The Shambles, a historic shopping street in York, stretches about 660 spans. Several of the buildings along the street are over seven hundred years old.

The tallest statue in the world, the Spring Temple Buddha in Henan, China stands at 669 spans tall from its base. The Buddha is located in the 47,300,000-sq. m (11,700-acre) Fodushan Scenic Area near Mount Yao

The Great Pyramid of Giza has an estimated original height (without loss due to erosion) of 570 spans. The Pyramid was the tallest structure in the world for almost 4,000 years — from its construction ca. 2551 BCE until it was overtaken by the Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln, England, built in the year 1300.

Blackpool Tower, part of an entertainment complex in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, measures 691 spans to its peak. Under ideal conditions, visitors to the highest accessible point of the tower can see as far as the Isle of Man — 420,000 spans to the northwest.

The seventeenth hole on Pebble Beach Golf Links is a par 3 measuring 709 spans from the blue tee. This hole was the site of professional golfer Jack Nicklaus' 1972 U.S. Open win, which included a 1-iron shot that bounced off the hole's flag and resulted in a birdie.

The Singapore Flyer has a height of 722 spans. Based on recommendations from Feng Shui masters, the wheel was re-engineered to spin in the opposite direction five months after it began operating.

The Washington Monument measures 740.550 spans tall, with some discrepancy due to the fact that the Monument's base is slightly below the surrounding ground. Interrupted in its construction by the American Civil War, it was almost 36 years between groundbreaking and the completion of construction.

St. Paul's Cathedral measures 761 spans to its peak. The southwest tower of the Cathedral contains the bell known as "Great Paul," which is the largest bell in Great Britain at 15,000 kg (16.5 tons), outweighing the more iconic Big Ben bell by about 3,000 kg (3 tons).

According to NFL specifications, an American football field should measure 480 spans from end to end. Because each team's goalpost is located at the far end of the scoring area (end zone), a ball on a scoring play may need to travel as many as 40 spans farther when kicked into the scoring area than when run (rushed) or passed into it.

Built for a 1962 World's Fair, the Space Needle stands 805 spans tall. With a track-and-wheel design inspired by railroad mechanics and a precisely-configured balance, the restaurant near the top of the space needle requires just a 1.5 hp motor to rotate at speeds of about 0.053 kph (0.033 mph).

According to the Laws of the Game, a football pitch should measure between 459 spans (when the Laws were originally, they used imperial measurements of 460 spans, and later converted to the metric units used today). The goal markess were defined as part of the pitch by the original rules of the game in the late 16th century, but it was not until the mid 19th century that the crossbar and the net were added

The clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, which houses the bell known as "Big Ben," rises 420 spans. The tower has no elevator, and is therefore only accessible by climbing 334 steps to the top.

The Statue of Liberty reaches 406.80 spans including the pedestal. The statue was designed using an optical trick known as "forced perspective" to make the statue appear proportionally correct when viewed from its base and is, in actuality, disproportionately large at the top.

The height of each tower of Golden Gate Bridge is 993 spans above the surface of the San Francisco Bay. One of the key designers of the bridge, Charles Ellis, had no engineering degree when he began working on the project, but would later go on to write what became a standard textbook on structural engineering, and would ultimately be forced to complete his calculations on the bridge by working without pay for five months.

Giant Sequoias of the Giant Sequoia National Monument located in Sierra Nevada, near Visalia, California can grow to heights of 330 spans. The wood from the Giant Sequoias is often brittle and prone to shattering when such trees are felled, and as a result the trees logged in the late nineteenth century were often usable only as shingles or matchsticks.