10-06-2002 01:56									#1
	The Gibraltar Bridge Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

Will it be built? A bridge spanning 9 miles over the Straits of Gibraltar at the entryway to the Mediterranean would be the longest and tallest ever built. It would connect cultures of Christianity and Islam and potentially increase ties between the economies of Europe and Africa.

Stats:
Location: Strait of Gibraltar. Links Spain and Morocco.
Length: 9 miles, Two spans of 4 1/2 miles each
Height: Each tower is 3,000 feet tall. Twice as high as the world's tallest skyscraper.
Width: 5 traffic lanes, 2 breakdown lanes in each direction
Road Deck Material: Fiberglass
Length of Wire Cables: 1,000,000 miles (Enough to circle the Earth almost 30 times)
Closest living relative: Akashi bridge in Japan, world's longest suspension bridge at 12,828 feet.
Cost: $15 billion
Dangers: Wind speeds of 80 mph at tops of towers, ship collision, ocean currents, traffic, Sahara Desert dust storms

Who will pay for it? Spain/Morocco? No way! EU? Not likely... Smuggling and illegal immigration will increase drastically. The situation on the Mexican/American border will be a picnic compared to this...

Security is another issue, Gibraltar Straits is one of the most heavily trafficked routes on the entire planet. All it takes is an supertanker with a drunken captain or engine failure... A disaster waiting to happen really...

	10-06-2002 02:04									#2
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If it will happen , I won't live to see it.

*CASE CLOSED*

	10-06-2002 02:04									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Go for it.

	10-06-2002 02:06									#4
	Tired of ads?

Why not?

And then:

Why?

	10-06-2002 02:07									#5
	Increase the size of your Attachments

I don't see the point of building it in the near future. There's not enough economic incentive for that as particulary the southern region is economically weak.

	10-06-2002 02:08									#6
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Big bridges are always cool. Go ahead and build it.

	10-06-2002 02:09									#7
	Got spare money?

Sounds very futuristic and unrealistic. Most of the reasons for not building is you already mentioned. Furthermore it looks that is only on the drawing board, with nothing eber built even closely resembling this, so it will propably will cost more close to 100 billion. Not worth it.

And I think before that bridge between Christianity and Islam will be built in concrete there is still a lot of bridgebuilding culture-wise to do.

	10-06-2002 02:11									#8
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

bull.... when it comes to cool bridges, noone cares about culture

	10-06-2002 02:11									#9
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

what about a darnelles bridge?

	10-06-2002 02:11									#10
	Increase Your PM Length

Anyone want to preorder it? I'm letting it go cheap.

	10-06-2002 02:12									#11
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

now that's strange, I post and as soon as the page refreshes I'm not the newest post anymore

	10-06-2002 02:12									#12
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We call that phenomenon "Apolyton Off-Topic".

	10-06-2002 02:40									#13
	Re: The Gibraltar Bridge Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

quote: Originally posted by Kamrat X Will it be built? A bridge spanning 9 miles over the Straits of Gibraltar at the entryway to the Mediterranean would be the longest and tallest ever built. It would connect cultures of Christianity and Islam and potentially increase ties between the economies of Europe and Africa. Stats: Location: Strait of Gibraltar. Links Spain and Morocco. Length: 9 miles, Two spans of 4 1/2 miles each Height: Each tower is 3,000 feet tall. Twice as high as the world's tallest skyscraper. Width: 5 traffic lanes, 2 breakdown lanes in each direction Road Deck Material: Fiberglass Length of Wire Cables: 1,000,000 miles (Enough to circle the Earth almost 30 times) Closest living relative: Akashi bridge in Japan, world's longest suspension bridge at 12,828 feet. Cost: $15 billion Dangers: Wind speeds of 80 mph at tops of towers, ship collision, ocean currents, traffic, Sahara Desert dust storms Who will pay for it? Spain/Morocco? No way! EU? Not likely... Smuggling and illegal immigration will increase drastically. The situation on the Mexican/American border will be a picnic compared to this... Security is another issue, Gibraltar Straits is one of the most heavily trafficked routes on the entire planet. All it takes is an supertanker with a drunken captain or engine failure... A disaster waiting to happen really...

a) Why make it a suspension bridge?

b) Why do you need such a high span?

c) What's the depth of the Med across the Strait?

We built a 12.9 kilometer bridge from PEI to New Brunswick built in 250 meter segments on columns...

http://www.confederationbridge.com/

	10-06-2002 02:47									#14
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The confederation bridge is too low and the columns too close together to allow for the kind of traffic the straits of Gibraltar get, I think.

	10-06-2002 02:49									#15
	Re: Re: The Gibraltar Bridge Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

quote: Originally posted by KrazyHorse a) Why make it a suspension bridge? b) Why do you need such a high span? c) What's the depth of the Med across the Strait? We built a 12.9 kilometer bridge from PEI to New Brunswick built in 250 meter segments on columns... http://www.confederationbridge.com/

a) cause there´s no other way to build a bridge of these proportions IIRC.

b) You mean such a long span?

c) a 1000 meters. But there´s a underwater plateu that they might use for the mid tower. Then it´s only 432 meters.

	10-06-2002 02:55									#16
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quote: Originally posted by Asher The confederation bridge is too low and the columns too close together to allow for the kind of traffic the straits of Gibraltar get, I think.

Spot on, Asher.

	10-06-2002 02:56									#17
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Why? just increase height of nav section (it's already at 60 metres) and the columns are 250 metres apart (wider than any ship I know about)...

	10-06-2002 02:56									#18
	Put an end to popups!

Why don't we just build an escalator to nowhere, like the Simpsons?

	10-06-2002 02:56									#19
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

The more columns you have, the more likely it is someone will smack into them.

When you've got HUGE ships like in the straights of Gibraltar you want ample space on either side of the seaway, no?

	10-06-2002 02:58									#20
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As Asher said, super tankers need quite a bit of room to manuever, it takes 6 000 meters for them to go from full throttle to standstill after all. Quite a bit of inertia there...

	10-06-2002 03:00									#21
	Full PM-box? Change here!

a) No, I meant why 900 metres high.

b) There wouldn't be any problems directing traffic into 10 lanes, would there?

	10-06-2002 03:01									#22
	Full PM-box? Change here!

Kamrat, if you've got them set up into lanes then what's the problem? they just won't be able o steam at full throttle through strait...

	10-06-2002 03:04									#23
	Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by KrazyHorse a) No, I meant why 900 metres high. b) There wouldn't be any problems directing traffic into 10 lanes, would there?

a) Most of the pylons would be under water, for support.

b) You never know. One of the things you don´t want on a bridge like this is a traffic jam. Better safe than sorry, hence the breakdown lanes.

	10-06-2002 03:05									#24
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quote: Originally posted by KrazyHorse Kamrat, if you've got them set up into lanes then what's the problem? they just won't be able o steam at full throttle through strait...

Manuevering in a large supertanker is pretty damn hard to do.

Plus you gotta think of the future http://popularmechanics.com/science...sea/print.phtml

	10-06-2002 03:07									#25
	Inflate your Upload Space

quote: Originally posted by KrazyHorse Kamrat, if you've got them set up into lanes then what's the problem? they just won't be able o steam at full throttle through strait...

Eh, have you been drinking KH? The lanes are ON the bridge. For the cars...

	10-06-2002 03:08									#26
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I think KH is talking about just making lots and lots of shipping lanes, one in each section between pillars.

	10-06-2002 03:11									#27
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

quote: Originally posted by Asher Plus you gotta think of the future http://popularmechanics.com/science...sea/print.phtml

That IS impressive...or foolish. I haven´t decided yet I think a norwegian oil millionaire have had a similar idea.

	10-06-2002 03:13									#28
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quote: Originally posted by Asher I think KH is talking about just making lots and lots of shipping lanes, one in each section between pillars.

Ok! I thought he was referring to the stats...

	10-06-2002 03:16									#29
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The more pillars, the more chances for a ship to hit one.

	10-06-2002 03:16									#30
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It´s still a waste of concrete. The strait is 1000 meters deep at the center after all. The amount of concrete needed would be insurmountable.