Joe McCann, a truck driver from Queens, has been carving a miniature scale version of New York City for the past 21 years, entirely out of balsa wood.
He has recreated the entirety of New York City, the 5 boroughs and numerous parks and waterways surrounding the city.
It’s hard to grasp the scope of his work when he holds up only 1 section of the city in a video, but according to Joe, he’s recreated nearly one million buildings.
In one photo he shows a room where he stores all the sections, just from this image alone, I estimate there’s around one hundred and forty-five distinct sections, based on a rough count of those visible and just out of frame, but even that doesn't capture the entire scale.
Joe finally got to set up his entire creation at a local fairground and a rough count of the tiles suggests there are more than 216 tiles.
As I said, nearly one million buildings — an extraordinary feat of dedication.
Some might dismiss it, saying, "What a waste of time and effort. What happens to it all once he's gone?"
But consider this; in Australia in 2025, a man bought a home and when he went under the house to do some renovations, he discovered a fully built model railroad from the 1960s; stretching across the entire underfloor space.
The twist? The new homeowner was a train engineer who enjoys trains; and now he plans to restore and preserve that forgotten miniature world.
It just goes to show; you never know what might become of your hobbies, or who might pick up where you left off.
Video Credit to: balsastyrofoam300
_____________________________________________________________________
? ? WONDER WORLD VIDEO INFORMATION ? ?
✅ For personal story suggestions or business enquiries about product stories / reviews, please contact me on my email from the ABOUT page. Note: All suggestions are welcome, but may not be chosen as they are not suitable for this channel.
❌ COPYRIGHT : Please do not ask for permission to use footage in this video, or the whole video itself, as the ownership of all footage remains that of the owners who gave me permission to use it. If you want to use any of the footage click on the links above and seek permission from the owners.