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--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
· Strait of Gibraltar Crossing
0:00 · Could you imagine getting on a train in Madrid and getting off in Casablanca? Or how about jumping in
0:04 · your car and driving from Europe to Africa in less than 30 minutes? If Spain and Morocco had their
0:10 · way, that might be possible. They want to build an ambitious crossing over, or under, the Strait of
0:16 · Gibraltar by the beginning of the next decade. I'm Regis, and in this video, we'll explore
0:23 · the possibility of building a bridge or a tunnel between Europe and Africa
0:27 · and why the 2030 World Cup could be the spark that sets everything in motion.
· History of the Strait of Gibraltar
0:33 · The Strait of Gibraltar lies where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean.
0:37 · It's the only way ships can get directly from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean,
0:41 · and it's also part of a shortcut between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. Ships
0:46 · travel through the Strait, along the Med, and then to the Indian Ocean via the Suez
0:50 · Canal. The alternatives are a long trip around Africa or an even longer one across
0:56 · the Pacific. As a result, more than 65,000 ships sail through the passage every year.
1:03 · Because of its strategic importance, the countries around the Strait, and some from further afield,
1:07 · have tried their best to claim the route as their own. From 1610 onward,
1:12 · Spain had control most of the time. For three hundred years, anyone sailing through
1:16 · had to identify who they were by flying their country's flag or face a volley of cannon fire.
1:23 · One of the ways Spain managed to control the route entirely was by having a presence on
1:27 · both coastlines. Even today, a tiny Spanish territory called Ceuta exists at the most
1:33 · easterly point of the African side. Even so, not all of the European side belongs to Spain.
1:40 · Opposite Ceuta on the European side is the Rock of Gibraltar, a small outcrop
1:44 · that gives the Strait its name. You might know it best from videos of its mischievous Barbary
1:49 · Macaques that terrorize tourists. Those monkeys, and the rest of the
1:54 · Rock of Gibraltar, are a British Overseas Territory, so part of the United Kingdom,
2:00 · and have been since a treaty was signed in 1713. Treaty or not, Spain has never recognized
2:06 · Britain's sovereignty over Gibraltar and would like it back. The jury's out on the monkeys.
2:13 · In 1907, France invaded Morocco, but they'd made a deal with Britain and Spain three years earlier,
2:19 · promising not to build any new fortification on their side of the passage. After Morocco gained
2:24 · independence in 1956, it took control of most of the southern half of the Strait, though not the
2:30 · area around Ceuta. Now, control of the Strait is split between Morocco, Spain, and the UK.
· Why Building a Crossing Makes Sense
2:37 · It's not only access to the Atlantic that makes the Strait of Gibraltar important. At just over 14
2:43 · km at the narrowest point, it's also the shortest route from Africa to Europe and vice versa.
2:49 · Of the 65,000 vessels that pass through the straits annually, thirty thousand cross
2:54 · the narrow passage between Spain and Morocco, carrying millions of passengers and more than 13
3:00 · million cargo containers. With all those craft heading
3:05 · East to West and those going from shore to shore, it's not surprising that the Strait is one of the
3:10 · most crowded sea routes in the world. You might think that makes it dangerous, but it's not. They
3:16 · have a range of systems to ensure safety, including patrol boats and watch stations.
3:22 · Even so, a lot of traffic is moving over the Strait, and ships are slow, expensive,
3:27 · and bad for the environment. That's why for some time, the people on both sides have wondered if
· Could a Bridge Actually Work?
3:33 · it might be better to build… A Permanent Crossing.
3:38 · Okay so how could they do that? The first consideration would be
3:42 · to build a bridge, and if they did that, it wouldn't be the first very long bridge built
3:46 · across the sea. For example, Hong Kong's 55km Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge is much longer
3:53 · than you'd need to cross the Strait of Gibraltar. However there are a couple of problems that make
3:57 · a bridge in this location much more difficult. A bridge across the Strait of Gibraltar has to
4:02 · put up with high winds. The climate in the Strait of Gibraltar is governed by
4:06 · two winds – the Levante and Poniente – that run east to west or west to east,
4:11 · depending on the season. These often reach 72km/h, and that could make a crossing pretty scary.
4:19 · Some bridges already deal with gusts higher than that. For example, France's Millau Viaduct
4:23 · doesn't shut down for traffic until wind speeds reach 110km/h. So perhaps that would even work.
· The Greatest Challenge
4:32 · The real problem with a bridge across the Strait isn't the distance or the wind.
4:36 · It's the height, or should we say 'depth.' The average depth of the Strait is 365m,
6:45 · with some of it as deep as 900m. Then, you'll need enough room for some of the largest ships
6:51 · in the world to pass underneath. So the bridge needs to be even taller.
6:55 · Building a bridge pillar at such depths underwater is just not realistic yet. The water pressure down
7:01 · there is no joke—at that depth, it's around 30 times what you'd feel at sea level, putting
7:07 · extreme stress on anything built to withstand it. Then there's the issue of strong currents and
7:12 · tides, which would be constantly scouring the seabed, making it tricky to keep any
7:17 · structure stable over time. And if human divers can't safely reach that depth,
7:22 · then robots would be needed to handle everything from drilling to securing the foundation. Right
7:27 · now, the deepest bridge foundation in the world is the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan,
7:32 · which goes 60 meters underwater—over 300 meters would be a whole new level of difficulty.
7:38 · And even if this wasn't a problem, they'd still have the seabed to contend with.
7:42 · Surveys have shown it to be far from even with underwater mountain ranges, valleys,
7:47 · and mud volcanoes. And then there's the chance the ground could just move.
7:53 · The bridge would have to account for the Earth's tectonic plates. The African Plate
7:58 · has been moving into the European Plate at one inch every two and a half years,
8:02 · right where they'd want to build. These challenges haven't stopped
· An Insane Proposal for a Gibraltar Bridge
8:06 · people from putting ideas forward. In 1996, a brilliant structural engineer named Professor
8:12 · Tung-Yen Lin suggested a bridge between Port Oliveros and Point Ceres. It's the
8:17 · same man who once proposed a bridge across the Bering Strait from Russia to the USA.
8:22 · His Gibraltar bridge would have been 14 km long, with insane 910-meter-tall towers. That would be,
8:29 · by far, the biggest bridge ever built. Such an insane plan was obviously meant
8:34 · more as an inspiring vision than an actual idea as this just pushes
8:38 · the limits of what is considered achievable. So if a bridge seems impossible, let's take a
· A Tunnel Between Continents
8:44 · look at a more realistic method: How about… …An Intercontinental Tunnel.
8:48 · It was 1930 when Spain first suggested building a tunnel, but the rock underneath the Strait was too
8:54 · hard for the technology at that time. Undeterred, they suggested fastening a prefabricated concrete
9:01 · tunnel with cables to the sea floor with cables. That idea was dropped, probably
9:04 · because of the complex, mountainous seabed and the powerful currents that rush through the Strait.
9:09 · The tunnel idea was taken seriously again in 2008. The plan was to build a rail tunnel that's
9:15 · 27 km long and 475 meters deep between Tarifa in Spain and Tangier in Morocco.
9:23 · But the design had all the problems a bridge had like the uneven landscape
9:27 · at the seabed and the shifting Tectonic Plates. It also had the same depth issue,
9:31 · though down instead of up. Depth wasn't a massive problem for the Channel Tunnel,
9:36 · but the English Channel is only 174m deep, and the sea floor is pretty uniform. The 2008 tunnel
9:43 · would have been nearly three times deeper than that and cut through potentially unstable rock.
9:49 · Deeper and much longer tunnels, like the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland have been built - that
9:54 · one is 57 km long and 2.3 km deep, so much longer and deeper than any Strait of Gibraltar
10:01 · tunnel would need to be even if they dug through the deepest point. It must be noted, however,
10:05 · that the Gotthard Base Tunnel passes under stable mountains, not the sea at a plate boundary.
10:11 · In the end, the plan was shelved because it was thought to be almost impossible.
· Gibraltar's New 2030 Tunnel
10:17 · Then, on October 4th, 2023, Morocco, Spain, and Portugal won the competition to host the 2030 FIFA
10:24 · World Cup. That's reawakened the tunnel idea, and Spain and Morocco seem to at least give it a try.
10:31 · Right now, the Moroccan National Company for Strait Studies, or short SNED, is carrying
10:36 · out a feasibility study. And Spain has been doing the same since 2023 via the
10:41 · Spanish Society for Fixed Communication Studies across the Strait of Gibraltar.
10:46 · So what initially sounds like a hypothetical idea is actually being examined more closely
10:51 · and could actually become a reality. The new plan is to build a single rail
10:55 · tunnel from Madrid in Spain to Casablanca in Morocco, heading under the Strait
11:00 · between Punta Paloma and Punta Malabata. The new tunnel would be about the same
11:04 · depth as the 2008 plan, but a lot longer at nearly 42km. That's still shorter than the
11:10 · Gotthard Base Tunnel, so it's not impossible. As for the cost, recent estimates have put that
11:16 · at $6 - $10.5 billion. By contrast, the Channel Tunnel cost $14.5 billion, which is roughly
11:23 · $28.5 billion in today's money. So surprisingly the current estimate for the Gibraltar tunnel
11:29 · is a lot less. However, we also know that these estimates are often not very realistic.
11:38 · Like the Channel Tunnel, the two countries plan to share the costs
11:41 · by borrowing from European and African lenders. It makes financial sense because the new route is
11:46 · predicted to carry 12.8 million passengers between Europe and Africa every year. It
11:52 · will also boost the economies at both ends. Not only will the construction create jobs,
11:57 · but it will also increase trade between the entire EU, North Africa, and beyond.
12:03 · Morocco and Spain hope that it'll be built and operational before the first game of the
12:08 · tournament kicks off in June 2030, although in our opinion that seems highly unlikely. As of
12:14 · this video, there's no solid start date or deadline, but you never know. A World
12:19 · Cup can be a powerful incentive, especially in the football-obsessed Iberian Peninsula.
12:26 · What do you think about the idea of a Strait of Gibraltar crossing? Do you think at some
12:30 · point of time this tunnel will exist? Or do you think that's never gonna happen?
12:34 · Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for watching, and we will see you in the next one!

Biden would have funded it.

It’ll end up costing $25B to do it.

...to send more illegal alien invaders through, like the English Channel “Chunnel”.

At least make the invaders pay for it.

Yes, think of all the Africans that won’t drown trying to cross the Med to get to Europe.

While they are at it, they should build a high-speed rail link from the new Africa-Gibraltar tunnel to the Chunnel. That way the new guests from Africa can get all the way to Britain non-stop and high-speed. Britain needs more African child rapists to supplement the Paki child rapists.

Did they ask Britain if it wants a tunnel from Africa to its possession Gibraltar?

Why would Spain want to facilitate even more illegal, violent ,unemployable Africanns pouring into their country?

Because we live in a geologically stable world where there are no earthquakes or terrorist bombings. There are some long tunnels in China, because spending money on infrastructure directly translates to a higher GDP. Here’s a link to some fun viewing for people who think tunnels built by societies known for graft and corruption are a great idea.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=video+of+leaks+in+chinese+tunnels&form=ANNTH1&refig=01f65db511d6481db24e39aedc5796cd&pc=HCTS

My life almost ended at that passage. My submarine hit the bottom. Fortunately it was a glancing blow or you would not be reading this.

I think it is a bad idea.

Hard to see the economic viability of it.

This TUNNEL TO NOWHERE will never be built.

Reminds me of the opening scene from EL CID.

The Prophet has commanded us
to rule the world.
Where in all your land of Spain
is the glory of Allah?
When men speak of you,
they speak of poets...
music makers, doctors, scientists.
Where are your warriors?
You dare call yourselves
sons of the Prophet?
You have become women!
Burn your books.
Make warriors of your poets.
Let your doctors invent
new poisons for our arrows.
Let your scientists
invent new war machines.
And then, kill!
Burn.
Infidels live on your frontiers.
Encourage them to kill each other.
And when they are weak and torn...
I will sweep up from Africa...
and thus the empire of the one God,
the true God Allah...
- Allah is the one God.
- will spread.
First, across Spain.
Then, across Europe.
Then, the whole world!

But now they will do it UNDERGROUND!

I have seen an old illustration of the French. It shows balloons from France attacking England, ships attacking England, and an underground tunnel attacking England. Europe should beware a tunnel joining with Africa.

https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/362880/view/channel-tunnel

So the demented rabid worshipers of that murdering, child molesting Mahammad can have easier access to their latest conquests of Britain, France, and Germany...

They are building a solid access platform to coordinate with their ongoing conquest of North America...

Great idea, then the remaining Europeans can get out fast!.
Let’s call it the Saladin express tunnel! /s

Pikers.

Why not go full Atlantropa?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantropa

--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
	·	Strait of Gibraltar Crossing
0:00	·	Could you imagine getting on a train in Madrid and getting off in Casablanca? Or how about jumping in
0:04	·	your car and driving from Europe to Africa in less than 30 minutes? If Spain and Morocco had their
0:10	·	way, that might be possible. They want to build an ambitious crossing over, or under, the Strait of
0:16	·	Gibraltar by the beginning of the next decade. I'm Regis, and in this video, we'll explore
0:23	·	the possibility of building a bridge or a tunnel between Europe and Africa
0:27	·	and why the 2030 World Cup could be the spark that sets everything in motion.
	·	History of the Strait of Gibraltar
0:33	·	The Strait of Gibraltar lies where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean.
0:37	·	It's the only way ships can get directly from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean,
0:41	·	and it's also part of a shortcut between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. Ships
0:46	·	travel through the Strait, along the Med, and then to the Indian Ocean via the Suez
0:50	·	Canal. The alternatives are a long trip around Africa or an even longer one across
0:56	·	the Pacific. As a result, more than 65,000 ships sail through the passage every year.
1:03	·	Because of its strategic importance, the countries around the Strait, and some from further afield,
1:07	·	have tried their best to claim the route as their own. From 1610 onward,
1:12	·	Spain had control most of the time. For three hundred years, anyone sailing through
1:16	·	had to identify who they were by flying their country's flag or face a volley of cannon fire.
1:23	·	One of the ways Spain managed to control the route entirely was by having a presence on
1:27	·	both coastlines. Even today, a tiny Spanish territory called Ceuta exists at the most
1:33	·	easterly point of the African side. Even so, not all of the European side belongs to Spain.
1:40	·	Opposite Ceuta on the European side is the Rock of Gibraltar, a small outcrop
1:44	·	that gives the Strait its name. You might know it best from videos of its mischievous Barbary
1:49	·	Macaques that terrorize tourists. Those monkeys, and the rest of the
1:54	·	Rock of Gibraltar, are a British Overseas Territory, so part of the United Kingdom,
2:00	·	and have been since a treaty was signed in 1713. Treaty or not, Spain has never recognized
2:06	·	Britain's sovereignty over Gibraltar and would like it back. The jury's out on the monkeys.
2:13	·	In 1907, France invaded Morocco, but they'd made a deal with Britain and Spain three years earlier,
2:19	·	promising not to build any new fortification on their side of the passage. After Morocco gained
2:24	·	independence in 1956, it took control of most of the southern half of the Strait, though not the
2:30	·	area around Ceuta. Now, control of the Strait is split between Morocco, Spain, and the UK.
	·	Why Building a Crossing Makes Sense
2:37	·	It's not only access to the Atlantic that makes the Strait of Gibraltar important. At just over 14
2:43	·	km at the narrowest point, it's also the shortest route from Africa to Europe and vice versa.
2:49	·	Of the 65,000 vessels that pass through the straits annually, thirty thousand cross
2:54	·	the narrow passage between Spain and Morocco, carrying millions of passengers and more than 13
3:00	·	million cargo containers. With all those craft heading
3:05	·	East to West and those going from shore to shore, it's not surprising that the Strait is one of the
3:10	·	most crowded sea routes in the world. You might think that makes it dangerous, but it's not. They
3:16	·	have a range of systems to ensure safety, including patrol boats and watch stations.
3:22	·	Even so, a lot of traffic is moving over the Strait, and ships are slow, expensive,
3:27	·	and bad for the environment. That's why for some time, the people on both sides have wondered if
	·	Could a Bridge Actually Work?
3:33	·	it might be better to build… A Permanent Crossing.
3:38	·	Okay so how could they do that? The first consideration would be
3:42	·	to build a bridge, and if they did that, it wouldn't be the first very long bridge built
3:46	·	across the sea. For example, Hong Kong's 55km Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge is much longer
3:53	·	than you'd need to cross the Strait of Gibraltar. However there are a couple of problems that make
3:57	·	a bridge in this location much more difficult. A bridge across the Strait of Gibraltar has to
4:02	·	put up with high winds. The climate in the Strait of Gibraltar is governed by
4:06	·	two winds – the Levante and Poniente – that run east to west or west to east,
4:11	·	depending on the season. These often reach 72km/h, and that could make a crossing pretty scary.
4:19	·	Some bridges already deal with gusts higher than that. For example, France's Millau Viaduct
4:23	·	doesn't shut down for traffic until wind speeds reach 110km/h. So perhaps that would even work.
	·	The Greatest Challenge
4:32	·	The real problem with a bridge across the Strait isn't the distance or the wind.
4:36	·	It's the height, or should we say 'depth.' The average depth of the Strait is 365m,
6:45	·	with some of it as deep as 900m. Then, you'll need enough room for some of the largest ships
6:51	·	in the world to pass underneath. So the bridge needs to be even taller.
6:55	·	Building a bridge pillar at such depths underwater is just not realistic yet. The water pressure down
7:01	·	there is no joke—at that depth, it's around 30 times what you'd feel at sea level, putting
7:07	·	extreme stress on anything built to withstand it. Then there's the issue of strong currents and
7:12	·	tides, which would be constantly scouring the seabed, making it tricky to keep any
7:17	·	structure stable over time. And if human divers can't safely reach that depth,
7:22	·	then robots would be needed to handle everything from drilling to securing the foundation. Right
7:27	·	now, the deepest bridge foundation in the world is the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan,
7:32	·	which goes 60 meters underwater—over 300 meters would be a whole new level of difficulty.
7:38	·	And even if this wasn't a problem, they'd still have the seabed to contend with.
7:42	·	Surveys have shown it to be far from even with underwater mountain ranges, valleys,
7:47	·	and mud volcanoes. And then there's the chance the ground could just move.
7:53	·	The bridge would have to account for the Earth's tectonic plates. The African Plate
7:58	·	has been moving into the European Plate at one inch every two and a half years,
8:02	·	right where they'd want to build. These challenges haven't stopped
	·	An Insane Proposal for a Gibraltar Bridge
8:06	·	people from putting ideas forward. In 1996, a brilliant structural engineer named Professor
8:12	·	Tung-Yen Lin suggested a bridge between Port Oliveros and Point Ceres. It's the
8:17	·	same man who once proposed a bridge across the Bering Strait from Russia to the USA.
8:22	·	His Gibraltar bridge would have been 14 km long, with insane 910-meter-tall towers. That would be,
8:29	·	by far, the biggest bridge ever built. Such an insane plan was obviously meant
8:34	·	more as an inspiring vision than an actual idea as this just pushes
8:38	·	the limits of what is considered achievable. So if a bridge seems impossible, let's take a
	·	A Tunnel Between Continents
8:44	·	look at a more realistic method: How about… …An Intercontinental Tunnel.
8:48	·	It was 1930 when Spain first suggested building a tunnel, but the rock underneath the Strait was too
8:54	·	hard for the technology at that time. Undeterred, they suggested fastening a prefabricated concrete
9:01	·	tunnel with cables to the sea floor with cables. That idea was dropped, probably
9:04	·	because of the complex, mountainous seabed and the powerful currents that rush through the Strait.
9:09	·	The tunnel idea was taken seriously again in 2008. The plan was to build a rail tunnel that's
9:15	·	27 km long and 475 meters deep between Tarifa in Spain and Tangier in Morocco.
9:23	·	But the design had all the problems a bridge had like the uneven landscape
9:27	·	at the seabed and the shifting Tectonic Plates. It also had the same depth issue,
9:31	·	though down instead of up. Depth wasn't a massive problem for the Channel Tunnel,
9:36	·	but the English Channel is only 174m deep, and the sea floor is pretty uniform. The 2008 tunnel
9:43	·	would have been nearly three times deeper than that and cut through potentially unstable rock.
9:49	·	Deeper and much longer tunnels, like the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland have been built - that
9:54	·	one is 57 km long and 2.3 km deep, so much longer and deeper than any Strait of Gibraltar
10:01	·	tunnel would need to be even if they dug through the deepest point. It must be noted, however,
10:05	·	that the Gotthard Base Tunnel passes under stable mountains, not the sea at a plate boundary.
10:11	·	In the end, the plan was shelved because it was thought to be almost impossible.
	·	Gibraltar's New 2030 Tunnel
10:17	·	Then, on October 4th, 2023, Morocco, Spain, and Portugal won the competition to host the 2030 FIFA
10:24	·	World Cup. That's reawakened the tunnel idea, and Spain and Morocco seem to at least give it a try.
10:31	·	Right now, the Moroccan National Company for Strait Studies, or short SNED, is carrying
10:36	·	out a feasibility study. And Spain has been doing the same since 2023 via the
10:41	·	Spanish Society for Fixed Communication Studies across the Strait of Gibraltar.
10:46	·	So what initially sounds like a hypothetical idea is actually being examined more closely
10:51	·	and could actually become a reality. The new plan is to build a single rail
10:55	·	tunnel from Madrid in Spain to Casablanca in Morocco, heading under the Strait
11:00	·	between Punta Paloma and Punta Malabata. The new tunnel would be about the same
11:04	·	depth as the 2008 plan, but a lot longer at nearly 42km. That's still shorter than the
11:10	·	Gotthard Base Tunnel, so it's not impossible. As for the cost, recent estimates have put that
11:16	·	at $6 - $10.5 billion. By contrast, the Channel Tunnel cost $14.5 billion, which is roughly
11:23	·	$28.5 billion in today's money. So surprisingly the current estimate for the Gibraltar tunnel
11:29	·	is a lot less. However, we also know that these estimates are often not very realistic.
11:38	·	Like the Channel Tunnel, the two countries plan to share the costs
11:41	·	by borrowing from European and African lenders. It makes financial sense because the new route is
11:46	·	predicted to carry 12.8 million passengers between Europe and Africa every year. It
11:52	·	will also boost the economies at both ends. Not only will the construction create jobs,
11:57	·	but it will also increase trade between the entire EU, North Africa, and beyond.
12:03	·	Morocco and Spain hope that it'll be built and operational before the first game of the
12:08	·	tournament kicks off in June 2030, although in our opinion that seems highly unlikely. As of
12:14	·	this video, there's no solid start date or deadline, but you never know. A World
12:19	·	Cup can be a powerful incentive, especially in the football-obsessed Iberian Peninsula.
12:26	·	What do you think about the idea of a Strait of Gibraltar crossing? Do you think at some
12:30	·	point of time this tunnel will exist? Or do you think that's never gonna happen?
12:34	·	Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for watching, and we will see you in the next one!