That equals a distance of one mile, 1,640 feet, or half a kilometer—that, 500 Meters Long or Big. That measurement is not just a number, it is in fact a distance that you could drive in your daily walk. And while we can compare this long distance to the structures and landmarks that span approximately this distance, it is the visual that really drives home the point, and you have to admit it is pretty wild.
From tall buildings around the world to large girders across the river, every structure is a different glimpse into humanity. In these examples, we take something mysterious but also real-world related that we can touch, then every ft and meter represents what we can imagine and what we can do.
How Big is 500 Meters Visually?
To better appreciate the distance of 500 meters, let us compare it to something artificial and something natural? So for example when you think about standing next to the Washington monument and stacking three of them on top of each other, you’d be close to 500 meters.
This is an estimation, and it offers a down-to-earth perspective which can be rather eye-opening. When we are talking about x times the size of this, it becomes all so abstract and vapour, but in here, we can relate to various objects to understand what scale we are talking about. Which means 0.5k or 1,640 feet.
Things That Are 500 Meters Long or Big
- Two Times Taller Than the Golden Gate Bridge
- Three Times the Height of the Singapore Flyer
- Five minutes and, in principle, 1.5 times the height of Eiffel tower
- Its height triples that of the Washington Monument.
- BancFirst Tower
- QueenB Television Tower
- 1.6x The Shard London height
- Richland Towers in Cedar Hill
- Eureka Tower
- Shanghai World Financial Center
1. Twice the Height of the Golden Gate Bridge
the architectural triumph after spanning the San Francisco Bay. Its spires pierce the sky to 227Picture the Golden Gate Bridge, metres above the ground, that high point which is a source of romantic fascination.
Picture a building with two towers ascending nearly 500 meters – two cables, each more than 7,000 feet long, and 80,000 miles of wire.
In this case a suspension bridge, the turns pop out of suspension on concrete anchorages embedded in the shore, which provides new definitional limits in architecture.
And as we reach deeper into the skyward, pathways such as these may one day serve as homes of a new type capable of stretching over the land like a smattering of skin over the top of nature and become contagions the likes of the one new seven wonders?
2. Triple the Height of the Singapore Flyer
Visualise how you would feel standing at the foot of the Singapore flyer, a Ferris wheel that needs a solid 165 meters off the ground! With this, multiply that by three, and you were already almost at an insane 495 meters just 5 meters less than 500 meters. This should give you a sense of scale for the 500-meter-long or big structures.
The Flyer of the Ferris wheel is a monument to the achievement of all human. It spins, providing 360-degree utopian views while bringing riders together in that all-too-fleeting moment. This gives us an idea of the distance we’re looking at when we compare its height 3x zoomed in on.
3. 1.5x the height of Eiffel tower
Eiffel Tower, Landmark building in Paris, France that was completed in 1889. Its height is 324 meters. Or, when multiplied with the 1.5 factor this height reaches a total of 486 meters, not far away from our goal of 500 meters.
Importantly, reaching such heights in the region of 500 meters normally requires more ingenious engineering and structures of a design compared to that of the Eiffel tower.
4. Triple the Height of the Washington Monument
From the ground level of the Washington monument, you are at the base of a 169 meter tall obelisk reaching into the heavens. Then take that height, multiply it by three, and you have a spine-tingling, and vertigo-inducing 507 metres to be precise.
What this thought exercise does is extend the monument far beyond the bounds of its tall, stately form, instead offering something that reaches nearly five hundred meters into the sky as something indicative of human perseverance and effort.
Originally the tallest building in the world at a height of 555 feet, the landmark honors the USA’s first president and the groundbreaking success of private and public construction stages.
The decades-long timeline that brings the structure into reality is more than just a building, though; it represents the distance travelled and the timeline traversed in humanity’s reach for the heights of this world.
Its measures may be slightly off, but this is not simply a symbol of the idealized monument — this is America itself, reaching into our remembrance and upward, to iconic status and to our minds.
5. BancFirst Tower
Towering at 500 m, the BancFirst Tower is an iconic Oklahoma City skyscraper. This monumental work is a beautiful achievement of human engineering and architecture, making it one of the tallest buildings in the city
The snug would reveal an expansive line of sight in a place where the dubiously vast, stretched out reaches are a microcosm that Wordsworth himself would admire. An iconic structure, this tower has been a marker of the city skylines and the pinnacle of urban architectural achievement.
6. QueenB Television Tower
The QueenB Television Tower is a relatively modern design that stands nearly 500 meters tall and is a modern television tower.
Its height —about 1,627 feet– is perfect for being able to visualize similar length structures. Green technologies are integrated into the designs of the towers, reflecting the idea that the future of urban buildings should be sustainable, and environmentally friendly developments are an integral part of urban infrastructure.
Serving as a broadcasting centre and drawing tourists to its observation decks and restaurants its expanded role makes it a multi-purpose building that combines function with form. This tourist attraction embodies the way in which utility and beauty can become one, and a building has become a part of the culture and the everyday life of citizens and leisure.
7. 1.6x The Shard London height
At 310 meters and 95 floors, The Shard is a new dynamic to the London Skyline. Completed in 2012, this United Kingdom landmark measures proudly at nearly 1,017 feet tall. Multiply its height by 1.6 and you get 496m, pretty much right on target (500m).
The Shard, which has a combination of office, restaurants and a hotel, is the UK’s tallest building and was designed by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano. The façade of the building is made out of glass and is meant to sparkle in the daylight and reflect the blue sky overhead, so it adapts closely to the weather and time of the day.
8. Richland Towers in Cedar Hill
Cedar Hill — High in the sprawling ecosystem, the Richland Towers—slightly under 500 meters tall—levitate in thickets like magic pillars over the land. These structures are crucial and act as a medium to transmit television and radio signals all over the world, ensuring that the message reaches its destination without fail.
The towers are a masterful balance of form and function, every meter intentionally designed to make them appear more impactful, and to make them more effective at communicating over wide areas.
9. Eureka Tower
Eureka Tower — Melbourne, Australia 297m (975ft) If we multiply this by 1.7, we get around 505 meters, just above our target 500 meters, so again a useful ballpark approximation.
It is 91 stories tall and is the highest residential building in the city. Finished in 2006, and a defining feature of the Melbourne skyline.
10. Shanghai World Financial Center
Shanghai World Financial Center comes (492 m) close to the500 m vertical mile marker. But this skyscraper is not only an office building, it is also a reflection of architectural and economic success.
The design of the building aims for the sky as its a focal point of the shanghai skyline. The trapezoid aperture at the top of the building is emblematic of the most-advanced thinking about tall buildings.
Within observation decks provide stunning city views––a fitting metaphor for the human urge to elevate the way we experience the world. Each of these perspectives distills the city and explains why this place remains integral to a vision of Shanghai as a financial nerve-center of the world.
Conclusion
When faced with questions about whatever is this big or long (500 m), it is often the case that covering it with a walk takes only a few minutes. You can get a sense of this estimation when you compare it to famous global landmarks and structures.
Like the fact that walking around the base of an enormous building provides a strong sense of scale (a sense that numbers alone cannot communicate — anything can be a huge number!) — as well as seeing and feeling.
These scale referents emerge as a familiar touch stone which helps alleviate any confusion over scale over the course of one to many encounters with these massive objects. They also help us answer, in a practical way, the question of how to formulate a sense of vastness, giving us some frame of reference for future developments.
FAQ’s
How Far is 500 Meters to Walk?
500 meter walking is not just a distance between A and B but a process that will invite you to experience and enjoy all sights and sounds. Picture a long walk through a sprawling city park, each step unlocking view upon view that may escape one in a passing hurry.
That distance of 950 metres or so is the same as running across five standard athletic tracks sewn together end-to-end (for a combined 934 metres) or traversing the length of more than four football fields.
This is comfortably done in 5 to 7 minutes, depending on speed, for most. Just long enough for a short reflective walk, somewhere between walking and meditating in motion, at an easy pace — it is more than just a walk.
How Far is 500 Meters in Minutes?
The experience of walking 500 meters is not only about what happens to you over that distance but also what is happening to you in time as that distance is being traversed.
This means this stroll should take a regular adult around 7 minutes to walk, based on an average walking speed of 5 kilometer per hour (km/h), which is close to 1.4 meters per second.
Depending on terrain and individual fitness, this time has a high variability. From a more brisk morning walk to the station to a slow paced stroll through a park, knowing how pace and speed — as well as terrain — might impact our walking helps us know more about how we physically engage with the world during our daily life. This is how we personalize distance, beyond just numbers, and weave it into our everyday path.