London and New York, if you’re from one, the other just feels out of reach. For a lot of Brits, New York is the dream trip, and for New Yorkers, London sounds like a delight. But getting somewhere so far away might be a little tough. The long-haul flight, the jet lag, the price tag—it’s a whole package.
But what if there was a way to skip the plane entirely? Just a straight shot from London to Manhattan in under an hour.
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Presenting the $19 trillion tunnel that would take ONLY 54 minutes
Apparently, there’s a plan to build a tunnel from London to New York. Yes, a full-on underwater tunnel. It would cost around $19 trillion. But if it actually happens, the trip would take just 54 minutes.
Of course Musk is involved
The whole idea is to get people across the Atlantic fast—without ever leaving the ground. This so-called Transatlantic Tunnel has Musk’s backing, and if it works, it could cover the insane 3,400-mile distance in less time than some people spend stuck in morning traffic.
Musk says The Boring Company could do it for far less
Musk even claims his tunnel-digging company, The Boring Company, could do it for ‘1000-times less money.’
The tech behind it?
Vacuum tubes, magnetically levitating trains, basically no friction, and speeds over 3,000mph. For reference, the world’s fastest train right now—The Shanghai Maglev—used to hit 268mph but was dialed down to 186mph last year. So yeah, this tunnel would be next level.
Less than an hour to New York? Sign me up.
But… there’s a huge question mark over whether this thing is even possible
An engineer hopped on Stack Exchange (basically a forum for experts) and pointed out some serious problems. First off, the Atlantic is deep. We’re talking 5,500 meters below sea level. Before even thinking about construction, scientists would have to study the seabed’s structure to see if it could even support a tunnel.
Which it might not.
The seabed may be too soft and the pressure too high
If the seabed is too soft, it’s game over. Then there’s the insane water pressure down there, which could cause all kinds of issues.
One expert even explained that the deeper you go, the more pressure builds up in the rock, making it way harder to dig a tunnel without things going wrong.
A massive volcanic ridge is another major obstacle
All this while keeping in mind the massive Mid-Atlantic Ridge—a giant volcanic mountain range right in the middle of the ocean. Of course, it’s not an easy thing to work around.
There’s no guarantee this will ever happen
So yeah, zipping to New York in under an hour sounds absolutely amazing, but whether this tunnel would ever actually happen? That’s a whole different story.
