Location Taken: Olympic National Park, Washington
Time Taken: June 2008
Most times, civil engineers try to route roads along the edge of mountains. Every so often, even these masters of the craft of finding the least hint of flat land to build on are defeated.
That’s when the tunnels get built. Tunnels are expensive, far more than blasting out some rock from the side of a mountain. They’re a complex mix of physics and geology, convincing rock that there isn’t empty space going right through it.
Due to the cost, when tunnels are required, they are as short as possible. Especially for low-traffic roads like most ones that go up mountains. So the tunnels are short. And, due to the way mountains are formed, when one short tunnel is needed, another is all too often needed in the next ridge.
So you get odd scenes like this, with a very short view of the sky and rock before delving underground once again.
