The world's first suspension bridge was built in the US — the Wheeling Suspension Bridge (1849) still stands.

Roughly 8 billion people currently live on Earth.

Mount Everest is not the closest point to space — that title goes to Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador due to Earth's equatorial bulge.

The Great Rift Valley in Africa may eventually split the continent in two, forming a new ocean in millions of years.

The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old.

The Nile River has supported civilizations for thousands of years.

The tallest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela.

There are mountains on Earth taller than Everest when measured from base to peak underwater.

Russia spans 11 time zones and is so wide that the sun is setting in the west as it rises in the east.