It's those MBTA buses you have watch for! Good job on the video 😊 Toxic Green algae is a vast improvement. Used to be chemicals, sewerage, trash AND dead bodies. That said, Boston is a great city. Enjoy it!
@@dodadamm Both were started with "cut and cover" method. London mostly because of congestion and steam locomotive traction couldn't operate at depth. Boston was because of congestion and getting snowed in and severe weather. I can't locate the documentary for the moment. Amended reply: May have been second ELECTRIFIED underground in the world- web search gets real fuzzy, real fast 🤣
This was an excellent video. It's incredibly interesting how techniques then really don't differ overly much to what's done today, just on a far larger scale.
A big problem with scaling it up to cover thousands of miles is you add in a few factors you wouldn’t have to worry about on a small scale. For example the movement of tectonic plates is only a few centimeters per year but what would that do to a structure thousands of miles along that stretches across multiple plate boundaries? Also I am guessing the curvature of the earth probably causes quite a lot of problems at that point the tunnel from space would be really curvy. What about the pressure this thing is under there is a difference between the sea and the river if this thing is under the deep ocean it’s going to face a lot more pressure. Also since the thing would be so huge there is more potential points for it to break at and the repairs would be insanely costly far out at sea. What about the movement of currents and corrosion if the tunnel is so huge I bet it’s a lot like tall buildings with wind. Overall such a project seems like it would face a lot more challenges then the guy acknowledged technological as well as financial.
The Severn Tunnel linking England and Wales has a bit of a leak too. Since 1879 they've had to pump out 50 million litres of fresh water per day. It's estimated that it would only take 26 minutes to flood if the pumps and other measures failed. I find it amazing that engineers 140 years ago were able to deal with it.
1/2 of Boston is landfill. It’s kind weird walking around my city knowing that and drive through the tunnels rather siting in traffic in the tunnels knowing how much water is above you is still scary
Charleston, SC is the same way. No tunnels here - bridges do just fine, and the geology is exceptionally poorly suited for it - but a massive portion of the Charleston peninsula is landfill. The fact that it's also salt marsh, and frequently gets heavy rains and hurricanes, means out roads and sidewalks are in an absolute state. The ground they're on is constantly sinking or welling up.
The graphics, the on-location footage, the production quality is unreal, easily surpassing the sort of stuff major documentary companies are putting out these days. Keep up the good work c:
I remember when the Big Dig finally was completed and Ben and Jerry's made an ice cream flavour honouring it. It was an absolute nightmare of a project. So many shortcuts were taken and so many delays and other issues. Incorrect epoxy used even lead to the death of a motorist after it opened. It was horrendous. Engineering marvel, for sure, but definitely a masterclass of how to mismanage a project. Also, just saw your pinned comment, I was going to ask how the heck you managed to set up a tripod and talk at a camera when the transit staff descended on me immediately after taking a single photo citing the potential that I was a terrorist.
Yea, I remember visiting Boston during the Big Dig to visit my aunt. I was like, what the hell is with this place? The entire city is one big construction mess, lol. Also, I had a similar experience one time in a subway station in NYC where we took a trip to the city with a bunch of friends, and one of them wanted to take a picture of us sitting together (we were just sitting on a bench up against a wall, no actual infrastructure to be seen) and a worker appeared out of nowhere reprimanding us that we couldn't do that, could be potential terrorists, and that they'd confiscate our camera if we didn't stop, lol. And the subway was like basically empty at this time as well, so I have no idea where this worker magically materialized from either. I remember beforehand looking around and seeing absolutely no one else.
So the epoxy was fine for holding the light weight metal panels that were meant to function as the ceiling for that tunnel section, but due to some mob related deal making the ceiling panels were made of concrete, which is a bit heavier than the panels the epoxy was intended for.
Mate these videos are incredible! I had a look at a few others that you've done and I particularly liked the sea monster and martian cave ones. There's a pretty conspicuous mismatch between the quality of the videos you've been making and their view counts - but going by the recent uptick in your sub history, it looks like that's starting to sort itself out :) Best of luck with your future videos!
This reminded me of the subway tunnel that has been built across the Bosphorus in Istanbul (by a Japanese company I think). It sits on the ocean floor. Perhaps that would be an interesting follow up to this.
The north atlantic has an average depth of 3,646m (~12,000ft). Pressure increases by 1 atmosphere for every ~10m you descend, in water, meaning that a tunnel at that depth would experience roughly 360atm of pressure. This could be combatted by pressurising the tunnels to 360atm, except that oxygen toxicity sets in at roughly 6atm. So the tunnel would need to hold almost the entire load anyway. The deepest tunnel in the world is the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland. At it's deepest point, there is 2,300m of mountain above it. Now, rock is denser that water, but even assuming high rock density, an atlantic-floor tunnel would still be bordering on being the tunnel under the most pressure Also, that's a tunnel through a mountain. The deepest tunnel under the sea is Ryfast, in Norway. It's maximum depth is only 292m below sea level. So a tunnel at the bottom of the atlantic would not only equal the record for most pressure on a tunnel, but also beat the undersea depth record... By over an order of magnitude (12.486 times). Ocean floor tunnels are great and all. They definitely have their places. But the bottom of the Atlantic is just too much for current tunnel technology. In my humble opinion, a transatlantic tunnel would HAVE to float. Citations: www.britannica.com/place/Atlantic-Ocean (Depth), oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/pressure.html (Pressure), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_toxicity (Oxygen toxicity), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Base_Tunnel (Deepest tunnel), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryfast (Deepest undersea tunnel)
His presentation is like those educational programs PBS used to have long ago, like from the 80's and 70's, but were broadcasted as reruns early in the morning. Before school I used to watch them but as the years went on, they were no longer shown and removed.
The added problem with the Mid-Atlantic rift is that it represents the continents moving away from one another. So the distance between the continents is slowly increasing meaning the tunnel would need to grow, or be destroyed.
having grown up in Massachusetts all my life, ive always been taught about the Big Dig and how important it is to the city (not to mention how beautiful the Rose Kennedy Greenway that replaced the aboveground roads). So cool to see someone doing a video about it!
I'm from Massachusetts and I'm probably one of the few people who got your "T Chest" joke, very subtle. The Boston Tea Party of course all about throwing the tea into the harbour but those black cardboard boxes emblazoned with the logo of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, colloquially known as the "T" by Boston denizens. You come all the way from Down Under to an American city as complex, even by American standards, as Boston and craft that gem of a gag for your video - I am highly impressed. You have an amazing knack for this stuff, keep up the great work and I hope Massachusetts treated you well while you were here!
Traffic still blows because cars are big, inefficient and expensive. Adding more roads just allows more cars to drive (look up induced demand), which doesn't solve anything. While this is undeniably cool its a bit stupid.
I live near Boston so it was very interesting seeing a video talking about the innovation of the structures around me that I rarely think about. Great video as always!
So far none of the promises of the various vacuum train companies have materialized. I don't believe that vacuum trains will be viable anytime soon, even more so if you're going to build one under water.
I'm no engineer, but to me it feels like underwater vaccume tubes seem more feasible, not less. Water is more viscous than air, so it would have a harder time getting into the tubes, plus any leaks would be very obvious and easier to fix.
Yeah, I was thinking a regular maglev train rather than a vacuum maglev train would be more viable at first. But I suppose this plan presupposes the overground vacuum tube trains will iron out the kinks while tunnel construction is ongoing. Not that anyone is actually attempting to build a transatlantic tunnel yet.
@@kaitlyn__L The thing is, high-speed rail is already pretty expensive, and then maglev is so much more so. That's probably why it has seen limited large-scale implementation. It is very expensive to build and maintain, up to 4 times as expensive as conventional high-speed rail. So I am a bit incredulous toward using even _regular_ maglev in a transatlantic tunnel. There is a great discussion about maglev in a video essay (i.e. rant) called "The HYPERLOOP Will Never Work, And Here's Why" by "Adam Something." It focuses on above-ground Hyperloop designs, so in other words, the viability of vacuum tunnels, and Elon Musk's air-cushion design VS maglev VS conventional HSR. Maybe some day we will learn how to make it work, or the project could be subsidized such that initial investment doesn't have to be balanced against profitability. Of course I would _love_ to be able to get form New York to Lisbon in an hour using only electricity and no fossil fuels. I just don't think it's going to happen any time soon.
@@DaimyoD0 yeah, but JR is putting a ton of money behind their maglev system and they’re building the Chūo Shinkansen unless all the fates align to stop them. Something like 80% of the Chūo line will be in tunnels as well, and without being explicitly a vacuum train, keeping most of it in tunnels does result in a reduced air pressure in the tunnel. That’s very different from the skepticism about Hyperloop, which I fully agree with by the way. I’d take traditional HSR too, but I just have my doubts whether anyone would take it over a plane for a transatlantic tunnel. It’s competitive against short-haul flights mainly because of all the extra time taken to check-in, and going to and from the airport. But I wonder how many people would take a regular HSR tunnel if it took much longer to make the journey - the Eurostar is somewhat niche in the UK because of all the extra time taken on the traditional rail network to get into HS1, even though the TGV, and AVE, and ICE are doing excellently vs air travel in the continent because the connections with their countries’ slower rail is much better. So I feel like regular maglev would probably be about the lower bound for an acceptable transatlantic train travel time. But that’s just ballpark.
I loved the book "A Transatlantic Tunnel Hurrah!" by Harry Harrison 1st printed in 1972. I still reread it occasionally as it's a good Sci-Fi story that has an interesting way to accomplish that goal, especially when you consider the level of technology for when it was written.
You forgot to mention having to pump ground water, though in the case of Boston I can see why. In Europe, where many old buildings rest on wooden pylons, you need to maintain ground water level and keep pumping the water back to where it came from rather than just pumping it dry. Otherwise buildings above will be damaged. Other than that amazing video and production value. The difficulty curve is really extreme. Digging through mountains? No problem. Having to dig under a river in a city centre? That has ruined many an engineers day. I'm currently working on the Fehmarn tunnel connecting Denmark and Germany through the sea.
Most of the building in Boston's Back Bay and South End rest on wooden pilings. In some spots that water level has dropped and they need to monitor and raise the water via pump.
Even the British can get behind lower tea tax! Fr, this was fun and the extra spicy learning was nice! Btw, I know this man's not British but my point stands XD
@@DexyD20 I'm pretty sure he's British. I'm British myself and I've heard plenty of people with that accent. Aussies sound similar to some of us but I've never heard one like that.
A great video with a lot of great points! The biggest glaring issue to me is that, in case of emergency, there’s literally nowhere to go and any form of rescue is minimally a few thousand miles in any direction.
You sir need a medal for that intro sequence! walking calmly and smoothly forward across those angled rocks with your head up pointing forwards all while giving your peice to camera. Man that's impressive! Incredible video overall! you seriously deserve way more subscribers
"Given the extreme deformation that we saw, i wouldn't feel particularly safe under any of our tunnels, least of all because they're made of paper." Immediately subscribed, love this kind of humor.
At first I thought it was dolls in the background when you were walking on the ship at 5:15 and thought to myself: "How awesome wouldn't it be if it turned out that it was people he hired to just stand there" ...aaaand: Well done sir!
Also the bridge would be a giant lighting rod making it significantly harder to build And the resources are way too much for it to be cost effective or time efficient
I am lost for words at the insane quality of your videos, this deserves millions of views not thousands! Keep it up and that day will come! (Perhaps when I watch your videos a million times myself)
Creating any sort of appreciable vacuum in a tunnel that extends from Boston to Bordeaux would require ludicrous amounts of energy (the potential energy of the vacuum would be something like dozens of terajoules), and be extremely dangerous because if the containment even just to the air at either end comes loose, the whole thing quickly looks like the barrel of a giant gun for firing passenger-vehicles. Just building a tunnel with normal air pressure of that scale under the ocean is extremely dangerous. Somehow trying to ensure that the first thing to go wrong doesn't cause the whole thing to turn into a terrifying water gun with humans and vehicles being fired thousands of km down the tunnel by a massive pressure wave followed shortly by high pressure ocean water... the safety of this thing seems improbable to the point that it probably shouldn't be believed. "Infeasible" doesn't really begin to cut it as a word for describing what the hyperloop folks are selling here. Even if we could do this (which we can't), we shouldn't.
Glad to see someone saying this. I'm a huge fan of Thunderfoot and his videos showing how hyperloop (vacuum tunnels) are infeasible and dangerous on short scales. The idea of doing them across an ocean is laughable.
Yeah the only way this would work would be to use airtight pressurized trains travelling at high speeds (not a hyperloop, just self-powered trains), and even that's a stretch. Even if it's feasible, you have to wonder whether or not the hundreds of billions needed to create such a thing is really worthwhile over just using airplanes.
As someone who lives in eastern Canada and gets Boston TV channels, I grew up hearing about how much of a colossal waste of money The Big Dig was/is on the Boston news.
The fact some people playing games or recycling old videos have a million subs and an original, well thought out and executed channel like this does not makes me despair for humanity.
So Google tells me there are 3,414 miles between Boston and Bordeaux. If you drove 70 mph the whole time, it would take almost 49 hours. I guess the next video should be on underwater hotels.
Since any transatlantic tunnel would need to carry large quantities of freight as well as passengers, a conventional railway rather than a vacuum maglev would be much more practical, not to mention economical. Specially-designed high-speed passenger trains operating non-stop could probably manage around ~500km/h, (obviously there would need to be the possibility for passenger trains to pass slower freight) with current technology making the journey time around 10 hours, which is reasonably competitive with air travel's 7-8 hours with trains running directly to/from city-center termini. Such a tunnel could also have a huge environmental benefit, substantially reducing CO2 emissions from both ships and aircraft...
"To sink" is an easy verb to conjugate: Today, the tunnel sections are sinking. Yesterday, the tunnel sections sank. Over the years, tunnel sections have sunk.
So would this be for trains or cars? I can't imagine cars would work well. The emissions pollution from hundreds of miles within the tunnel would likely kill people attempting the commute, traffic jams would pile up if even only a handful of cars had a crash/road accident, and you would need multiple gas stations in the middle of the tunnel to keep them fueled up. That and head-on collisions from British drivers going the wrong way.
@@blakecaune6061 What? You said it would be 7am (When you arrive in Europe). And the time difference is like 5-7 hours. What you said makes absolutely no sense at all. How old are you?
So a pretty major oversight here. The Mid Atlantic ridge is diverging boundary and spreads at a foot or two a decade. So in order to not be crushed by the water pressure you would have to have a very rigid structure, but in order to not have it be ripped apart you need a flexible structure. See the issue. Not to mention you skipped over how to handle emergencies or accidents, refueling of cars, providing a breathable atmosphere, living accommodations. After all this would be at least a 3.5-4 thousand mile tunnel That would be at least 50 hours of driving. In order to do this you would effectively have to figure out how to make human society work on the bottom of the ocean. I get that this video is just thoughtless click bait but like come on.
Mr. Dingley, you are the suave James Bond of scientific UA-cam content. It appears you’re thriving, dude! 130k subs is an excellent achievement. I’ve been subscribed since I saw your video on Caves and Lava Tubes on Mars and their potential. Considering the Planet is so volatile, convenient little holes into the red Planet at the poles where the water ice is seems to be the only surefire approach. Fantasy villages above ground seem to be en Vogue, but personally, I would much rather cast my lot underground! Keep killin it fella!
This video is awesome, I’m from Boston and have lived here my whole life and never knew how they built the tunnels. Still scares me to drive through them
Why it may sound as a good idea, its impractical to build floating vacuum tunnels. If we really want to have a rail connection between both continents, a floating bridge is easier to build. And less dangerous. One failure in a section of the vacuum tunnel will kill everyone everywhere in the tunnel. With a bridge - less so. I know this Hyperloop thing catches everyones imagination, but its just not viable in any economic sense. We already have fast traveling MagnaLev trains and they travel at 300 miles per hour without the need to build a vacuum snuff-box around them. And those didnt succeed either for cost reasons. But for whatever the reason, large container ships are just better and transporting goods.
I just found your channel and I just want to say that I'm totally hooked. Your presentation style and video production quality are superb! Having the Sons of Liberty help you demonstrate a point and then throwing tea into the harbor was delightful. Your content is like a mix of Reading Rainbow and Tom Scott, adding a nostalgic factor too. You're killing it! Thanks for the content.
Very fun and educational video, but I am a little confused by the inclusion of the hyperloop in the train debate. It's a highly theoretical concept even on land and I think presented in otherwise technical and researched video, it creates the impression there is any science behind it. So far none of the companies has proposed any solution to the vacuum or heat expansion of the material and I am afraid it's just a big buzz word scam. I don't believe they should be featured in a science video until they deliver on anything besides CG renditions.
Thanks! I thought it was an interesting future tech that made the crossing time competitive to air travel. I also really like Bobby G. so when I saw he was involved I sort of had to write it in. Excellent point though, I'm also skeptical of the technology
@@itsLalm I think he's actually just taking the piss when it comes to Elon Musk, for views. Just take his recent Starlink video. It is not even close to a complete or accurate picture. He also said that SpaceX would never be able to land and reuse rocket boosters.
@@AtomicFrontier I've certainly learned about Bobby G.'s connection from this video. The theorized design of an underwater tunnel with propellers on it is still really cool.
A long time ago in Minecraft on my Island world I had set up a underwater rail system that Passover massive oceans. I made it on the ocean floor so that I could have easy access to it but then I took three things when it would have been too much trouble or made a really annoying railroad that swirled around. Took a lot of work but it was a ton of fun very beautiful to ride through in a minecart.
What I did what's fill in the inside of what would be the tunnel, completely, just placing all the water, and then I build glass around it and then it would or stone on the bottom to hold it all together. Then I would block off the end and then clear out all of the filling material and then it would be dry inside.
This was awesome, I'm original from Boston and my parents did work on the Big Dig. It's cool to learn how some of these tunnels were built from a different perspective.
Nice vid. I recently talked to a tunnel builder. On the cutting edge of tunnel building is the use of liquid nitrogen which gets pumped into mud to freeze it solid. It’s not quite like drilling normal rock, but the drilling and tunnel building goes faster and easier with mud.
Awesome! Yuo they used some of that on the Big Dig project which was awesome! They also used it to keep the leaning tower of pisa from falling over which i covered in the first "Engineering Europe" series on this channel (if you want to se a very young me with a very bad voiceover). Would have loved to have a talk with a real tunnel builder!
"Tunnel through the Deeps" (I know it in the UK as "A TransAtlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!") by Harry Harrison is an excellent alternate-earth account of this technique: Complete with an underwater inverted suspension bridge to get over that nasty active bit in the middle of the Atlantic. Well recommended.
The Unilad Tech video of the Paternoster Elevator transported me here :) I love your speaking tone, it's oddly very relaxing. Reminds me of my high school days in Cobham, Surrey.
Mate I have just discovered your channel, and I know I am echoing a lot of other comments here, but how do you not AT LEAST have another 500k subs, this is an amazing channel and I have just binged all your videos from the last year. Excellent quality and production through out. I sincerely hope the fact UA-cam just recommended me one of your videos out of the blue spells good signs for you as I reckon you need a lot more than what you have to sustain the expense of this level of quality. One bad thing is you remind me how much I enjoy science and learning and how much I hate myself for lacking the drive to have continued my uni scholarship.
What a great video. I’m always learning more about my home city. Also, can confirm that the red line is really old and busy. I hear the squeals of the train every day during my commute across the Charles
Dude your channel is awesome. No idea why I wasn’t already subscribed after your appearance with the cube sats on Tom Scots channel. But good luck to you going forward! I really look forward to seeing your channel explode
I lived in Boston for 4 years and went to film school there. Was always looking for cool places to film in the city. You found some great ones- not an easy feat in Boston haha. Nice video!
I think I managed to annoy an officer from every major branch of Boston transit on this one!
I'm pretty sure that is not too difficult to do.
It's those MBTA buses you have watch for! Good job on the video 😊 Toxic Green algae is a vast improvement. Used to be chemicals, sewerage, trash AND dead bodies. That said, Boston is a great city. Enjoy it!
Fun Fact: London was first underground transit in the world, Boston was second.
@@dodadamm Both were started with "cut and cover" method. London mostly because of congestion and steam locomotive traction couldn't operate at depth. Boston was because of congestion and getting snowed in and severe weather. I can't locate the documentary for the moment. Amended reply: May have been second ELECTRIFIED underground in the world- web search gets real fuzzy, real fast 🤣
"Why It's So Hard To Dig Tunnels Underwater" ngl im going to guess that the answer is "The Water" lets see how my guess plays out.
False, it was actually the underground dwarves
@@abunchofiguanaswithinterne2186 we've been bamboozled.
Proven incorrect, it’s so hard because
disc golfer here ^
Here i thought Norm Macdonald had passed away. Clearly not.
This was an excellent video. It's incredibly interesting how techniques then really don't differ overly much to what's done today, just on a far larger scale.
Yoo it's the rimworld dude
Or from what was done thousands of years ago by the Romans when they built things underwater, like some larger bridges and the harbour at Caesarea.
A big problem with scaling it up to cover thousands of miles is you add in a few factors you wouldn’t have to worry about on a small scale. For example the movement of tectonic plates is only a few centimeters per year but what would that do to a structure thousands of miles along that stretches across multiple plate boundaries? Also I am guessing the curvature of the earth probably causes quite a lot of problems at that point the tunnel from space would be really curvy. What about the pressure this thing is under there is a difference between the sea and the river if this thing is under the deep ocean it’s going to face a lot more pressure. Also since the thing would be so huge there is more potential points for it to break at and the repairs would be insanely costly far out at sea. What about the movement of currents and corrosion if the tunnel is so huge I bet it’s a lot like tall buildings with wind. Overall such a project seems like it would face a lot more challenges then the guy acknowledged technological as well as financial.
ayooo its the rimworld guy
@@caelcdye9575 never mind getting the air into the tunnel and the seepage out lol
Note: and still today it’s not perfect. Today, when there is heavy rain Aquarium station still leaks.
Yup, 100% I tried to do a scene on "and here's the massive pumps where all the leaky water gets removed" but the MBTA were having none of it
It is fitting with a name like that.
@@AtomicFrontier They don't want you looking into their finances, building materials, or arrest records either.
The Severn Tunnel linking England and Wales has a bit of a leak too. Since 1879 they've had to pump out 50 million litres of fresh water per day. It's estimated that it would only take 26 minutes to flood if the pumps and other measures failed. I find it amazing that engineers 140 years ago were able to deal with it.
@@georgeprout42 I feel like it's more like an 1879 solution that no one has bothered to find an alternative for 140 years.
1/2 of Boston is landfill. It’s kind weird walking around my city knowing that and drive through the tunnels rather siting in traffic in the tunnels knowing how much water is above you is still scary
Nice to see it isn't mean wired.
Charleston, SC is the same way. No tunnels here - bridges do just fine, and the geology is exceptionally poorly suited for it - but a massive portion of the Charleston peninsula is landfill. The fact that it's also salt marsh, and frequently gets heavy rains and hurricanes, means out roads and sidewalks are in an absolute state. The ground they're on is constantly sinking or welling up.
You notice as well as all the skyscrapers are on solid land whereas where the landfill has at most, buildings that are at most, 6 stories tall.
Ya but the traffic frustrations always takes my mind off it
@@alockworkorange7296 true it’s funny saying only thing that makes it not scary is making us mad lol 😂
The graphics, the on-location footage, the production quality is unreal, easily surpassing the sort of stuff major documentary companies are putting out these days. Keep up the good work c:
I remember when the Big Dig finally was completed and Ben and Jerry's made an ice cream flavour honouring it. It was an absolute nightmare of a project. So many shortcuts were taken and so many delays and other issues. Incorrect epoxy used even lead to the death of a motorist after it opened. It was horrendous. Engineering marvel, for sure, but definitely a masterclass of how to mismanage a project.
Also, just saw your pinned comment, I was going to ask how the heck you managed to set up a tripod and talk at a camera when the transit staff descended on me immediately after taking a single photo citing the potential that I was a terrorist.
ok furry
Yea, I remember visiting Boston during the Big Dig to visit my aunt. I was like, what the hell is with this place? The entire city is one big construction mess, lol.
Also, I had a similar experience one time in a subway station in NYC where we took a trip to the city with a bunch of friends, and one of them wanted to take a picture of us sitting together (we were just sitting on a bench up against a wall, no actual infrastructure to be seen) and a worker appeared out of nowhere reprimanding us that we couldn't do that, could be potential terrorists, and that they'd confiscate our camera if we didn't stop, lol. And the subway was like basically empty at this time as well, so I have no idea where this worker magically materialized from either. I remember beforehand looking around and seeing absolutely no one else.
So the epoxy was fine for holding the light weight metal panels that were meant to function as the ceiling for that tunnel section, but due to some mob related deal making the ceiling panels were made of concrete, which is a bit heavier than the panels the epoxy was intended for.
@@baboon_92 damn bro thats crazy, but nobody cares
@@adrianwelgemoed9562 ok furry
Mate these videos are incredible! I had a look at a few others that you've done and I particularly liked the sea monster and martian cave ones. There's a pretty conspicuous mismatch between the quality of the videos you've been making and their view counts - but going by the recent uptick in your sub history, it looks like that's starting to sort itself out :)
Best of luck with your future videos!
As someone who spent a large part of their childhood making piles of sand and digging tunnels through them, I appreciate this a lot.
it definitely gave us a rudimentary understanding of load based failures in roadways and bridges, didn't it?
XD
This reminded me of the subway tunnel that has been built across the Bosphorus in Istanbul (by a Japanese company I think). It sits on the ocean floor. Perhaps that would be an interesting follow up to this.
The north atlantic has an average depth of 3,646m (~12,000ft). Pressure increases by 1 atmosphere for every ~10m you descend, in water, meaning that a tunnel at that depth would experience roughly 360atm of pressure.
This could be combatted by pressurising the tunnels to 360atm, except that oxygen toxicity sets in at roughly 6atm. So the tunnel would need to hold almost the entire load anyway.
The deepest tunnel in the world is the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland. At it's deepest point, there is 2,300m of mountain above it. Now, rock is denser that water, but even assuming high rock density, an atlantic-floor tunnel would still be bordering on being the tunnel under the most pressure
Also, that's a tunnel through a mountain. The deepest tunnel under the sea is Ryfast, in Norway. It's maximum depth is only 292m below sea level. So a tunnel at the bottom of the atlantic would not only equal the record for most pressure on a tunnel, but also beat the undersea depth record... By over an order of magnitude (12.486 times).
Ocean floor tunnels are great and all. They definitely have their places. But the bottom of the Atlantic is just too much for current tunnel technology. In my humble opinion, a transatlantic tunnel would HAVE to float.
Citations: www.britannica.com/place/Atlantic-Ocean (Depth), oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/pressure.html (Pressure), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_toxicity (Oxygen toxicity), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Base_Tunnel (Deepest tunnel), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryfast (Deepest undersea tunnel)
His presentation is like those educational programs PBS used to have long ago, like from the 80's and 70's, but were broadcasted as reruns early in the morning. Before school I used to watch them but as the years went on, they were no longer shown and removed.
Dude-
Your videos are SO damn good. I'm talking about the production quality of the video, as well as the subject.
SO.
DAMN.
GOOD.
The added problem with the Mid-Atlantic rift is that it represents the continents moving away from one another. So the distance between the continents is slowly increasing meaning the tunnel would need to grow, or be destroyed.
AF: "I'm on the Charles River in the City of Boston,"
Massachusetts Residents: "Oh I'm sorry for you"
“I’m on the Charles river”
Me: on purpose?
More like - Massachusetts Residents: "uhhh no you're not, you can zee the zakim bridge across the harbor behind you"
Charles River is actually quite clean and scenic these days.
"Looks like we're all just about done"
The guy in the middle with a half-finished box
He's doing his best!
Absolutely epic video! Was super cool to help you film in the train, awesome work!
Hi Eitan!! Thanks so much for all your help, think that's one of the cooler shots in the video!
Atomic Frontier just lost all my respect as a factual content creator! EVERYBODY knows emeralds can NOT be found in river biomes.
Another discredited "edutainer", tsk.
having grown up in Massachusetts all my life, ive always been taught about the Big Dig and how important it is to the city (not to mention how beautiful the Rose Kennedy Greenway that replaced the aboveground roads). So cool to see someone doing a video about it!
I feel like New England in general gets forgotten about by the rest of the country, despite its large population and importance.
I'm from Massachusetts and I'm probably one of the few people who got your "T Chest" joke, very subtle. The Boston Tea Party of course all about throwing the tea into the harbour but those black cardboard boxes emblazoned with the logo of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, colloquially known as the "T" by Boston denizens. You come all the way from Down Under to an American city as complex, even by American standards, as Boston and craft that gem of a gag for your video - I am highly impressed. You have an amazing knack for this stuff, keep up the great work and I hope Massachusetts treated you well while you were here!
😂🤣 the guys helping you fold the boxes. Amazing that they joined the video like this!
It really is incredible. With all this innovation and engineering and technolgy, traffic in Boston still blows..
Traffic still blows because cars are big, inefficient and expensive. Adding more roads just allows more cars to drive (look up induced demand), which doesn't solve anything. While this is undeniably cool its a bit stupid.
@@MrMoon-hy6pn Cannot forget about everyone having cell phones in their hands while driving. That is a big factor.
I live near Boston so it was very interesting seeing a video talking about the innovation of the structures around me that I rarely think about. Great video as always!
great video! this is really well-shot, well-researched, and well-put-together. well done by you (and your cameraperson!)
Congrats on winning the Veritasium Contest
Where is it shown who won the veritasium contest?
Imagine missing an exit and now you're driving down a tunnel over to Europe.
Then getting there and having to turn around and go back because you don't have your Passport.
"NEXT EXIT 3000 MILES"
You are an excellent presenter. Enthusiastic, interesting and humorous in all the right places. Great work!
This could literally be a show on national television lol, THIS WAS SOO GOOD!
That first clip showing Boston… I literally go there all the time!
So far none of the promises of the various vacuum train companies have materialized.
I don't believe that vacuum trains will be viable anytime soon, even more so if you're going to build one under water.
I'm no engineer, but to me it feels like underwater vaccume tubes seem more feasible, not less. Water is more viscous than air, so it would have a harder time getting into the tubes, plus any leaks would be very obvious and easier to fix.
@@brookewestonctc and the preassure the tubes would have to withstand would be far greater making them even more ludicrously expensive to construct.
Yeah, I was thinking a regular maglev train rather than a vacuum maglev train would be more viable at first. But I suppose this plan presupposes the overground vacuum tube trains will iron out the kinks while tunnel construction is ongoing. Not that anyone is actually attempting to build a transatlantic tunnel yet.
@@kaitlyn__L The thing is, high-speed rail is already pretty expensive, and then maglev is so much more so. That's probably why it has seen limited large-scale implementation. It is very expensive to build and maintain, up to 4 times as expensive as conventional high-speed rail. So I am a bit incredulous toward using even _regular_ maglev in a transatlantic tunnel. There is a great discussion about maglev in a video essay (i.e. rant) called "The HYPERLOOP Will Never Work, And Here's Why" by "Adam Something." It focuses on above-ground Hyperloop designs, so in other words, the viability of vacuum tunnels, and Elon Musk's air-cushion design VS maglev VS conventional HSR.
Maybe some day we will learn how to make it work, or the project could be subsidized such that initial investment doesn't have to be balanced against profitability. Of course I would _love_ to be able to get form New York to Lisbon in an hour using only electricity and no fossil fuels. I just don't think it's going to happen any time soon.
@@DaimyoD0 yeah, but JR is putting a ton of money behind their maglev system and they’re building the Chūo Shinkansen unless all the fates align to stop them. Something like 80% of the Chūo line will be in tunnels as well, and without being explicitly a vacuum train, keeping most of it in tunnels does result in a reduced air pressure in the tunnel.
That’s very different from the skepticism about Hyperloop, which I fully agree with by the way.
I’d take traditional HSR too, but I just have my doubts whether anyone would take it over a plane for a transatlantic tunnel. It’s competitive against short-haul flights mainly because of all the extra time taken to check-in, and going to and from the airport. But I wonder how many people would take a regular HSR tunnel if it took much longer to make the journey - the Eurostar is somewhat niche in the UK because of all the extra time taken on the traditional rail network to get into HS1, even though the TGV, and AVE, and ICE are doing excellently vs air travel in the continent because the connections with their countries’ slower rail is much better.
So I feel like regular maglev would probably be about the lower bound for an acceptable transatlantic train travel time. But that’s just ballpark.
Boston local here, It was so awesome to see you did a video here! I hope you liked our city!
I loved the book "A Transatlantic Tunnel Hurrah!" by Harry Harrison 1st printed in 1972. I still reread it occasionally as it's a good Sci-Fi story that has an interesting way to accomplish that goal, especially when you consider the level of technology for when it was written.
So much of the engineering in this is Harrison''s book nearly 50 years ago! A must-read after watching.
I love how you mentioned some of the civil engineering problems when making a tunnel. Honestly, the whole video was really great overall.
You forgot to mention having to pump ground water, though in the case of Boston I can see why. In Europe, where many old buildings rest on wooden pylons, you need to maintain ground water level and keep pumping the water back to where it came from rather than just pumping it dry. Otherwise buildings above will be damaged.
Other than that amazing video and production value.
The difficulty curve is really extreme. Digging through mountains? No problem. Having to dig under a river in a city centre? That has ruined many an engineers day.
I'm currently working on the Fehmarn tunnel connecting Denmark and Germany through the sea.
I think one of the great cathedrals of England (possibly Canterbury, but I'm not sure) is technically "floating".
Most of the building in Boston's Back Bay and South End rest on wooden pilings. In some spots that water level has dropped and they need to monitor and raise the water via pump.
Absolute gem of a channel, how have you not been in my recommendations before now?!
Even the British can get behind lower tea tax! Fr, this was fun and the extra spicy learning was nice!
Btw, I know this man's not British but my point stands XD
Wait he isn't British?
@@cyanoticspore6785 I believe the man is Australian
@@DexyD20 I'm pretty sure he's British. I'm British myself and I've heard plenty of people with that accent. Aussies sound similar to some of us but I've never heard one like that.
@@cyanoticspore6785 idk man, all I know his channel says Australia and he does a lot of videos on Australian stuff
@@cyanoticspore6785 Well Australia WAS a British colony
A great video with a lot of great points! The biggest glaring issue to me is that, in case of emergency, there’s literally nowhere to go and any form of rescue is minimally a few thousand miles in any direction.
not quite so sure on the technical feasability and monetary benefits of a transatlantic maglev/hyperloop, but great video overall
Yeah... no
Nice Concept on Paper
But Reality has some counter Arguments
There are various Videos why Hyperloop etc is a Scam
@@T1g3rch3n As was The Big Dig itself.
the underwater transatlantic tunnel had me until hyperloop
@@TheRealMirCat The Big Digg worked...
Hyperloop won't
I'm thinking of calling it the Hypergoop, in reference to Gwyneth Paltrow's scam.
You sir need a medal for that intro sequence! walking calmly and smoothly forward across those angled rocks with your head up pointing forwards all while giving your peice to camera. Man that's impressive! Incredible video overall! you seriously deserve way more subscribers
"Given the extreme deformation that we saw, i wouldn't feel particularly safe under any of our tunnels, least of all because they're made of paper." Immediately subscribed, love this kind of humor.
Loved the "keep looking up" at the end
At first I thought it was dolls in the background when you were walking on the ship at 5:15 and thought to myself: "How awesome wouldn't it be if it turned out that it was people he hired to just stand there"
...aaaand:
Well done sir!
And now I saw a head movement that I missed at first watch
That demonstration with the shapes was very helpful
Is it possible to build a train over a ocean like one huge bridge
Technically yes, but the issue with that is storms + pirates. Also you'll need even longer tethers / pylons to support it
Also the bridge would be a giant lighting rod making it significantly harder to build
And the resources are way too much for it to be cost effective or time efficient
Pretty sure XKCD did something on this
It's feasible but expensive.
It would likely also be pulled apart or pressed into itself due to continental drift and the absolutely ridiculous distance it crosses
I am lost for words at the insane quality of your videos, this deserves millions of views not thousands! Keep it up and that day will come! (Perhaps when I watch your videos a million times myself)
Creating any sort of appreciable vacuum in a tunnel that extends from Boston to Bordeaux would require ludicrous amounts of energy (the potential energy of the vacuum would be something like dozens of terajoules), and be extremely dangerous because if the containment even just to the air at either end comes loose, the whole thing quickly looks like the barrel of a giant gun for firing passenger-vehicles. Just building a tunnel with normal air pressure of that scale under the ocean is extremely dangerous. Somehow trying to ensure that the first thing to go wrong doesn't cause the whole thing to turn into a terrifying water gun with humans and vehicles being fired thousands of km down the tunnel by a massive pressure wave followed shortly by high pressure ocean water... the safety of this thing seems improbable to the point that it probably shouldn't be believed. "Infeasible" doesn't really begin to cut it as a word for describing what the hyperloop folks are selling here.
Even if we could do this (which we can't), we shouldn't.
Glad to see someone saying this. I'm a huge fan of Thunderfoot and his videos showing how hyperloop (vacuum tunnels) are infeasible and dangerous on short scales. The idea of doing them across an ocean is laughable.
Or, hear me out. We should build it and stand back, very, very far back. With a lot of high speed cameras to capture it's glorious failure.
@@PsRohrbaugh I'm also a fan of thunderfoots... current videos. He's definitely improved a lot
Yeah the only way this would work would be to use airtight pressurized trains travelling at high speeds (not a hyperloop, just self-powered trains), and even that's a stretch. Even if it's feasible, you have to wonder whether or not the hundreds of billions needed to create such a thing is really worthwhile over just using airplanes.
Where did he say anything about such a tunnel having a near vacuum in it?
Great video - what a cool tour of Boston on the way to learning some sweet engineering.
As someone who lives in eastern Canada and gets Boston TV channels, I grew up hearing about how much of a colossal waste of money The Big Dig was/is on the Boston news.
I love the little break with the re-enactors
Imagine how incredibly difficult it would be to make sure a cross-atlantic tunnel didn't break at the slightest tectonic shift.
The fact some people playing games or recycling old videos have a million subs and an original, well thought out and executed channel like this does not makes me despair for humanity.
So Google tells me there are 3,414 miles between Boston and Bordeaux. If you drove 70 mph the whole time, it would take almost 49 hours. I guess the next video should be on underwater hotels.
How is this so underrated?!? Great video!
Since any transatlantic tunnel would need to carry large quantities of freight as well as passengers, a conventional railway rather than a vacuum maglev would be much more practical, not to mention economical. Specially-designed high-speed passenger trains operating non-stop could probably manage around ~500km/h, (obviously there would need to be the possibility for passenger trains to pass slower freight) with current technology making the journey time around 10 hours, which is reasonably competitive with air travel's 7-8 hours with trains running directly to/from city-center termini.
Such a tunnel could also have a huge environmental benefit, substantially reducing CO2 emissions from both ships and aircraft...
Your channel is SO underrated, I love your videos!
"To sink" is an easy verb to conjugate:
Today, the tunnel sections are sinking.
Yesterday, the tunnel sections sank.
Over the years, tunnel sections have sunk.
these videos are getting better and better in quality, keep it up
the title: Why we can't make an under-ocean tunnel
the video: Here's exactly how we make an under-ocean tunnel
Respect for the quality you put out
So would this be for trains or cars? I can't imagine cars would work well. The emissions pollution from hundreds of miles within the tunnel would likely kill people attempting the commute, traffic jams would pile up if even only a handful of cars had a crash/road accident, and you would need multiple gas stations in the middle of the tunnel to keep them fueled up.
That and head-on collisions from British drivers going the wrong way.
I grew up in Boston! Hope you enjoyed your visit!
Imagine being able to travel to the other side of the Atlantic, eat breakfast, and be back in time for work. And imagine the jet lag.
As in none?
It's not the distance travelled that causes jet-lag, it's resetting your bodyclock to several time zones away...when you try to sleep.
@@pd4165 What I mean is if you travel from America to Europe, and arrive at 7 am, it will be midnight in Europe.
@@blakecaune6061 What? You said it would be 7am (When you arrive in Europe). And the time difference is like 5-7 hours. What you said makes absolutely no sense at all. How old are you?
Your videos deserve way more views. Keep up the great work!
I wonder how you'd go about protecting a transatlantic tunnel from a military or terrorist threat. Would certainly be a high value target
8:45 Actually adorable, amazing video
So a pretty major oversight here. The Mid Atlantic ridge is diverging boundary and spreads at a foot or two a decade. So in order to not be crushed by the water pressure you would have to have a very rigid structure, but in order to not have it be ripped apart you need a flexible structure. See the issue.
Not to mention you skipped over how to handle emergencies or accidents, refueling of cars, providing a breathable atmosphere, living accommodations. After all this would be at least a 3.5-4 thousand mile tunnel That would be at least 50 hours of driving. In order to do this you would effectively have to figure out how to make human society work on the bottom of the ocean. I get that this video is just thoughtless click bait but like come on.
It's mostly about how to build tunnels underwater though.
Mr. Dingley, you are the suave James Bond of scientific UA-cam content. It appears you’re thriving, dude! 130k subs is an excellent achievement. I’ve been subscribed since I saw your video on Caves and Lava Tubes on Mars and their potential. Considering the Planet is so volatile, convenient little holes into the red Planet at the poles where the water ice is seems to be the only surefire approach. Fantasy villages above ground seem to be en Vogue, but personally, I would much rather cast my lot underground! Keep killin it fella!
Love 99% of the video besides the bit about the vacuum train which is a novel but very flawed idea at best.
usotsuki.
This video is awesome, I’m from Boston and have lived here my whole life and never knew how they built the tunnels. Still scares me to drive through them
Why it may sound as a good idea, its impractical to build floating vacuum tunnels. If we really want to have a rail connection between both continents, a floating bridge is easier to build. And less dangerous. One failure in a section of the vacuum tunnel will kill everyone everywhere in the tunnel. With a bridge - less so. I know this Hyperloop thing catches everyones imagination, but its just not viable in any economic sense. We already have fast traveling MagnaLev trains and they travel at 300 miles per hour without the need to build a vacuum snuff-box around them. And those didnt succeed either for cost reasons.
But for whatever the reason, large container ships are just better and transporting goods.
I just found your channel and I just want to say that I'm totally hooked. Your presentation style and video production quality are superb! Having the Sons of Liberty help you demonstrate a point and then throwing tea into the harbor was delightful. Your content is like a mix of Reading Rainbow and Tom Scott, adding a nostalgic factor too. You're killing it! Thanks for the content.
"Why Its So Hard To Dig Tunnels Underwater" should be very obvious, but go ahead for the interesting details.
Dude Boston is my city, I love it, and I love your channel. Amazing work!
Very fun and educational video, but I am a little confused by the inclusion of the hyperloop in the train debate. It's a highly theoretical concept even on land and I think presented in otherwise technical and researched video, it creates the impression there is any science behind it. So far none of the companies has proposed any solution to the vacuum or heat expansion of the material and I am afraid it's just a big buzz word scam. I don't believe they should be featured in a science video until they deliver on anything besides CG renditions.
Thanks! I thought it was an interesting future tech that made the crossing time competitive to air travel. I also really like Bobby G. so when I saw he was involved I sort of had to write it in. Excellent point though, I'm also skeptical of the technology
Sounds like someone has watched Thunderf00t's 13 or so excruciatingly repetitive and disingenuous videos on that subject
@@kirkc9643 repetitive? maybe. but disingenuous? gonna need to back that one up.
@@itsLalm I think he's actually just taking the piss when it comes to Elon Musk, for views. Just take his recent Starlink video. It is not even close to a complete or accurate picture. He also said that SpaceX would never be able to land and reuse rocket boosters.
@@AtomicFrontier I've certainly learned about Bobby G.'s connection from this video. The theorized design of an underwater tunnel with propellers on it is still really cool.
A long time ago in Minecraft on my Island world I had set up a underwater rail system that Passover massive oceans. I made it on the ocean floor so that I could have easy access to it but then I took three things when it would have been too much trouble or made a really annoying railroad that swirled around. Took a lot of work but it was a ton of fun very beautiful to ride through in a minecart.
And putting together a diving suit helped a lot.
What I did what's fill in the inside of what would be the tunnel, completely, just placing all the water, and then I build glass around it and then it would or stone on the bottom to hold it all together. Then I would block off the end and then clear out all of the filling material and then it would be dry inside.
This was awesome, I'm original from Boston and my parents did work on the Big Dig. It's cool to learn how some of these tunnels were built from a different perspective.
Nice vid. I recently talked to a tunnel builder. On the cutting edge of tunnel building is the use of liquid nitrogen which gets pumped into mud to freeze it solid. It’s not quite like drilling normal rock, but the drilling and tunnel building goes faster and easier with mud.
Awesome! Yuo they used some of that on the Big Dig project which was awesome! They also used it to keep the leaning tower of pisa from falling over which i covered in the first "Engineering Europe" series on this channel (if you want to se a very young me with a very bad voiceover). Would have loved to have a talk with a real tunnel builder!
I'm from Boston, I love seeing so many familiar sights! Subscribed!
Hey! I hope you had a good time in Boston, from a Bostonian
sheesh the effort that went into this video, it needs more recognition!
Excellent video, great production values too.
"Tunnel through the Deeps" (I know it in the UK as "A TransAtlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!") by Harry Harrison is an excellent alternate-earth account of this technique: Complete with an underwater inverted suspension bridge to get over that nasty active bit in the middle of the Atlantic. Well recommended.
Brilliant video. So excited to see so many young talented people getting into entertaining science informational videos
Great documentary.
The Unilad Tech video of the Paternoster Elevator transported me here :) I love your speaking tone, it's oddly very relaxing. Reminds me of my high school days in Cobham, Surrey.
Mate I have just discovered your channel, and I know I am echoing a lot of other comments here, but how do you not AT LEAST have another 500k subs, this is an amazing channel and I have just binged all your videos from the last year. Excellent quality and production through out. I sincerely hope the fact UA-cam just recommended me one of your videos out of the blue spells good signs for you as I reckon you need a lot more than what you have to sustain the expense of this level of quality.
One bad thing is you remind me how much I enjoy science and learning and how much I hate myself for lacking the drive to have continued my uni scholarship.
always top tier content
Hello from Boston!
Stumbled across the sea monster video and had to check out more stuff, this video is awesome!
this felt like a fun journey of a video. Love this channel
I love my city. Thank you for teaching me something new about it
Hi atomic frontier ..i just love your videos,the way u explain everything is fabulous( pls upload videos more often)🇧🇩🇧🇩
Thanks! Writing script for next episode this morning and then checking out locations for the one after tomorrow so lots more coming!
SO WELL DONE BRO DESERVE A MILLION VIEWS AND LIKES AND SUBS!
What a great video. I’m always learning more about my home city. Also, can confirm that the red line is really old and busy. I hear the squeals of the train every day during my commute across the Charles
Great video! Amazing combination of educational and entertaining!
Dude your channel is awesome. No idea why I wasn’t already subscribed after your appearance with the cube sats on Tom Scots channel. But good luck to you going forward! I really look forward to seeing your channel explode
This channel is so high quality, you deserve so many more subs
Fantastic work James! Old Dictaphone history is pretty neat (the cylinder ones)
Loved the video. Traveling the world and discussing amazing topics and theories must be a great adventure!
I lived in Boston for 4 years and went to film school there. Was always looking for cool places to film in the city. You found some great ones- not an easy feat in Boston haha. Nice video!
Thank you so much for all of your work! Such a good video
Nice video production! Very interesting as well