hotel, but the AquaDom goes where few hotel elevators have ever dared venture: the middle of the sea (or close enough, anyway). A lift rising through the hollow center of a cylindrical, 82-foot tall aquarium transports visitors through a full panorama of tropical sea life. Fish festooned with vibrant colors nibble at the aquarium wall inches from their human admirers. Almost a hundred different species, including blow fish, silver moonfish and humphead wrasse, are represented in the tank, which holds over a million liters of water and is the largest cylindrical tank aquarium in the world. The ride is decidedly leisurely -- perfect for reveling in the sensation of floating in an underwater wonderland.

The Burj Khalifa is all about being No. 1, and so the world's tallest building features the world's fastest elevator. It whisks visitors upward at 40 miles per hour–fast enough to reach the top floor, 2038 feet up, in just 35 seconds. Because the elevators service so many floors, the tower utilizes double-decker cars, each with a fancy light show.

One of the oldest surviving boat lifts–massive engineering projects designed to raise or lower a boat from one body of water to another at a different elevation–is the Anderton boat lift in England. It was built in 1875, shut down in 1983 and then restored in 2002. Hydraulic rams raise and lower what are essentially two massive tubs–called caissons–that lift boats up to the Trent and Mersey Canal or lower them to the River Weaver.