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The Strait of Gibraltar is the border between Africa and Europe. It is only eight miles wide (13 km) at its narrows. In Spain, to the left, the small spike of land is the Rock of Gibraltar; Africa is on the right side of the image. The blue Mediterranean opens up into the distance. The proposed mega-project of a bridge or a tunnel, which is being evaluated in stages, would link Europe with Africa in the early 21st Century.
Here is a
collection of links which present ideas how to do this:
Renowned bridge designer T.
Y. Lin, professor emeritus at the University of California at
Berkeley and chairman of Lin Tung-Yen China Inc.
Lin's works include numerous spans as well as the roof structure
of the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, the largest
underground room in the world. Among his unbuilt designs are a
bridge from Alaska to Siberia and a five-mile wide span over the Straits of Gibraltar.
Lin and Philip Chow blueprinted Gibraltar bridge with hybrid cable-stayed/suspension design. Each span would run more than 3 miles.
Textile bridges of our time
Project of Swiss engineers for crossing the Straits of Gibraltar
(Bridge made of carbon-fibre-reinforced compound material)
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Geneva, 30 June-25 July 1997: The Secretary-General has the honour to transmit to the Economic and Social Council the report prepared in accordance with Council resolution 1995/48 by the Executive Secretaries of the Economic Commission for Europe and the Economic Commission for Africa on the work that has been done in connection with the project to establish a Europe-Africa permanent link through the Strait of Gibraltar. The Economic and Social Council has taken an interest in this project since 1982 following a decision by the Governments of Morocco and Spain to carry out joint studies on the feasibility of the project as part of an agreement on bilateral cooperation adopted on 24 October 1980... | |
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Communiqué from ITA -April 1999: Under a bilateral agreement, Spain and Morocco, through their respective agencies S.N.E.D. and S.E.C.E.G, are jointly studying the feasibility of a fixed link across the Strait of Gibraltar, presently developed as an undersea rail tunnel. |
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| Under discussion: The concept of a great global highway that would connect five continents and more than 100 of the world's most important cities. This proposed route extends from Scandinavia across the Great Belt to Europe, then through the proposed tunnel at Gibraltar to Africa, down the West Coast of Africa, back up the East Coast, along the eastern end of the Mediterranean, then from Istanbul to Shanghai following the historic Silk Road path, northward along the Siberian coast, through the proposed tunnel under the Bering Strait, then along the Pan American Highway and across North, Central, and South America. |
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The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from the south (36.0N, 5.5W). This scene shows the actual Rock of Gibraltar under cloud cover but most of the Strait of Gibraltar, at the mouth of the Mediterranaen Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, can be seen in good detail. Despite the obliquity of the scene, much of the beauty of the Spanish and Moroccan countryside can still be appreciated.
