If You Can't Go Over It Trivia Quiz

Answer: Calais

Stretching between the UK and France for the first time in 1994, the Channel Tunnel is a feat of modern engineering. Carrying passenger trains and freight trains for automobiles, the operations reduced the need for ferries across the English Channel and brought the countries into a new era.

At the same time, however, the tunnel has been rife with technical issues, some stemming from fires, some stemming from weather outside the tunnel, and some stemming from illegal immigrants stowing away on the trains.

It cost more than four and a half billion pounds to construct.

Answer: Observatory

Jungfraujoch, nearly three and a half thousand meters above sea level, is the highest train station in Europe, reaching high up into the Alps and stopping underground. Anyone who visits this high-altitude station is in for a treat since they'd be making a stop at the Sphinx Observatory, an additional one hundred meters up, overlooking the Swiss Alps.

The railway taking visitors to this otherwise difficult-to-reach locale passes within some of the most famous mountains of the region, including the Eiger, without seeing daylight until you make your way down to Interlaken.

Answer: False

You would actually need to visit Norway to take a trip down the Lærdal Tunnel which is a necessary route if you were to make the drive from Oslo to Bergen. While there are no exits during the entire route, the tunnel was constructed with several caves along the way to alleviate any feelings of claustrophobia; after all, the Lærdal Tunnel became the longest underground road tunnel in the world upon its completion in 2000, surpassing the previous record holder, the Gotthard Road Tunnel in Switzerland, by nearly eight kilometers.

The tunnel is in Southwestern Norway.

Answer: Eisenhower Tunnel

Found west of Denver, Colorado on Interstate 70, the Eisenhower-Johnson dual tunnel is found more than three kilometers above sea level making it the highest point along any of the Interstates in the country. Although each of the tunnels only stretches two and three quarter kilometers, they're quite notable.

A true case of 'going through instead of going over', the tunnels were really only built to avoid ensuring a route over the Rocky Mountains met the requirements for an Interstate highway. Instead it was more worthwhile to bore straight through.

It was, at the time, the most expensive federally-funded project to date.

Answer: Honshu and Hokkaido (Japan)

Seikan Tunnel, built throughout the 1980s, allows people to make their way from Japan's largest island, Honshu, to Hokkaido to the north, a trip which originally required a ferry to be made. One of the longest transport tunnels and one of the deepest as well, the Seikan takes riders along more than fifty kilometers of tracks more than a fifth of a kilometer below sea level, deep into the seabed of the Tsugaru Strait.

It opened for use in 1988.

Answer: Zion National Park

Zion National Park, found in the Southwestern corner of Utah, is made up of desert ecosystems and sits near Grand Canyon National Park (which is to the south). Similarly, Zion contains a canyon of its own, which should give an impression of the local landscape; it's hardly surprising that a tunnel through the environment is necessary to get around.

The tunnel, built in the 1920s and 1930s, is a lengthy one and features a viewing galley from which drivers can stop and see the sights below.

Answer: Shanghai

The Bund, a boardwalk situated on the Huangpu River, is one of the most famous tourist sites in the metropolis of Shanghai, China, home to greater than twenty-four million citizens and countless tourists every year. Amongst the sights found here, one can find the pedestrian tunnel spanning the width of the Huangpu, connecting people from the opposite side of the river to The Bund.

The tunnel here isn't a long one, but it's an interesting one, connecting people from one side to the other via rail-operated people movers and transporting them through a tunnel light show.

The tunnel, at just under two thirds of a kilometer long, was the first pedestrian tunnel to be built under a river; it was finished in 2000.

Answer: Toronto

The PATH, while not a single straight line, spreads across a large chunk of Downtown Toronto, but not at street level. In fact, to get to it you need to dive into one of the hundreds of entrances from the surface and navigate your way through a seemingly-endless array of shops and businesses. Connecting to half a dozen different subway stops in the downtown core and all of Toronto's major bank buildings, it first started getting built in 1900, growing for more than a century to reach many of the city's main landmarks (including the Rogers Center, CN Tower, Union Station and the Eaton's Center.

Answer: China

Found in the Taihang Mountains in China, Guoliang Tunnel Road is an amusing instance of going through instead of going over or around. The tunnel here is actually visible from the outside, mainly because it carves its way along the outer wall of a cliff providing a frightening ride to the otherwise-isolated village of Guoliang. Without the efforts of thirteen people carving the tunnel themselves, visitors would've needed to climb a trail up the mountain to reach the location at the end.

It took five years for three quarters of a kilometer to be carved out.

Answer: Bamboo

Found in Arashiyama outside Kyoto, Japan, Sagano Forest is made of large swaths of bamboo copses, and the tunnels there were cut from the woods around it. Rather than navigating around, pedestrians can head right on through the picturesque, almost zen-like environment.

The pathways here have become a tourist site, not only for the unique experience, but because of the local monkey habitat, the Iwatayama Monkey Park.