{"id":3627,"date":"2010-03-04T19:43:15","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T00:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=3627"},"modified":"2022-04-30T10:27:00","modified_gmt":"2022-04-30T15:27:00","slug":"superlative-tunnels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/superlative-tunnels\/","title":{"rendered":"Superlative Tunnels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019ve been enjoying the World\u2019s Longest Tunnel<\/a> page recently and I decided to see if I could locate some of the more striking examples using maps and photo sites. Oftentimes I could locate those spots although honestly, sometimes the interior of a tunnel isn’t particularly impressive. Anyway, let’s see what we can find in these rather unusual places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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World’s Longest Auto Tunnel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Laerdalstunnelen.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Norway claims the world\u2019s longest automobile tunnel, between Aurland and Laerdal (map<\/a>). They call it the Laerdalstunnelen and it stretches 24.5 kilometres (15.2 miles) on the main route between Oslo and Bergen. Other sites<\/a> corroborate the claim so I guess it\u2019s a fair assessment. Fact checking isn’t my strongest suit. Don’t take what I say necessarily at face value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t possibly imagine what it must be like to drive that distance underground and apparently the engineers who designed it couldn’t either, so they constructed three large “caves” along the route to break the monotony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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World’s Longest Subaqueous Automobile Tunnel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Umihotaru<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps a tunnel through the mountains isn’t daunting enough for you? How about taking it underwater? You\u2019ll want to head towards the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line<\/a> in Japan. The tunnel portion of this bridge-tunnel combo under Tokyo Bay extends 9.6 km (6 miles). It also offered me the opportunity to use the word “subaqueous” which isn\u2019t something one encounters every day. Cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google Street View extends onto this rather unusual platform at the tunnel entrance (map<\/a>). It has a bunch of shops, restaurants, and arcades which serves as a destination unto itself. I suppose it\u2019s possible to go to the little man-made island, make an afternoon of it and go home without going through the tunnel. However if I\u2019d just spent \u00a53000<\/a> you better believe I\u2019d go back and forth through that tunnel as many times as they\u2019d let me pass. That\u2019s a serious toll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Longest Railroad Tunnel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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