Is It Possible to Connect Continents Over the Oceans with Bridges?

The continents are yearning as they were many years ago pangea We wouldn’t have such a problem, and we wouldn’t have to write such content.

Since they broke up, so are we as an alternative to sea and air travel Let’s question whether such a scenario is possible for intercontinental journeys.

The desire to go from one place to another has always existed in humanity. For example, this bridge is the oldest bridge in the world, still in use (Also in Izmir).

The Caravan Bridge, located on the Meles Stream, It has been in use for 2900 years. Since then, the number of bridges has increased; As technology developed, mountains, rivers, valleys and seas were overcome by bridges.

This increases the interaction between people. made trade easier and for the benefit of humanity. So how feasible is the idea of ​​connecting continents with bridges?

Yes, There are examples of this in Istanbul and Çanakkale. but as you can imagine, we’re talking about crossing oceans. Let’s see how possible this ultra, mega, crazy project is?

We’ll ponder this idea, assuming we have “unlimited money,” as we mentioned in the title. Well, what kind of conditions would force us apart from material things?

First this bridge Let’s decide where to go: From New York to London, from Sydney to Singapore, from San Francisco to Yokohama, or from Russia to Alaska via the Bering Strait?

In other words, our plans to connect North America and Europe via the Atlantic Ocean, Australia and Asia via the Indian Ocean, North America and Asia via the Pacific Ocean, or North America and Asia through the narrow part in the north of the Pacific Ocean, respectively. among the options.

First of all, the bottom of this bridge should be high enough for transport ships to pass. Otherwise, we wait longer for orders from Alibaba.

In order to use such long bridges efficiently, railway must also be built. your way It can be next to or below.

Consider the most challenging possibility: What challenges would await us if we attempted to connect the United States and Japan with a bridge to be built between San Francisco and Yokohama?

I don’t know if the image caught your attention, but even a plane trip between two cities It takes 11 hours and the lowest price is 50 thousand TL! This just shows how difficult our job is.

While the famous Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco to Sausalito is only 1.3 kilometers long, our imaginary bridge will be 8,292 kilometers long.

Our bridge, which will carry thousands of vehicles, needs a lot of support. Huge feet, average depth 5,000 meters It should go down to the bottom of the ocean.

Even for the Golden Gate 1 million tons of concrete Consider the weight of the concrete used for our imaginary bridge.

The length of the support cables required for our bridge would have reached 130,000 km.

Even the circumference of the Earth is 40,075 km. So these cables would be long enough to wrap around our planet 3 times; moreover 10,000 km would increase. These cables would require “galvanized steel” and would weigh 488 billion kg.

So our imaginary bridge, from the Golden Gate in total 6,478 times longer it would have gone down almost 33 times deeper.

As you can see, it doesn’t make sense to build a bridge between Japan and the USA. What if we did it in the Bering Strait in the north of the Pacific Ocean? Both the USA and Russia are very close to each other here.

There are even two islands facing each other here; one belongs to the USA and the other belongs to Russia. The distance is very small but only to each other geographically close, not politically. This makes it less likely that they will take kindly to the idea.

Also in this region oil platforms There is, even if there was no tension between the two countries, an oil disaster may occur due to errors that may occur during construction and result in a major natural disaster. Remember the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In fact, the idea of ​​building a railway was put forward here, but the project was shelved because its environmental effects would be bad and 100 billion had to be spent. Also in this region because the population is small It was thought that this road would not be used enough.

The longest bridge in the world, with a length of 164.8 km, is the Danyang-Kunshan Bridge in China, but even this is too small compared to the idea of ​​​​crossing an ocean.

Even if we assume that we have overcome great difficulties such as money and time, the weather conditions in the oceans are at very different levels. Noone hurricanes, big waves He wouldn’t want to travel in a car.

Protected from the wind by city buses in Istanbul remember the couriers. Even buses wouldn’t stand a chance on a bridge across the ocean.

Preventing extreme winds covered bridges maybe it could be done. There are examples around the world.

However, this too extra expense means. A high toll would be required to keep this bridge usable. Even to cross the bridges in our country, we have to pay hundreds of TL. When you add the fuel you need to spend in that many kilometers, it would be quite expensive.

Also, many of these gas station, rest facility, mechanic, tire shop, hospital, police station should have.

Since it will be a very long journey, the sleepiness factor is also important.

for kilometers straight from concrete and water on the road we would get very bored because you wouldn’t be able to see anything else, and that would trigger sleep.

It’s actually a beautiful place. Crossing from Australia to Asia via New Zealand It can be a nice trip from island to island.

But The Lord of the Rings was filmed It doesn’t make sense to pour concrete on those wonders of nature. If we had it, it was already poured, they won’t allow it there.

Let’s say it was ours and 3-5 companies were on the road. It would still be unreasonable financially. Most of the Australian population lives in the south of the continent. Going by plane would be a much more logical choice.

Building a bridge doesn’t make any sense, as it turns out. What if we tunnel under the ocean?

connecting England and France Channel Tunnel and Marmaray minor versions of this idea. If you tried to build another Channel Tunnel today, it would cost 13 billion dollars. Moreover, even though it is only 50 km. Our imaginary tunnel is 110 times longer.

Let’s say we somehow found the money; The Channel Tunnel took 6 years to build and had decades of planning. So even if we started the project now, it could have been completed decades later.

It’s crazy work to drill and tunnel under the ocean from England to America. pressure caused by the ocean If we take this into account, we have a big risk.

What if instead of digging a tunnel, what if we took a high-speed train in a tube that we would build into the ocean?

You can be sure that our train, which will go through our 5.500 km tube, will not make a choo-choo sound. Because Elon Musk’s Hyperloop etc. We’re talking about technologies!

When the friction barrier is eliminated by creating a vacuum environment inside the tube, the supersonic train is supported by magnets and motors. 8,000 kilometers per hour speed is possible.

However, even though it is possible to reach this much speed, we may not feel very good in that train. Instead we can travel at twice the speed of sound, so with about 2,000 km. The Concorde passenger plane was flying at this speed.

In summary; As long as we have enough money, time, and resources, it is possible that we will one day see a pipe in the oceans. We can cross oceans with supersonic trains, but these trains For now, it is built on land.