Russia has spent more than $50 billion on the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games--at least half of which has allegedly been embezzled--making it the most expensive Olympic Games ever. And so far, the only thing to show for it seem to be unfinished hotels, imaginary buildings, environmental damage, and the looming threat of terrorist attacks.
Imagine if that $50 billion had gone instead to making this happen: the Olympics in Manhattan. These totally dope visualizations by The New York Times show what the Big Apple would look if the city had won the bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2014. Luges and bobsleds snake through Times Square, as ski jumpers launch themselves down slopes mounted to skyscrapers and Broadway is iced over into a 5,000-meter speed skating lane.
The thing is, as impossible as all this looks (and undoubtedly would be, at least from a zoning standpoint), it would still probably end up being more cost-efficient than the actual 2014 Olympic games we got.
Check out The New York Times for the whole thing.