It turns out that tunnels have come a long way since ancient times. It used to be that if you wanted to dig a hole you just got going with your hands or maybe a piece of metal. Imagine trying to build a tunnel before shovels were even invented– what were they thinking?
Advancements in technology led to big awesome vehicles and machines to drill their way through mountains and valleys alike. They may be called tunnel ‘boring’ machines, but they’re anything but.
If you used to excavate subway tunnels in the late 1800s this gallery might be nostalgic for you. Otherwise, just admire how cool these big underground tubes are.
1
Ancient Egyptians used copper saws and hollow reed drills to dig tunnels and excavate rooms out of rock
2
The Tunnel of Eupalinos, an ancient Greek tunnel constructed as an aqueduct in the 6th century BC.
3
A British tunneling device patented in 1828
4
A painting of workers excavating a tunnel, from 1837
5
Design for a rock tunneling machine created by Henri-Joseph Maus in 1845.
6
Construction of the lining for a tunnel in 1860
7
The first mechanical tunnel boring machine, 1896
8
Workers excavate a tunnel for the New York subway in the late 1800s.
10
African-American crew tightening bolts in a section of the west river tunnel, 1907
11
Construction of a subway tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New York to New Jersey, 1908
12
Celebration of the construction of a tunnel under the Hudson River, 1908
13
Subway tunnel construction in 1913
14
Tunnel construction in California in the 1950s
15
Clyde Tunnel under construction in Glasgow in the 1960s
16
Tunnel boring machine, 1988
17
Excavation of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland in 2010
19
Modern tunnel boring machine
20
Modern tunnel boring machine
