Take a 360-Degree Dive With Seattle's Massive Tunnel Borer

A five-story-tall, 6,700-ton mechanical centipede that chews through clay and rock like it’s marshmallow—that could easily be a butt-kicking robotic “Jaeger” in the next installment of Pacific Rim. In reality, though, it is Bertha, the planet’s largest tunnel-boring machine that, after four years, is about to break from the earth in Seattle.

If you’re unfamiliar with this beast of many moving parts, the Washington State Department of Transportation’s got you covered with a fascinating, 360-degree video of Bertha’s operations. With less than two blocks to go, the borer has almost completed the roughly 2-mile-long SR 99 highway, which will replace the antiquated and quake-vulnerable Alaskan Way Viaduct when it opens around 2019.