Imagine having dinner in New York and then having dessert in Paris all in the
same night. Well the Transatlantic Tunnel will make this more than possible, yet there are
some people who say this may never happen. This is impossible. Impossible means not
possible, unable to be, exist, happen, or unable to be done, performed, effected.
Impossible is an adjective and a word which is use by many doubters. Yet, this is the one
word that should be permanently removed from the dictionary. “Impossible” is one of the
most misused words in the dictionary. “Why?” people ask; because nothing is ever
impossible. If people want to fly, they can use jet packs to make them feel as if they
were flying like birds. Many once thought the Wright Brothers would never be able to
fly in their plane. Look at the world now; planes are one of the main sources of traveling
from one part of the world to another. Before 1969, people thought a trip to the moon was
impossible, but was it? The answer is no. Neil Armstrong was the first human to fly to
the moon and touch back down on earth successfully. The English Channel Tunnel
seemed like an unreachable dream to many, some people never thought it could be built.
In 1994, the English Channel Tunnel was finally opened, linking England and France
(Channel Tunnel). People were worried about fire breakouts on the trains, but by having
cross paths between the three tunnels every 375 meters for an escape route (Impossible
Engineering Jobs) the problem was solved. The list continues on and on but, in every
situation, the “impossible” was made possible. The Transatlantic Tunnel is only a dream
many people as of now, a dream to link New York, London and Paris. Dreams are
created to come true. The Transatlantic Tunnel is a plausible project because with
every obstacle, there are ways to overcome them and when this is built, life around
the world will change.
Every year, about 16 million people fly across the Atlantic Ocean (Extreme
Engineering). The current average flight time from JFK Airport (New York City) to LHR
Airport (London) is about seven hours (Orbit). Within the seven hour time frame many
things can be done, excluding the time spent in the Airport if there are weather issues.
Time is the one thing that money cannot buy, because time does not wait for anyone.
Even the Concorde, a supersonic jet, will take at least three hours. The Transatlantic
Tunnel would enable people to leave New York City and arrive in London in about fiftyfour minutes (Extreme Engineering). Travel time will be greatly reduced, allowing
people to live on one end of the Atlantic Ocean and working in the other. This idea
sounds great and it had been dreamt by others as well.
People have had envision of the Transatlantic Tunnel for more than a century. In
1935, the film, Transatlantic Tunnel, had a close and similar approach to how to build the
Transatlantic Tunnel like how engineers of today would (Morlock). Also, Harry Harrison,
science fiction writer during the 1970s, envisioned a Transatlantic Tunnel that would be
supported by numerous number of sea bridges (Under sea- WORMHOLE
'TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL). Although many people thought about a Transatlantic
Tunnel, some people put this thought aside, because they felt as if this would be too
difficult of a task. But as usual, problems arise, and with problems come solutions.
The Transatlantic Tunnel would be the world’s longest tunnel, stretching 3100
miles across the Atlantic Ocean (Transatlantic Tunnel). A tunnel this long requires a
billion ton of steel to complete it from point A to point B. In order to output this much
steel, it would take about one year if all the steel mill factories combine their production
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together (Extreme Engineering). Along with this, the price will reach close 12 trillion
dollars and over a century to complete. The 12 trillion dollars would come from both
England and the United States of America, splitting the cost. Also, taking over a century
on a project this big is understandable because people do not work like robots and the
time need to be taken in order to make sure every single part of the tunnel will be built
properly. These are only the easier problems to solve.
First thing that must be done when building a tunnel, is to map out the route.
Originally, engineers decided that a northern route would be best, because it is the
shortest route, cutting half the distance of a submerge tunnel (Under sea- WORMHOLE
'TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL). The shortest route seemed most efficient because
construction time would decrease. Along with that, the cost of underwater tunnel can cost
up to about 4 billion dollars per mile, so mapping out the shortest route seemed to be the
best idea (Transatlantic Tunnel). The northern route will begin at the coast of
Newfoundland, Canada, crossing over Greenland and Iceland, then splitting right before
the tunnel reaches Scotland and Norway. The tunnel crossing across the northern Atlantic
Ocean meets no problems (Extreme Engineering). Eventually though, engineers would
soon realize that building a tunnel over Greenland would cause many problems, due to
the brutal winters’ high winds and ice that would slow traffic (Extreme Engineering).
Instead, they now agree that it would be best to build a tunnel leaving straight off of the
coast of New York City to London to Paris.
After the route is chosen, the next step would be to figure out how to construct it.
The most common way when it comes to building tunnels, is to simply drill a hole which
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is done by a tunnel boring machine (Channel Tunnel). The English Channel Tunnel was
built by having a tunnel boring machine on both ends, one starting in England and
another starting in France drilling directly at one another. Eventually the hole was
completed when France and England drilled into each other creating a complete tunnel.
Yet, scientists say that it would be near impossible to drill a straight hole under the
Atlantic Ocean. In comparison to the English Channel Tunnel, the Transatlantic Tunnel
would take over three centuries to complete if engineers decided to go with the drilling
method. Therefore, drilling will not be one of the most efficient ways (Extreme
Engineering). In addition to that, the English Channel Tunnel is only about 300 feet
below sea level at its deepest point, whereas, the Transatlantic Tunnel will have to sit five
miles below sea level (The World Factbook). The pressure this far beneath the ocean is
almost 500 times greater than the surface above sea level so drilling a tunnel here is only
going to become a big disappointment (Extreme Engineering). A tunnel five miles below
sea level just would not be adequate for the survival of people or the tunnel itself.
Another method that engineers thought of is using an immerse tunnel. An
immerse tunnel is where sections of the tunnel are fabricated on land. After sections of
the tunnel are completed, they would be simply shipped out to sea and then put together
there. Engineers says that building an immerse tunnel will be much safer than to just
simply boring a hole through the Earth (Extreme Engineering). Building a Transatlantic
Tunnel using this method would require about 54,000 of these prefabricated sections. In
order to produce this large amount of tunnel sections, it would take 20 years if 225
factories continuously worked around the clock and every single one of the tunnel
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sections were put towards this project (Extreme Engineering). Creating the tunnel is only
the first step of this process. After all 54,000 of the tunnel sections are completely, they
will then need to be towed out to sea. The distance the tunnel will have to travel may be
right off the shore to as far out as 1500 miles. When the sections reach their destination
point, this is where the work will start to become difficult. The sections are lowered down
by immersion pontoon. Divers working beneath the water will have to work in almost
totally darkness and are only able to depend on the global positioning system, allowing
them to position the tunnel sections to exactly the right spot (Extreme Engineering).
Divers must remain cautious at all times because the tunnel sections could pinch a diver’s
air hose and evidently suffocating him to death. But since the immerse tunnels sit at the
bottom of the ocean, it will lead to total failure for a Transatlantic Tunnel. Once again,
enormous pressure, about 12 million pounds per square inch at the deepest part of the
ocean, will crush the tunnel (Under sea- WORMHOLE 'TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL).
With these two ideas crushed and tossed in the trash can, only one idea is left,
building a submerged floating tunnel (Transatlantic Tunnel). Now this is a fairly new idea
and has never been tried before but some engineers are confident that this will work.
Chief engineer of Norway Roads Administrations, Håvard Østlid says, “The submerged
floating tunnel and the immerse tunnel are very similar. But the immerse tunnel is resting
in the trench on the bottom of the river, of the crossing. The submerged floating tunnel is
suspended in water and has water all around it” (Extreme Engineering). To have a
submerged tunnel work, there needs to be the perfect balance of air and ballast, (heavy
material to increase stability), to allow the tunnel to float at a particular depth. The way
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the submerged floating tunnel needs to be balanced, works exactly the same as a
submarine (Extreme Engineering). The main concern for a submerged floating tunnel is
that it may very well, float away.
At the very beginning of the tunnel, it is possible to build large piers sitting under
the tunnel, supporting them similar to bridges (Transatlantic Tunnel). Continuing the
piers throughout the whole 3,100 miles will be very difficult to do. Making the piers
would be like a project of their own. With depth reaching up to five miles deep, this
method will be not one of the best options to support the submerged floating tunnel for
the Transatlantic Tunnel.
Engineers have also come up with another option that engineers that may support
the tunnel from above the water. To do so, the Transatlantic Tunnel will have large
pontoons possibly holding the tunnel in place (Extreme Engineering). Yet, with the
strong wind and powerful currents of the Atlantic Ocean, the tunnel will easier be tossed
around like a rag doll.
The best method is to have a number of long tether cables that are connect to the
tunnel. Then the pipes will be attached to the sea floor by suction anchor (Extreme
Engineering). The way this will work is that while the anchors are driving into the sea
floor, water will be forced out creating a tight vacuum seal. This method is already in use
today except instead of cables, long steel pipes were in use. Some off-shore oil platform
uses this method to keep their 3,060 ton platforms in place and stayed in place for more
than a decade (Extreme Engineering).
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When using this idea for the Transatlantic Tunnel, the tether cables will be
holding it down. Working just opposite of what suspension bridges do. The advantage in
using cables to hold down the tunnel is that the cables are certainly strong enough, yet it
is not 100 percent rigid (Extreme Engineering). This will allow the tunnel to sway just a
little bit with the underwater current.
The design of the tunnel gives some engineers hope that the Transatlantic Tunnel
could one day happen. Yet, another question then comes to mind. Could a train possibly
travel at the speed of 5,000 miles per hour? Diesel train will definitely not be an options
because there will be no way to vent out the exhaust. Therefore, engineers now rely on an
electric maglev or, magnetic levitation train. The fastest train today is the bullet train,
traveling at speed greater than 200 miles per hour (Briney, Amanda). Bob Budell, a
project engineer says, “In theory there are no limit to how fast a maglev train can go.
There are obviously practical limits, there are also economical limit. But the technology
itself is capable of much higher speed” (Extreme Engineering). What makes maglev
trains so special is that because they are hovering off the track instead of using wheels
and rails eliminating the effect of track friction (Hoffman). 200 miles per hour is fast but
it is nowhere near fast enough.
With track friction eliminated, there is still air resistance that works against all
moving object. The greater speed of a moving object, the greater the air resistance is
requiring that object to work harder to either keep or increase its speed. To do away with
this air resistance, the Transatlantic Tunnel needs to be 100 percent airless. This can be
easily done by simply pumping out all the air of the tunnel (Extreme Engineering).
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Without the presence of air, the maglev train will act as if it was freefalling. There have
been experiments done at the MIT with a train falling through a tube, one with air and
one without. The speed of the train in the vacuum is far greater than the one with air.
Robert Childs, a vacuum engineer at MIT says in order to pump out all the air in the
Transatlantic Tunnel; it will take a couple months at pumping speed of millions and
millions cubic feet per hour (Extreme Engineer). It is plausible for the Transatlantic
Tunnel to become a vacuum, only time is really required.
When everything seems to be falling into place, engineers begin to fall in to
another problem. The force of acceleration will not survivable when the train is trying to
reach its top speed of 5,000 miles per hour. When fighter pilots are undergoing a diving
simulation, they will have to experiences g-force reaching up to nine g. Whatever that
certain fighter pilot weighs, they will feel as if they weigh nine times as much
(Transatlantic Tunnel). When reaching g-forces this large, the fighter pilot could
potentially blackout due the lack of blood in their brain. If this was the condition on the
Transatlantic Tunnel train, the ride will be highly uncomfortable.
The solution to this problem is to have a gradual acceleration allowing the
passengers will have a smooth and comfortable ride. In order to do so, the tunnel will
have three different parts or three different legs. When people first board the train, the
train will travel through the first leg, a 750 miles tunnel taking 18 minutes reach its top
speed. Then the train will cruise for the next 18 minutes at its top speed of 5,000 miles
per hour covering 1,600 miles through the second leg (Under sea- WORMHOLE
'TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL). During the last 18 minutes of the train will be traveling
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through its three leg and this will be a gradual deceleration portion of the trip before
reaching its destination.
To increase comfort for the passengers, they will sit on rotating and slightly
rocking seats to greater eliminate the feeling of the g-force. Also since it is a maglev
train, the passengers will feel almost no shaking or movement of the train. Plus each car
will have their own pressurize air system working the same way as one inside a space
shuttle. For the passengers, they will experience a quick and pleasurable 54 minutes ride.
The tunnel will be separated into three sections, a top, middle, and bottom. The
middle of the tunnel will be for the trains, east bound, west bound, along with a middle
track use for emergency purposes. Above and below the section where the trains will be
running, they will be service tube for maintenance, providing communication and access
for repairs (Extreme Engineering). In those sections, they will also contain substation to
power the maglev trains. The two main station (boarding and exiting), will generate the
power and then transfer it to the substations (Under sea- WORMHOLE
'TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL).
When building tunnels, tunnel engineers three main fear, fire and collision. The
fire can be put out but it is really difficult to vent out all the smoke from the fire. So in
case of a fire, engineers decide to install a large amount of fire suppression system every
single car (Extreme Engineering). If a collision were to occur somewhere in the
Transatlantic Tunnel, it will be really difficult to move the wreckage and passengers
elsewhere because of the great length of the tunnel. To try to prevent a collision, the
tunnel will be closely monitored at all time (Extreme Engineering). Any failure, large or
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small, alarms will be quickly triggered. These are situations that people have some
control over.
Now some doubters argue that when the inevitable happens, such as when a large
underwater animal hits the tunnel, how will the tunnel be able to survive? Well as said
earlier, the Transatlantic Tunnel will be closely monitored at all time. Also, if a whale
reaches within two miles of the tunnel, the tether cables will slacken just slightly
(Extreme Engineering). Releasing some slack will prepare the tunnel for impact. If the
tether cables release too much slack, then the maglev train could potentially wrap,
leading to a devastating crash. Plus, at the speed the passengers are travel and the
thickness of the tunnel, the passengers will feel almost nothing at the time of impact.
Then divers will be sent out at where the tunnel was hit to fix any damage done if there is
any.
The Transatlantic Tunnel is not beyond the reach of technology today says Frank
Davidson (Extreme Engineering). Frank Davidson is one of the engineers who helped
designed the English Channel Tunnel. If the Transatlantic Tunnel is built, it will inspire
engineers all over the world. Potentially in the future, the seven continents will be
connected by submerged tunnels all over the seven seas. Building the Transatlantic
Tunnel is not impossible; people just need to want it like how they wanted to go to the
moon.
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