Why Aren't Africa And Europe Connected By A Bridge. Gibraltar Megaprojects

hey guys so the first primitive bridges just looked like logs tossed over water and really didn't seem that safe but with the development of technology humanity has really begun to build truly magnificent structures an excellent example of this is the dang yang kunshan viaduct that is in the guinness book of world records as the longest bridge in the world nevertheless there are places that seem to need but not have bridges that includes the straits of gibraltar that has worldwide significance connecting the mediterranean sea to the atlantic ocean it's an important route for the mediterranean communication with the outside world about 200 large ships passed through them every day they became even more important after the official opening of the suez canal in 1869. the 100 mile long canal split eurasia and africa and thanks to that ships no longer needed to sell around africa to get from the indian ocean to the mediterranean and back that saved them almost 5 000 miles of traveling but the straits of gibraltar have a different story both sides have wanted to be connected for a long time now there's intense ferry traffic between the iberian peninsula and morocco meaning there's a need for passage through the straits building a passage would be good for tourism and the economies for example connecting europe and africa would only need a bridge about 9 miles long since the smallest distance across the straits is a bit over 8.5 miles that's not too big for modern bridges does europe not want to undertake such a project or are they unable to do so no one knows but a real attempt was made long ago and it was much more difficult than expected bridge projects and other projects to connect the coasts were being developed in the early 20th century and some of them were completely insane [Music] so in the late 1920s german architect herman sorgel developed the alantropic project he wanted to connect europe and africa and make the latter's climate more suitable for europeans so he suggested building a hydroelectric dam that would close the straits of gibraltar an 18 mile long dam along the seafloor up to 1050 feet deep seemed to the author completely plausible he would also build a second dam across the dardanelles this would stop water from the atlantic ocean from flowing into the mediterranean sea so the water level would gradually increase by five feet per year but that was too slow for sorgel he suggested pumping water along a special channel to the sahara making an artificial sea there the author's project would make the level of the mediterranean lower down to 656 feet in just a few decades the gibraltar dam alone could potentially generate about 50 gigawatts of energy which is over 50 percent of all of the us's nuclear energy today [Music] this could provide electricity to the nearby regions and provide fresh water for the sahara making more land for agriculture [Music] sorgel's plan would have connected electric lines running from the gibraltar dam connected by highways and railroads making europe and africa be a new part of the world when the nazis came to power in germany sergeil tried to bring the project to their attention but hitler was not impressed moreover he wasn't allowed to advertise his ln troppa project anymore so he only started talking about his ideas again after world war ii [Music] many big manufacturers liked the project since they hope to make a lot of money from it [Music] despite that the necessary sum of money was never found it's worth noting the project was mostly utopian and its manifestation caused unrest in southern europe sergeil died in 1952 along with his fantastic atlantropa but there have been more realistic ideas for uniting the two continents there have been proposals for various bridges and underground tunnels [Music] but before we look at the most interesting ones let's see why it's so hard to do them and why there have been only timid attempts at starting on paper the problem is mostly geographic in nature and a big part is the depth of the strait in some places it's over 3 280 feet deep in comparison the world's tallest building the burj khalifa in dubai is two thousand seven hundred sixteen feet tall imagine having to build supports even taller than that additionally the world's tallest supports are in the mala viaduct at just 803 feet we've never made supports as big as 2700 feet another serious problem is the very strong current that is multi-directional the lower part flows westward and the upper to the east considering the depth and current it's very hard to build and serve a classical supported bridge [Music] and you need to think about possible natural disasters the cost of this project would be billions of dollars and many european experts are convinced it's simply technically unrealistic but despite that in the 1990s chinese american engineer tune in lin proposed a bridge across the strait he wanted to connect europe and africa through two points a peculiarity of his bridge was the unprecedented span of 3.1 miles as independent consultants lynn attracted an engineering company from san francisco whose specialists created computer models and carried out research on the structural configuration and roughness systems as well as aerodynamic characteristics overall it was taken very seriously the project was evaluated at 15 billion dollars but as usual it just remained on paper later in 2004 american architect eugene sue proposed another extremely unusual bridge he designed a floating bridge whose segmented construction is similar to a spine part of the bridge would go under the water so ships could pass over halfway through the architect aimed on creating an artificial island almost 3.1 miles across it would have wind and water turbines that could provide a significant amount of electricity to morocco and southern spain if eugene sue's surprising bridge had been built it definitely would have become one of the region's main tourist attractions but it didn't come to pass so if ridges don't work what about something else ideas about building a tunnel under the straits have been bouncing around for a long time for example the tunnel under the english channel is 32 miles long over three times longer than the strait of gibraltar the first ideas of such a plan appeared 150 years ago now there are problems with finances and construction then in the 1930s spain returned to the tunnel plan but it quickly became clear that the straits base was made of very hard rocks so digging a tunnel would be too difficult another difficulty was that near the rock of gibraltar the strait is about 3000 feet deep and we've never made a tunnel so deep but despite previous failures spain wasn't in a rush to turn away from a tunnel in 1979 a combined spain morocco committee for completing a new project was formed during the research additional complications that the builders would run into became known midway through the strait are the african and eurasian tectonic plates which creates seismic danger the fault was filled with two clay canals making the construction even harder they tried to complete the project for 40 long years but finally closed it because the two built parts collapsed and there was difficulty with maintenance [Music] in 2021 the press once again began writing about an underwater tunnel connecting europe and africa this time great britain is quite interested they need to look for new trade connections now that they've left the european union the construction of a tunnel from gibraltar to tangier morocco's largest port is a logical step now it's not clear who would control the borders and who would pay for it though in any case it doesn't matter yet since there's no definite information about the project if you believe the forecast africa will be one of the world's most quickly developing areas in the coming decades with such development a bridger tunnel connecting the two continents will become especially important so there's a chance that something will appear sooner or later well that's all for today be sure to leave us a like and comment let me know if you're on team bridge or team tunnel when it comes to what's going to cross between europe and africa i think i'm on team bridge technology will figure something out soon i'm sure elon musk will be involved with it anyway we'll see you again next time

Channel: Pandora US

Views: 2,529,242

Keywords: Africa, Europe, Straits of Gibraltar, English Channel, Gibraltar, tiny government, Gibraltar - a tiny government, lodged in the rock, tiny country, government, Great Britain, self-governed colony, naval base, Gibraltar government, territory, interesting facts, interesting facts about the ocean, unusual buildings in the world, tunnel under la manche, tunnel, Crimean bridge, Kerch bridge, unusual structures, unusual bridges

Id: 4obQiU18ZWo

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 10 2021