America's Longest Highway Tunnel (2025)
thetravel.comIsn't Whittier (the town that the tunnel leads to) also interesting in its own right? IIRC, the entire town is in one big building; and in winter everyone is basically shut in. There's a school inside, grocery store, post office, police, fire, etc. etc. Going from memory here.
Yes, pretty accurate.
It’s like a Soviet or socialist state in one building. Looks the same too.
The article is worth reading if you aren't familiar (I wasn't).
It's the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel in Whittier, Alaska. It was built during WWII and opened up Anchorage to overland travel. It seems almost primitive compared to interstate hwy tunnels.
The town is pretty wild too. Well, in a not wild sort of way - at least in winter.
It's one thing to read most residents live in the same apartment building. For me what really brought it home was seeing for sale flyers on the bulletin board in the coffee shop: "For sale: a table. Questions see Bob in apt 23".
The sight of an indoor playground complete with swing set was fun too.
When I read 2.5 miles I thought that's... not very long? I'm sure I've driven through much longer tunnels in Norway. Turns out I have: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A6rdal_Tunnel I had no idea it's the longest road tunnel in the world though, that's pretty baller.
No road tunnel in the US appears to crack even the top 400: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_road_tunnels
I had no idea that WestConnex was right up with the longest in the world.
That's incredibly surprising.
There doesn't even seem to be any proposals or discussions for some tunnel projects either, either.
My results for "tunnel proposal usa" are dominated by bullshit like the $13trillion plan to tunnel to London, lol.
Brought me back to my childhood and reminded me of this tunnel-hold-breath bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTqjq5sWkpQ
This is such a fun tunnel to drive through. The goal is to keep your tires on the wet train tracks and pretend you're a train, but the tracks are trying to eject you constantly. Also the diesel fumes from the locomotive that just went through have not yet been blown out and it smells like a level 4 migraine.
8/10 highly recommended.