Posted on 06/15/2007 10:09:00 AM PDT by WesternCulture
Switzerland has opened the world's longest rail tunnel on land - the 34-kilometre (21-mile) Loetschberg tunnel under the Alps.
It will cut the journey time between Germany and Italy by at least a third.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
The tunnel will also feature a bottle opener, knife, magnifying glass and tweezers.
Europe is a continent in desperate need of improved infrastructural conditions. Especially in terms of roads and rail connections.
Three of the five largest European countries, namely The UK, Spain and Italy are cut off from the central European continent by sea or by mountains.
As long as there is a political will, these difficulties can be overcome by bold engineering.
By the way, a list of the longest tunnels of the world:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_longest_tunnels
Sounds like the Swiss don't want the Germans being in their country any longer than needed.
“The tunnel will also feature a bottle opener, knife, magnifying glass and tweezers.”
- No Saint Bernard dogs with barrels of brandy worn around their necks?
“Sounds like the Swiss don’t want the Germans being in their country any longer than needed.”
- My impression is that the Swiss are very eager to be good hosts to all foreigner’s (financial resources).
An accident waiting to happen.
A terrorist attack waiting to happen.
“A terrorist attack waiting to happen.”
- In one way I agree, but, on the other hand civilization is ahead of the terrorists, not the other way around. Among other things in areas like technology and intelligence services.
We will see more terrorist attacks (they happen daily), but I question if an attack like the ones in New York, London and Madrid could be succesfully launched today.
When it comes to the Islamist threat, it seems there are quite a lot of Swiss who are not paralyzed or naive:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1841187/posts
Three of the five largest European countries, namely The UK, Spain and Italy are cut off from the central European continent by sea or by mountains. As long as there is a political will, these difficulties can be overcome by bold engineering.
The disconnects in Europe (and Japan) are being connected. Consider the Bering Straits between Russia and Alaska. Here, we are talking about connecting entire continents! Asia and North America.
When, and if, this happens, for us Alaskans, this will be a big event indeed.
The infrastructure costs to connect either end of a Bering Straits crossing to anything of significance on either side will likely be prohibitively immense for decades to come.
LOL! Swiss-Army Tunnel?
The Simplon tunnel opened in 1906 - it's over a hundred years old. (Second tube, 1922). The Gothard dates to the 1880s. And don't forget the Trieste lines to Austria.
The biggest problem with Spain is the non-standard rail gauge. The rail link to Barcelona goes back many generations, and isn't really in the class of spectacular engineering.
One of the two largest mistakes made by England was the Chunnel.
- That’s what I call “bold engineering”!
I’m not an engineer myself, but I’m fully convinced we MUST continue to plan for and carry out daring infrastructural projects like these ones.
By the way, I hope this vision will one day become reality:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/engineering/transatlantictunnel/interactive/interactive.html
Regards.
- Hope you’re aware I’m not saying some major parts of Europe are totally disconnected from Central Europe. That’s not the case.
There were trafficked (land) routes between Central Europe and the Italian and Iberian peninsulas before the days of the Roman Empire (although perhaps not paved roads or anything like that).
Europe is indeed a part of the world that has accomplished much in this department.
One of the longest bridges of Europe is found in my home country, Sweden. It connects an Island with less than 25 000 inhabitants, Öland, to the Swedish mainland. It was built 35 years ago and is free of charge for all types of vehicles. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96land_bridge )
So, what’s the problem? Let’s build a tunnel/bridge connecting Southern Italy and Greece, a bridge across Fehmarn Belt (the water between Germany and South East Denmark island of Lolland. This is vital in the context of promoting German and Scandinavian trade, among other things), etc, etc.
If the Roman Empire could build majestic aqueducts supplying cities with a million inhabitants with fresh water that are still in use today (!), imagine what economies like those of South East Asia, Europe and North America could build.
PS. The main problem concerning the Chunnel is the heavy fees. If they were reduced by say, 80%, I think Britain, France and the whole of Europe would benefit much, much more from it.
Regards.
Let me guess. The other one was the assassination of Princess Diana?
She had committed a capital offense. I was thinking more the surrender to Islam.
I'm only considering recent history - picking the wrong side in World War I doesn't count.
“Let me guess. The other one was the assassination of Princess Diana?”
- The English don’t hesitate to admit they’ve made several mistakes throughout history.
Some of them say another one was killing Guy Fawkes - “the only man to enter Parliament with honest intentions”.
Later than the Roman period, but the Muslims pushed through the Carcassone Gap and as far as Tours before they were stopped by Charles the Great.
One of the longest bridges of Europe is found in my home country, Sweden. It connects an Island with less than 25 000 inhabitants, Öland, to the Swedish mainland.
We'd call that pork in America. On the other hand, the new bridge from Denmark to Malmo was probably a useful feat of engineering, and should provide an adequate connection between Germany and Scandanavia.
The longest bridge in America is more than 6 times longer than the Oland bridge.
Concerning The Öland Bridge:
“We’d call that pork in America”.
- The point was this; if a small country like Sweden easily could finance a 19 921 ft bridge between an island of less than 25 000 inhabitants and its mainland in 1972, why hasn’t more been accomplished in the area of basic infrastructure throughout Europe by today?
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