We get all sorts of interesting topics of conversation at Australian Heritage Homes. In fact, some might say that we’ve heard it all. We’ve heard requests for secret rooms (check… but don’t tell anyone), we’ve heard requests for homes on very tall stilts, solely to capitalize on panoramic views. All of it we can do, but that’s in part to our passion for learning. We love reading and chatting about the different trends that are not only going on right now in home construction but have gone on for a number of years. What came before us is what inspires what will come next. Today… that’s tunnels. Let’s talk about some of the most famous ones around the world.
Talk about an element of the home design that truly has been around for centuries. Even humans back in the prehistoric ages leveraged them to make their caves better. They’ve since served political purposes, irrigation, and mining – especially depending on what type of land you lived on and what you might find underneath. Some of it wasn’t (or isn’t) great, but there are many fabled success stories of those who found gold or other items deep below their home, especially as the land changed over time and homeowners demolished and built at different levels.
One of our favourite stories is this one – more than 66 Prohibition-era bottles of whiskey, even only as low as the floorboards of their home. It just pays to know every inch of your home. If you dig deeper, you find very cool tunnel examples like these:
Gotthard Base Tunnel – this tunnel is both the longest and the deepest. It’s located in Switzerland, underneath the alps and is 57 kilometres long, with a depth of more than 2,000 meters. It’s used for trains, so no building on top of this one, but it does allow them to move extra quickly. Nobody has any complaints about this tunnel; it has decreased travel time with many main surrounding cities.
Channel Tunnel – Frequently called the “Chunnel”, we’re guessing that this one rings a bell for many of our readers. It’s predominately underwater, connecting the United Kingdom and France. It’s 50 kilometres long and many fans of Disneyland Paris were pleased that the journey became that much shorter. It also helped reinforce high-speed rail as a means of transportation.
Eisenhower Tunnel – We’re moving significantly down in distance but this tunnel as it’s less than 3 kilometres long. It’s located in the state of Colorado in the United States is actually one of the highest, versus the most underground. It’s more than 3,400 meters above sea level and it’s the longest mountain tunnel and certainly a highlight on that freeway system.
These are all famous tunnels, which many can access, but you’ll learn in future posts that some have opted to use these for all sorts of reasons in their current and future homes.