Reason Europe and Africa won’t be connected by bridge despite being 8 miles apar

There is one main reason that Europe and Africa aren’t connected by a bridge despite being only eight miles apart.

TikToker GeoGlobeTales said a connection across the Strait of Gibraltar is possible, but it is being held up by a handful of complications. 

There are similar connections across wider passages such as the 30-mile Channel Tunnel between England and France and the 10-mile Oresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden.

The TikToker said that the problem with the Strait of Gibraltar is that it is very deep, at over 900 metres with strong currents that would make a bridge “highly unstable”.

The bottom of the strait is also made of hard rock, making it difficult to drill a tunnel. In contrast, the Channel Tunnel is only about 75 metres from the surface.

The strait is also a busy shipping lane and so any bridge or tunnel would need to be built in a way that avoids affecting trade routes between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

Any projects would be affected by the seismic activity of the area, which makes a potential structure more risky.

So while it would be possible to build a bridge or tunnel across the strait, it is considered too economically unfeasible to do so currently.

Discussions about a crossing began in 1979 when Spain and Morocco appointed a joint committee to investigate the feasibility of the project.

Conversations kicked off again in 2021 when it was reported that the UK and Morocco would discuss building the crossing between Gibraltar and Tangiers.

As of last year, the completion of Morocco’s high-speed rail line from Casablanca to Tangiers has led to renewed interest in a tunnel that would connect the line to Spain’s own high-speed network, which uses the same gauge and electrification.