A tunnel is an underground passageway dug for foot, vehicular road traffic, rail traffic, or a canal. There are plenty of them all over the world. Some, however, are really spectacular.
We will share with you 11 most shocking tunnels around the world, including the new Elon Musk’s Tesla tunnel under Las Vegas. This may not be something you have thought a lot of about but by the time we finish, you’re going to want to visit these shocking tunnels. Their view will have you mesmerized and forget where you are. Some of them were dug out over several years by hand while others used large machinery. These tunnels may go under water or cut through mountains.
Here Are 11 most spectacular Tunnels in the world
- Wellington Cable Car Tunnel, New Zealand
In 2015 Angus Muir design developed and installed the Wellington Cable Car Tunnel to transport passengers through two 100-meter-long tunnels. The LED lights surround the tunnel and when they flash, you may feel as if you are time travelling. There are 60 arches of light strings in each of two tunnels which are synchronized to a computer program. The computer program can allow four different patterns to be chosen for special events or special days. These lights are a tremendous hit among children who are easily excited. You can board a cable car from Wellington Lambton Quay up to the Botanical Garden in Kelburn.
- Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel Alaska, USA
This is a very unique tunnel and they saved 10s of millions of dollars designing this where a single lane of traffic could travel directly over the railroad tracks. The one lane tunnel is shared by cars and trains alternatively traveling in both directions. They usually air out the tunnel with turbine ventilation between trips. Originally this tunnel was designed just for trains when it was built by the army in 1941. It is 2 1/2 miles and is the second longest in North America. This tunnel was designed to withstand 150 mile per hour winds and a negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It is also known as Whittier Tunnel because it runs under Maynard mountain from Whittier to the Seward highway and South-Central Alaska.
- Burro Schmidt Tunnel California USA
This tunnel made by one man, William Schmidt who began burrowing out a passage in 1902. He started at his cabin and went through Copper Mountain in the El Paso range. It took him between 38 and 40 years to manually dig this tunnel using an occasional stick of dynamite and hand tools. He used his donkeys to aid in hauling away rock and this is why it is named borro. The passage is approximately a half a mile. One of the most interesting things about this tunnel is no one is really sure why Schmidt dug the tunnel. It has been rumored that he said he would never haul his ore to the Mojave smelter down the back trail using his two burros and that’s why he began digging the tunnel in the early 1900s.
- Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Japan
If you have ever heard the expression “a sight for sore eyes” then you know Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is one of the places they were speaking about. It is also called Sagan Bamboo Forest and is Japan’s most famous located on the outskirts of Kyoto. Lined with soaring stalks of bamboo swaying in the wind, it appears like a moving tunnel. It is called bamboo alley and it is one of the region’s most photographed sites. The walk can be completed in an hour if you walk straight through but most people will take three to four hours to complete the journey because they feel like they are in another world.
- Glow Worm Tunnel, New South Wales Australia
You don’t need to be a fan of worms to enjoy the Glow Worm Tunnel In Australia. In the early 1900s this tunnel was built to service mines and it is 1312 feet long. It was a dark unused tunnel surrounded by lush rainforest in New South Wales Wollemi National Park. It was highly unlikely that this would become such a tourist attraction however it has been overtaken by thousands of glowworms. You can walk through these pitch-black tunnels but you will need to switch off torches in order to see the blue green light which is caused by the bioluminescence that the insect larvae give off.
- Channel Tunnel, UK and France
The Channel Tunnel is the only fixed link between the European mainland and the island of Great Britain. It is more than a 30-mile railway tunnel that connects Folkstone with Coquelles beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. You cannot drive a car, a motorcycle or walk through this tunnel you must take a shuttle train. This is the longest undersea tunnel in the world. It is composed of three tunnels 50 kilometers long bored at an average 40M below the seabed and constructed between 1988 and 1994. One was a service tunnel and the other two were for trains. During the height of the construction there were over 13,000 people employed and 10 were killed. The American Society of Civil Engineers recognizes the Channel Tunnel as one of the 7 modern Wonders of the World.
- Eisenhower Tunnel, Colorado USA
The Eisenhower tunnel opened as part of the Interstate 70 and 1979 and it is the country’s longest mountain tunnel. The official name of the tunnel is the Eisenhower-Edwin C. Johnson Memorial Tunnel located at an altitude that exceeds 11,000 feet, the world’s highest vehicular tunnel which has four lanes and the highest point in its Interstate network. It goes through the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains and was carved to ease travel between Colorado’s western and eastern slopes.
- Tokyo Bay Aqua Line, Japan
Japan had an interesting concept when they built a structure that was part bridge and part tunnel. The Tokyo Bay Aqua Line was built to connect two cities, Kisarazu and Kawasaki. This is one of the longest undersea tunnels in the world stretching nearly 6 miles. It is also known as the Trans-Tokyo Bay Expressway. There’s an artificial island called Umihotaru where the bridge meets the tunnel. This rest stop has a viewing platform for drivers to take in the most beautiful views of Tokyo. It is built in a ship like structure.
- Gotthard Base Tunnel Switzerland
Stretching 35.5 miles and one of the longest and deepest tunnels in the world is Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel where passengers travel deep under the Swiss Alps. This tunnel was constructed to provide rail service between southern and northern Europe. Underneath the mountains its deepest point is 1.5 miles. The cost to build this tunnel was $12 billion and it took 17 years using giant tunnel boring machines. The Gotthard Base Tunnel opened on June 1, 2016 and on December 11, 2016 they began full service with a route length of 57 kilometers.
- Tunnel Log, California, USA
It was 1937 in Sequoia National Park a giant Sequoia fell across a road. They decided to cut a tunnel rather than remove the tree. When you go to California you must drive through this tunnel. It is only 17 feet wide and 18 feet high. If your vehicle is too tall, there is a bypass you can access. The tunnel is located along the Crescent metal road in the giant forest. It is rumored that the tree fell down due to natural causes as it was more than 2000 years old.
- Elon Musk’s Tesla Tunnel Under Las Vegas, USA
In 2019, Elon Musk was paid $50 million by the city of Las Vegas tourism agency to build a pair of one-mile tunnels beneath the convention halls. These tunnels were supposed to turn a promising 20-minute walk into a mere one-minute ride and end traffic. Unfortunately, the tunnel is often filled with drivers stuck in traffic. The Las Vegas Convention Center was the first paying customer of the tunnel digging operation called the Boring Company. One tunnel funnels traffic in one direction and the other tunnel hosts Tesla electric cars in the opposite direction. There are plans to add what they would call the Vegas loop which will be 29 miles long with 51 stations. It is estimated that it will have the capacity to handle 57,000 passengers per hour. This time they will not use taxpayers money to fund the project. The individual resorts will pay for the stations and the boring company will pay for the tunnel portions.
