70 feet is the same as 23-1/3 yards or 21.336 meters. It’s quite a long distance that you would need at least 2 standard tape measures to measure it. And while you can use a laser measure, the easiest way to measure 70 feet is by using objects as references.
Below, I’ll describe 9 common objects that measure close to or exactly 70 feet. That way, you won’t have to whip out specialty measuring equipment to do the deed.
3 Neighborhood Street Widths
Roads come in various widths, with highways being among the widest roads out there. If you take a look at the street in front of your house or apartment, it might measure between 24 and 28 feet. So, you would need about 3 of them to get a figure of around 70 feet.
Freeways usually have 4 lanes, with 2 lanes headed in each direction. Each of those lanes will measure between 11 and 12 feet wide, so discounting the barriers, a freeway will usually be 44 to 48 feet.
Half an Airport Runway Width
The tarmac on an airport runway varies in length, but the standard width is 150 feet. It’s wide enough to accommodate wide-body aircrafts, which have wingspans of around 130 feet. However, if you live in a part of the country without international flights, the runway may be significantly narrower.
You can tell how wide an airport runway is by its markings. A runway with 4 strips will measure 60 feet wide, while a runway with 16 strips will be 200 feet. The classic 150-foot runway will have 12 stripes.
President Heads on Mount Rushmore
Construction of the Mouth Rushmore National Memorial started in 1927 and ended almost exactly 14 years later. It took nearly 400 people to carve the side of the mountain to build the busts of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln. The average height of each of the presidents’ heads is 60 feet tall.
The original plan was to carve their heads and torsos, but after the son of the original architect failed to secure additional funding, the project was ultimately abandoned.
Half the Scuba Diving Depth
If you’ve ever gone scuba diving before, the deepest you were probably allowed to go was 130 feet. Any deeper and you would need the proper certification. 130 feet might seem like a random depth, but actually a specific reason for this.
On a tank of regular air, you can dive down to 140 feet. However, going even a foot deeper would count as diving at the next 10-foot increment—i.e., 150 feet, which is not safe for a single-cylinder tank of air. So, diving at 131 feet would put you in the 140-foot diving depth, which is safe, but you shouldn’t try pushing your luck any further.
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace serves as the official residence of the Royal Family. The palace takes up over 828,00 square feet of space and has 775 rooms. If it were ever to go on sale, it would be worth over £2.2 billion! Seeing as how the Queen makes over $50 million per year, she’s probably not in a rush to sell any of her royal estates.
Her official home, which was built in 1703, stands 24 meters (78.74 feet) tall. From the front, it spans 108 meters to the sides and 120 meters back. 19 rooms of the palace are open to the public during the summer.
3.5 Badminton Nets
Badminton is a type of racket sport where 2 opposing players or teams try to whack the shuttlecock against the surface of the opponent’s side of the court. Or you can aim the shuttlecock at your opponent since touching it results in a foul. Try not to let it hit you since it can travel upwards of 300 miles per hour!
The badminton net, which serves as a barrier between the opposing players, measures exactly 20 feet wide and 5 feet 1 inch off the ground. Reaching 70 feet requires 3.5 times the badminton width or around 14 times the badminton net height
If you’ve noticed an increase of badminton courts in your area, it’s probably because it’s the second most popular sport in the world, just behind soccer (football to you non-American/rest-of-the-world folks).
24 Wine Barrels
Wine is one of the oldest drinks in the world. Based on archeological findings, the oldest winemakers ever discovered have been dated to 6,000 BC. To put that into perspective, the famous pyramids of Giza were constructed in around 2,500 BC or a full 3,500 years layer.
The grape-based drink is aged in wine barrels that stand roughly 35 inches tall. A single barrel can hold up to 59 gallons, which requires roughly half a ton of raw grapes to fill. If you were to drink 150 milliliters (1 glass) of wine per day, it would take you 1,499 days to finish an entire barrel.
4 Abe Lincoln Statues at the Lincoln Memorial
Construction of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial began in 1914. After roughly five years of non-stop work, it was finally completed. A year later in 1920, the statue of the 16th POTUS was put into place, but it would take an additional 3 to 4 years before the final light fixtures were installed.
The statue of the seated president stands roughly 19 feet tall. Including the pedestal on which his chair sits, the top of Abe’s head is about 30 feet off the ground. You can visit the memorial whenever you want, even during holidays.
Half the Height of the Statue of Liberty
Everyone knows that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French to the US, but why did they give it to us in the first place? There are several possible reasons. A) To commemorate the work of Abe Lincoln; B) To commemorate the efforts of the Americans in preserving their democracy; and C) To encourage the French to revolt against their monarchy.
Construction of the Statue of Liberty began in 1876, and it was finally shipped to our country in 1885. Without her pedestal, Lady Liberty stands about 151 feet high. The overall height of the statue is 305 feet.
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