Once a dream of a Turkish sultan, the Euro-Asian link became a reality
on Oct 29th 2013. Some 153 years ago, Turkey’s Sultan Abdul Mejid
envisioned an
undersea tunnel that would span the Bosporus Strait and link Europe to
Asia. It was a bit far-fetched for the time, but it has become a
reality now after Turkey opened the first undersea link between two
continents.
More important for Turkish commuters, it could relieve traffic from two heavily congested bridges. The 1.4-km undersea railway promises to zip passengers across the strait in as little as four minutes.
The Sultan’s fantasy project was revived in 2004 by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who declared, “It fell to us to realize it.” The project ran into frequent delays from archaeological discoveries that unearthed roughly 40,000 artifacts and a graveyard of some 30 Byzantine ships. Critics of the Prime Minister have dismissed the $3 billion dig as a “pharaonic” waste.
Seen above in the picture employees work in the Marmaray Tunnel under the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul on April 18, 2013
More important for Turkish commuters, it could relieve traffic from two heavily congested bridges. The 1.4-km undersea railway promises to zip passengers across the strait in as little as four minutes.
The Sultan’s fantasy project was revived in 2004 by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who declared, “It fell to us to realize it.” The project ran into frequent delays from archaeological discoveries that unearthed roughly 40,000 artifacts and a graveyard of some 30 Byzantine ships. Critics of the Prime Minister have dismissed the $3 billion dig as a “pharaonic” waste.
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