Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Europe's new high-speed train network is good for commerce…but bad for birds.
A bullet train zips under the English Channel, taking people from Paris to London in
two and a half hours. Denmark and Sweden built a mammoth bridge connecting Copenha-
gen and Malmö, creating Scandinavia's largest metropolitan area. And cities throughout
Europe seem to be forever dug up because they are constantly improving and expanding
their underground transit systems.
Non-EU nations are investing, too. Norway, with fewer than five million people, has
drilled some of the longest tunnels in the world to lace together isolated communities in
the fjords. Istanbul scraped together the money to build a massive train tunnel under the
Bosphorus to connect Asia and Europe and grease its economic engine. And there's an ef-
fort underway to dig a tunnel connecting Spain and Morocco under the Strait of Gibraltar.
Savvy nations understand that infrastructure is the foundation for prosperity (and
power). Hitler knew he couldn't take on Europe without a good highway system, so he
built the autobahn. The United States undertook a massive investment in our interstate
highway system in the 1950s, which helped our country—with rich and poor states enjoy-
