The science of underwater tunneling

How do you build an underwater tunnel and could we use one to cross between the continents? In this video we explore Boston to take a look at how engineers create these superstructures.

Huge thanks to the team at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum

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[AtomicFrontier]

I think I managed to annoy an officer from every major branch of Boston transit on this one!

[giantfrigginnerd]

"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.

[BaRKy]

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.

[AintYourChannel]

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:

[Carlyknarly]

Note: and still today it’s not perfect. Today, when there is heavy rain Aquarium station still leaks.

[douglasthemagician]

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

[deeranfoxworthy]

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.

[Artrysa]

As someone who spent a large part of their childhood making piles of sand and digging tunnels through them, I appreciate this a lot.

[nicolaijohnsrudbjrnsen]

Atomic Frontier just lost all my respect as a factual content creator! EVERYBODY knows emeralds can NOT be found in river biomes.

[PetAllDogs]

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.

[snowstrobe]

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.

[Built_IRL]

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!

[--Paws--]

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.

[Bleudog]

😂🤣 the guys helping you fold the boxes. Amazing that they joined the video like this!

[EitanEhrlich]

Absolutely epic video! Was super cool to help you film in the train, awesome work!

[MyCatInABox]

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.

[danmur]

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!

[kroneyt]

AF: "I'm on the Charles River in the City of Boston, "
Massachusetts Residents: "Oh I'm sorry for you"

[twothreebravo]

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!

[krishras]

Congrats on winning the Veritasium Contest