• Reading Level 5
Science | History | Geography

The healing power of bridges and tunnels

Have bridges and tunnels saved more lives than medicine? Yesterday a formal feasibility study was launched into Boris Johnson’s dream of a fixed link between Scotland and Northern Ireland. On a calm day, if you stand on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland, you can see the coast of Antrim, in Northern Ireland, above an unruffled blue sea. Soon, if you stand at the same spot, you might see a line of lorries further south crossing a giant concrete bridge. This is because the UK government has announced a study into the feasibility of building a “fixed link” between Scotland and Northern Ireland. Finding a way to cross the sea, whether by building a tunnel below the water, or building a bridge above, will be a huge engineering challenge. Not least among the difficulties would be running the bridge over Beaufort’s Dyke. This is a trench in the sea around 300 metres deep – roughly the height of the Eiffel Tower. To make matters worse, 1,000,000 tonnes of munitions have historically been dumped into it by the UK military. Some suggest that the money required would be better spent elsewhere, particularly in a time of public health crisis. Bridges and tunnels, they argue, should not be a priority. If one takes the long view, however, bridges and tunnels have had a monumental impact on public health around the world. Tunnels have been dug for thousands of years to provide drinking water and irrigate crops more effectively. Three thousand years ago, the Persians began digging tunnels called qanats, which allowed water to be brought from a well to another region; they could even bring ice to the desert. The Romans were able to use a type of bridge called an aqueduct to bring water to dry places, such as the city of Nimes, which would not have been able to exist without the Pont du Gard. At a time when medicine had not progressed much beyond trepanation, these advances in bridge-building and tunnelling allowed civilisations to flourish. Now, bridges connect countries such as Malaysia and Singapore; Sweden and Denmark; and Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Such connections are emblematic of international trade that has driven a global rise in living standards. Global life expectancy has risen from 30 in 1800 to 73 today. While some of that gain is due to medical advances, some of it, too, can be traced to engineers in tunnels. In 1858, London was beset by a foul smell called “the great stink”. This was because sewage was being dumped into the Thames. As a consequence, Parliament commissioned an engineer called Joseph Bazalgette to build a new sewer system. The resulting network of tunnels spared the noses of MPs. But more importantly, it helped prevent outbreaks of cholera, saving thousands of lives at a point when doctors still believed cholera was spread by miasma. Without sanitation and transport links, society would crumble. The bridge is the ultimate symbol of connection. Amid political tensions within the UK – and between it and the Republic of Ireland – it makes sense for Boris Johnson to want to be thought of as a bridge-builder… even if that bridge is a tunnel. So, have they saved more lives than medicine? Building bridges Yes, say some. The bridge and the tunnel have underpinned the connections that have helped to ensure a more peaceful, healthy and prosperous world. Up until the discovery of germs and vaccinations, medicine could hardly be said to have saved many lives at all. Meanwhile, bridges and tunnels have brought people water and vital goods, making their lives possible. No, say others. Between 1990 and 2015, medical innovations extended human lives by about 50 million years. One treatment, oral rehydration therapy, has saved around 70 million lives since the 1970s. While a bridge or a tunnel might provide access to goods or clean water, to call that saving lives seems to miss the point, just as saying farmers or supermarkets save lives would. KeywordsMiasma - An unhealthy air or vapour. Until the 1880s, most scientists in the West believed that diseases were spread by bad air. This theory was replaced by the germ theory of disease, but belief in the discredited idea actually drove a great number of improvements to public sanitation and sewage systems.

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