Tunnels are something I never think about until I’m going through one. I guess if I had to go through a tunnel every day, I wouldn’t feel about them the way I do. Yet, when I approach a tunnel, I get a little wary.
By definition, they seem harmless enough. A tunnel is an artificial underground passage, especially one built through a hill or under a building, road, or river.
Through or under.
I guess I prefer bridges. They are just like my toilet paper rolls. Hung over the top.
Humans aren’t the only tunnel builders. Animals make tunnels all the time. With their own little hands.
Once again, I seldom think of the burrowing invertebrates — those little creatures that lack a spinal column. Clams, crustaceans, insects, sea urchins, spiders, and worms all dig underneath and burrow.
Then there are those sneaky amphibians. I didn’t know that some species of frogs tunnel, but they do. It seems like it would be one heck of a dig, with those little webby feet. And of course, there are a number of reptiles, including a variety of snakes that dig down into the earth.
As if that were not enough, even some birds are this way. Kingfishers, Magellanic penguins, and Puffins. They make burrows instead of nests.
But those aren’t really tunnels, per se. It seems like us mammals like to burrow AND tunnel.
We know the usual suspects. The mole, gopher, groundhog (also known as a woodchuck), squirrel, and rabbit. Bears are the largest burrowing animals. Most of these animals spend the winter inside these dens in a long period of sleep, similar to hibernation. Dig down, and call it a day.
I’d like to point out a couple of exceptional tunnel diggers. They get the gold medal of digging. Groundhogs are truly incredible, and their burrows are extensive. I have read that an average groundhog moves one cubic meter (35 cubic feet) of soil when digging a hole. That’s a lot of earth. But get this. They may have up to 50 feet of tunnels buried up 5 feet deep underground.
And then there are those cute little rabbits. A well-developed rabbit “warren” — a group of burrows — maybe thousands of yards long. That is football fields -long.
Then we circle back to us humans. Sure, we dig and tunnel. But we don’t do it with our own little hands. We need shovels, at the very least. More to the point, we use heavy machinery with those diggy-scoopers on them.
Tunnels are used for different things. Water supply. Railways. Roads. Some go under land, and others go underwater.
The longest water supply tunnel in the world is the Delaware Aqueduct, located in the United States in New York State. It was built in 1945 and is New York City’s main water supply. Its length is 137,000 meters (85.1 miles).
The longest railway tunnel is called Guangzhou Metro Line 3. It is in Guangzhou, China and stretches 57,930 meters (36.0 miles). This took a little longer to build, from 2005–2018.
And all of this started because today is the date, August 4, 1902, that the Greenwich foot tunnel, under the River Thames, opened for traffic. A foot tunnel, under a river. I think I’d rather take a boat. Or a bridge. Because we are not groundhogs, for god’s sake. And I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t dig their dens under a river.
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I want people to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
— Amber Mark
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The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train.
— Robert Lowell
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I have a fear of tubes and tunnels. Going through any tunnel causes me great anxiety.
— Tyler Perry
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Going deep. Way deep.
