Like bridges, tunnels are a modern day engineering marvel, even though humans have been boring them for thousands of years. In the past, we hewed tunnels out of massive rock faces with chisels and hammers; over the centuries, our methods have improved. Now, we bore tunnels with Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM), or “moles”, allowing us to dig deeper and farther than we ever have before.
With our modern technology, we can excavate faster and smarter, resulting in massive networks of tunnels that dramatically reduce travel time between locations. Currently, the longest and most impressive tunnels are concentrated in parts of Europe and Asia due to their mountainous topographies. But that’s soon to change: With groundbreaking projects like Elon Musk’s Hyperloop on the horizon, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before tunnels of unprecedented lengths are bored between key cities in the USA.
As we mentioned, the longest tunnels are located in continents like Europe and Asia, but there are other modern marvels scattered across the globe as well. To give you the full picture on the longest rail and road tunnels to date, the website Big Rentz have highlighted 10 of the longest (and impressive) tunnels in the world below on a infographic. Enjoy below!
