Top5 Secret Reasons Of Strait of Gibraltar That Expose Why No Any Bridge Build There Yet

The Strait of Gibraltar, which was known as a Pillars of Hercules in ancient Greek and Roman. It is connects the Atlantic Ocean with a Mediterranean Sea. This small route passes through the two important continents of the world, which has at least 13 km. At this point, Africa and Europe become so close that if seen standing on one side, the other can be easily seen. But so far no bridge has been made to connect them among themselves. In order to connect both the continents through the ground path, many of the previous decades have been given uncountable proposals.

This route is quite important because it can be used to connect the European Union’s 45 crore and Africa’s 150 crore population. This will have a huge impact on the economy of both the continents. Trade will increase, transportation will be better and tourism will also increase to a great extent. Now the question is that when there are so many benefits, then why no bridge has been made on the Strait of Gibraltar yet. Today we will try to know the answer to this question in this article. So let’s began.

First of all we know the importance of the Strait of Gibraltar. It connects two important water bodies together. Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. This Strait is about 57 km long, while Spain’s Tarifa to Morocco’s Cires Point is just 13 kilometers wide. Talking about depth, the average depth of the entire strait is about 1200 feet. The smaller it seems to look, the more importance is its importance. Because this is a natural way between Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

Its opposite is Suez Canal, it provides a way for ships between Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Suez Canal is very tight in which there is always a danger of large size ships being trapped. The Strait of Gibraltar provides an open way for large size cargo ships. Due to which the number of ships passing through here is also very high. 20000 ships pass through Suez Canal every year. While more than 1lacs ships passed from the Strait of Gibraltar annually.

Many cargo ships bring precious goods from Western Hemisphere to Middle East, Africa and Europe. While some cross the suez canal to Asia and China. Similarly, to go from Middle East to Western Europe or America, Ships have to use the Strait of Gibraltar only. Because the Strait of Gibraltar Fossil Fuel Rich is close to the countries, due to many oil vessels pass through the strait daily. According to a report, about 300 oil vessels pass through the strait.

The Strait of Gibraltar is an important trading route for the international markets and the employment of close country is also connected with it. Because of this, many people are surprised as to why not a single bridge has been made yet to merge these two parts of the world. It is not that it had been not considered thinking about it. Many proposals have been given for this since 1979. But there are some issues due to which it will not be so easy to build a bridge here.

5) Cost

According to Estimates, the price of bridge building on Strait of Gibraltar can go from 5 billion to 20 billion dollars. Because this bridge will be quite difficult to match the other big bridges in the world. One is that whatever bridge has to be built here, it should be designed in such a way that even the big ships of the world can pass through the bottom. Which is easy to say but probably very difficult to do. Now the issue is who will tolerate the costing of 5 to 20 billion dollars for this.

The cost that the country is taking advantage of from the Strait of Gibraltar will have to be filled by them i.e. Spain and Morocco. But till date, the political leadership of both these countries could never make an agreement. Spain says that if Morocco benefits more than the bridge, then tolerate more cost. While Morocco’s leadership wants this cost to be 50 50 divide.

4) Feasibility

How profitable will the bridge be after it is built. For example, if we talk about the Channel Tunnel being built between the UK and France, it cost 145 billion US dollars. But every year more than 2 crore passengers use this tunnel. A passenger can reach France from the UK for 150 US dollars. That means every year this tunnel earns about 30 billion dollars, which is double its construction cost. Similarly, even if a bridge is built on the Strait of Gibraltar, will it earn so much that the cost of the bridge can be easily recovered?

This matter is seen with a lot of doubt. Because Morocco is a country whose GDP is only 130 billion dollars. Even if a bridge worth 5 billion US dollars is built here and a minimum fee of $20 is kept, then 2 crore passengers are using the Channel Tunnel from the UK to France every year. On the other hand, the cost of the bridge can be recovered if 25 crore passengers use the Strait of Gibraltar bridge every year. Which is a very unrealistic number.

3) Construction

The Strait of Gibraltar is a very busy route for ships. Keeping this in mind, a bridge has to be built here which cannot disturb this traffic. For this, the height of the bridge will has to be kept very high. Which will be a big challenge for the engineers. The average depth of the Strait of Gibraltar is 1200 feet. But at some places it is more than 3000 feet deep. That is, more than the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa. Till date, the world’s largest bridge pillars are built in the Millau Viaduct Bridge and their height is also only 1104 feet.

Erecting pillars bigger than 3000 feet in the Strait of Gibraltar, that too under water, is a task that scares the engineers a lot. Apart from this, the strong currents of water are also not the same here. At the bottom of the ocean, water flows from East to West while on the surface it flows from West to East. That is, if such high pillars are erected here, they will have to bear the pressure of water from both sides.

2) Tectonic Plates

The biggest threat to the bridge here will not be from the world’s largest pillars standing in water but from the Earth’s Tectonic Plates. Our Earth’s crust is made up of different sections. These are called Tectonic Plates and they are moving all the time. Earthquakes are very common where these Tectonic Plates meet each other. Unfortunately, the Strait of Gibraltar is above the place where the African and Eurasian plates meet. That is, even if a bridge is built here, its result can be very terrible.

It is a matter of luck to survive an earthquake in this region. In 1755, the Lisbon earthquake occurred whose magnitude was 8.5 – 9. Due to this, there was a lot of destruction in Spain and Morocco. Similarly, in 1960, the Agadir earthquake occurred with a magnitude of 5.7. Which caused destruction in Agadir and Morocco. This means that building a bridge on the Strait of Gibraltar means that it will have to face the high currents of the Atlantic Ocean and on top of that, it will also have to bear earthquakes of magnitude 9 or 10.

1) Soft Clay Layer

Along with all these dangers, the ocean floor of the Strait of Gibraltar is also not stable. Researchers say that there is a Soft Clay Layer beneath the strait, which cannot support any structure. This Soft Clay Layer can easily shift during geological activity or under any kind of pressure. Geologists have warned that any construction project in this area can be destroyed due to this Soft Clay Layer.

Now this does not mean that the two continents cannot be connected in any way. Many alternatives have also been given for this. Like a tunnel passing under the ocean floor. Like the Channel Tunnel between the UK and France. But this idea will increase the cost of the project even more. Which raises a question mark on the feasibility of this project.

On the other hand, Spain and European Union countries believe that after building a tunnel or bridge, the number of African refugees or illegal immigrants in Europe will increase. Which can be very difficult to control. These are the reasons why despite there being no distance between the two continents on the Strait of Gibraltar, no bridge has been built here till date.