Big Brutus is the world's largest electric shovel. It stands 16 stories high and weighs 11 million pounds — that's 5,500 tons. He's painted bright orange and once had the job of scooping rock and dirt off the coal seam in a strip mine. Each of its bucket loads could fill three railroad cars.
It took 52 men about 11 months to assemble it in 1962, cost - $6.5 million. Big Brutus worked 24 hours a day for 11 years. When the Pittsburg & Midway coal mine shut down in 1974, Big Brutus was turned into a museum.