Admiralty Tunnel
Admiralty Tunnel is a tunnel a thousand yards long through Gibraltar,[1] cut through the Rock in the 1890s originally for the purpose of bringing stone from the east side to the west.[2] During the Second World War, the tunnel was reused and contained an operations centre where Dwight Eisenhower planned Operation Torch.
The operations centre is now used to house a secure data facility.
- Location map: 36°7’47"N, 5°21’11"W
History
The new navy base in Gibraltar Harbour was begun in 1893, but for some time the stone was brought by barge from the east side of the rock to the harbour] on the west side. The tunnel allowed stone from the quarries on the east side to be brought by way of a three-foot narrow gauge railway to help construct the navy base on the west side.[2]
The Admiralty Tunnel is the only tunnel that runs from east to the west of the Rock of Gibraltar. During the Second World War it was reworked and a 3,000-square-yard area roughly halfway down it became a state-of-the-art communications centre. This Allied Command Headquarters centre was protected from enemy bombs by many feet of rock in every direction and contained the board room where the invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch) was planned[3] by General Eisenhower. As a result, Eisenhower not only commanded the operation, but he was the first non-Briton to command Gibraltar for 200 years.[4]It had its own systems for fresh air, electricity, lighting and communication links to the outside world.
The space now contains a very secure data storage facility previously owned by Vault Technology Services[3] and now operated by Continent 8.[5] It is not open to the public but it is possible to see from one end to the other and thus to observe how straight the tunnel is.
The west end of the tunnel is accessible from Queensway.[5]
References
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Admiralty Tunnel) |
- ↑ Eley, Colonel D.M. (1957). The Gibraltar Tunnels.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The Gibraltar Tunnels". Siegebattlefieldtours.com. http://www.siegebattlefieldtours.com/wp-content/downloads/THEGIBRALTARTUNNELS.pdf. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Visit to Secure Data Facility". Gibraltar Group of Professional Engineers. http://www.ggpe.gi/visit-to-secure-data-storage-facility/. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
- ↑ Gallagher, Wes (December 1942). "Eisenhower Commanded Gibraltar". The Lewiston Daily Sun. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19421222&id=h5c0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=rGgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3799,6270005. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Directions to ..., Continent 8 Technologies - Gibraltar, accessed April 2013