A transatlantic tunnel is a theoretical

tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

that would span the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

between

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

possibly for such purposes as

mass transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whi ...

. Some proposals envision technologically advanced trains reaching speeds of . Most conceptions of the tunnel envision it between the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

‒ or more specifically between

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The main barriers to constructing such a tunnel are cost (first estimated at $88–175 billion, now updated to $1–20 trillion) as well as limits of current

materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

. Existing major tunnels, such as the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

, Seikan Tunnel and the

Gotthard Base Tunnel The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT; , , ) is a railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland. It opened in June 2016 and full service began the following December. With a route length of , it is the world's longest railway and deepest traffic tunn ...

, despite using less expensive technology than any yet proposed for the transatlantic tunnel, may struggle financially.

Proposed tunnels

Many variations of the concept exist, including a tube above the

seabed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as seabeds. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

, a tunnel beneath the ocean floor, or some combination of the two.

Vactrain

A 1960s proposal has a near-

vacuum A vacuum (: vacuums or vacua) is space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective (neuter ) meaning "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressur ...

tube with vactrains, a theoretical type of

maglev Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation'') is a system of rail transport whose rolling stock is levitated by electromagnets rather than rolled on wheels, eliminating rolling resistance. Compared to conventional railways, maglev trains h ...

train, which could travel at speeds up to . At this speed, the travel-time between

and

would be less than one hour. Another modern variation, intended to reduce costs, is a submerged floating tunnel about below the ocean surface, in order to avoid ships, bad weather, and the high pressure associated with a much deeper tunnel near the sea bed. It would consist of 54,000 prefabricated sections held in place by 100,000 tethering cables. Each section would consist of a layer of foam sandwiched between concentric steel tubes, and the tunnel would also have reduced air pressure.

Jet propulsion

Ideas proposing

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

, jet,

scramjet A scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is a variant of a ramjet airbreathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow. As in ramjets, a scramjet relies on high vehicle speed to compress the incoming air forcefully b ...

, and air-pressurized tunnels for train transportation have also been put forward. In the proposal described in an '' Extreme Engineering'' episode, trains would take 18 minutes to reach top speed, and 18 minutes at the end to come to a halt. During the deceleration phase, the resultant 0.2g acceleration would lead to an unpleasant feeling of tilting downward, and it was proposed that the seats would individually rotate to face backwards at the midpoint of the journey, in order to make the deceleration more pleasant.

History

Early interest

Suggestions for such a structure go back to

Michel Verne Michel Jean Pierre Verne (3 August 1861 – 5 March 1925) was a French novelist and editor, who was the son of Jules Verne. He was best known for his adventure novels, which included '' The Lighthouse at the End of the World'' (1905), ''The ...

, son of

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

, who wrote about it in 1888 in a story entitled ''Un Express de l'avenir'' (''An Express of the Future''). This story was published in English in ''

Strand Magazine ''The Strand Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine founded by George Newnes, composed of short fiction and general interest articles. It was published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950, running to 711 issues, though the ...

'' in 1895, where it was incorrectly attributed to Jules Verne, a mistake frequently repeated today. 1913 saw the publication of the novel '' Der Tunnel'' by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

author Bernhard Kellermann. It inspired four films of the same name: one in 1915 by

William Wauer William Wauer (1866–1962) was a German sculptor and film director of the silent era. In 1913 he co-directed the biopic ' (1913). In 1915 he directed ''The Tunnel (1915 film), The Tunnel'' the first adaptation of Bernhard Kellermann's science f ...

, and separate

, French, and

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

versions released in 1933 and 1935. The German and French versions were directed by

Curtis Bernhardt Curtis Bernhardt (15 April 1899 – 22 February 1981) was a German film director born in Worms, Germany, under the name Kurt Bernhardt. Career He trained as an actor in Germany, and performed on the stage, before starting as a film director in ...

, and the British one was written in part by

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

writer Curt Siodmak. Perhaps suggesting contemporary interest in the topic, an original poster for the American release of the British version (renamed ''Transatlantic Tunnel'') was, in 2006, estimated for auction at $2,000–3,000.

Modern research

Robert H. Goddard Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which was successfully lau ...

, the father of rocketry, was issued two of his 214 patents for the idea. Arthur C. Clarke mentioned intercontinental tunnels in his 1946 short story '' Rescue Party'' and again in his 1956 novel '' The City and the Stars''. Harry Harrison's 1975 novel '' Tunnel Through the Deeps'' (also published as ''A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!'') describes a vacuum/maglev system on the ocean floor. The April 2004 issue of ''

Popular Science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

'' suggests that a transatlantic tunnel is more feasible than previously thought, and without major engineering challenges. It compares it favorably with laying transatlantic pipes and cables, but with a cost of 88 to 175 billion dollars. In 2003, the Discovery Channel's show '' Extreme Engineering'' aired a program, titled "Transatlantic Tunnel", which discussed the proposed tunnel concept in detail.

References

External links

* {{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617034039/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIuy7WGD1z0&gl=US&hl=en, date=2013-06-17, title=YouTube - Extreme Engineering Transatlantic Tunnel London to New York Megastructures Proposed undersea tunnels in Europe Proposed undersea tunnels in North America Proposed transcontinental crossings Science fiction themes

Tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...