The Vajont Dam was the tallest dam in the world. On 9 October 1963 it did exactly what it was built to do — it held. At least 1,917 people died anyway. This is the engineering, the warnings, and the one number everyone trusted.

CHAPTERS
0:00 The dam that did not break
1:10 Why build it here
2:22 The wall goes up
4:04 The rehearsal: 4 November 1960
5:00 Inside Monte Toc
6:40 The model and the number 700
7:22 The journalist they took to court
8:52 Four minutes
10:30 The verdict
11:36 Why they filled it anyway

IMAGES
Archive photographs of 1955–1963: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Present-day photographs, via Wikimedia Commons:
• Andrea Braga — CC BY-SA 3.0 (1 photo)
• Davide Mauro — CC BY-SA 4.0 (2 photos)
• Enel — CC BY-SA 4.0 (1 photo)
• Frisia Orientalis — CC BY-SA 3.0 (1 photo)
• Im Fokus — CC BY-SA 4.0 (15 photos)
• José Claudio Marcott… — CC BY-SA 3.0 (1 photo)
• Lamberto Zannotti — CC BY-SA 3.0 (1 photo)
• Pdighe — CC BY-SA 4.0 (1 photo)
• Simone Aime — CC BY-SA 4.0 (2 photos)
• Stefano Petri — CC BY 3.0 (1 photo)
• Stefano.aurighi — CC BY-SA 3.0 (1 photo)
• The original uploader was Robmontagna at Italian Wikipedia . — CC BY-SA 3.0 (1 photo)
• Thilo Parg — CC BY-SA 4.0 (2 photos)
• Torno S.p.A. — CC BY-SA 4.0 (1 photo)
• Unknown author Unknown author — CC BY 3.0 (1 photo)
• VENET01 — CC BY-SA 4.0 (2 photos)
Stock footage: Pexels and Pixabay (their licenses).
Night-time scenes of 9 October 1963 and the hydraulic model are AI-generated reconstructions: no footage of the event exists. Some photographs are animated with AI camera moves (the photo itself is not altered); archive photos are tone-corrected only.
Narration: synthetic voice.

#engineering #megaprojects #documentary