The Most Complicated Tunnel in the World Finally Opens

There’s been much talk of huge future development projects in Istanbul recently. Today, one of them actually arrived.

After nine years work and $4 billion spent, Turkey's largest city opened its first tunnel underneath the Bosphorus Strait, a body of water that separates its European and Asian sections. The 8.75-mile rail tunnel is destined to be part of a new commuter network called Marmaray, capable of transporting 75,000 passengers per hour when at full capacity. The link will not just ease commutes and get people off congested roads and bridges, says Turkey’s government, but also ultimately form a key link between continents, an "iron Silk Road" that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has grandly promised will "link London with Beijing."*