Please identify!

[Brian-E]

Xyzzy has posted this astonishing photgraph. It looks to me like a stretch of water the two sides of which are linked partly by bridge and partly by tunnel. That would mean that one end of the tunnel reaches open air in the river or sea! Is that indeed what it shows and where is this amazing piece of engineering? Can Xyzzy or anyone else please identify it??

[Wacky]

I'm not certain, but it looks like the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel connecting Norfolk, VA with the eastern shore (Cape Charles, VA)

[markr]

My first guess was the Oresund Bridge, but I'd say it's part of either the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel or the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel - I'm not sure of the difference/boundary between them. There's also a page on Snopes.com.

[cheesehead]

Originally Posted by Brian-E

Xyzzy has posted this astonishing photgraph. It looks to me like a stretch of water the two sides of which are linked partly by bridge and partly by tunnel.

I first agreed with the ID as Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, but only because I was not aware of two other similar structures in Virginia which markr mentioned. I defer to snopes.com: the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel (MMMBT).

http://www.snopes.com/photos/archite...idgetunnel.asp

Google Maps shows it from directly above at http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=36.95...5458&t=k&hl=en

The famous battle of American Civil War ironclads Monitor (Union) and Merrimac (Confederacy) took place about a mile from the MMMBT site.

(Compare overheads of the similar Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) at http://terraserver-usa.com/usgsentry...t+News%7cva%7c and a larger-scale aerial showing both the HRBT and MMMBT at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:N...th_rotated.jpg.)

That would mean that one end of the tunnel reaches open air in the river or sea!

Sort of, but maybe not the way you mean -- The far end of the tunnel emerges/enters in a structure, near top slightly right of center in photo, that is basically a mirror-image of the one you can see clearly at middle-right of the photo, except much closer to its shore than the one at middle-right is from its shore. Viewed from the other side of the water, the top structure would look similar to what you see at middle-right of the photo, and vice versa.

Originally Posted by markr

it's part of either the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel or the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel - I'm not sure of the difference/boundary between them.

Both cross the Hampton Roads body of water, several miles east-west of each other, as shown at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:N...th_rotated.jpg.

[Wacky]

It is definitely the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel.

This 4.6 mile span crosses the James River connecting Newport News and Suffolk, VA.

The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel is much older and connects Hampton to Norfolk.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is much longer (23 miles) across the mouth of the Bay.

[R.D. Silverman]

Originally Posted by Brian-E

Xyzzy has posted this astonishing photgraph. It looks to me like a stretch of water the two sides of which are linked partly by bridge and partly by tunnel. That would mean that one end of the tunnel reaches open air in the river or sea! Is that indeed what it shows and where is this amazing piece of engineering? Can Xyzzy or anyone else please identify it??

It is the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel. I have driven over it more than
once.

[R. Gerbicz]

http://www.snopes.com/photos/archite...nnel.asp#photo

[ATH]

Pictures of the real Oresund Bridge (Øresundsbroen):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...und_bridge.JPG

http://www.pashnit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10069

http://www.godtfoto.dk/data/521/DSC_...sundsbroen.jpg

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by R.D. Silverman

It is the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel. I have driven over it more than once.

I have done an out and back on the CBBT. I thought that the tunnel segments were longer.

[davieddy]

Originally Posted by Brian-E

Xyzzy has posted this astonishing photgraph. It looks to me like a stretch of water the two sides of which are linked partly by bridge and partly by tunnel. That would mean that one end of the tunnel reaches open air in the river or sea! Is that indeed what it shows and where is this amazing piece of engineering? Can Xyzzy or anyone else please identify it??

There is not much mystery about how a tunnel interfaces with
a bridge in the middle of the sea: they build a rectangular island.

[Brian-E]

Originally Posted by davieddy

There is not much mystery about how a tunnel interfaces with
a bridge in the middle of the sea: they build a rectangular island.

Well, that was already clear to me (though is there any particular reason why you say "rectangular"? Does it need to be?). However I still consider it a feat of engineering. It would be easier, I guess, if the water at that point is particularly shallow. Now I think about it, probably that is indeed the case - there are likely to be shallow areas in wide rivers and sea inlets everywhere, and presumably one such area will have been selected on which to build the artificial island.

The question about which bridge/tunnel combination it is does not quite seem to have total consensus here, but the proponents of the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel seem to have produced the best supporting evidence.