CAN YOU WALK UNDER THE RIVER?

Dear Hiver,
Modernity has brought spectacular feats of engineering and architecture. Sometimes these wonders have been part of our environment for so long that we no longer appreciate them as true results of human ingenuity.

I should tell you that Havana has several tunnels, and the Calzada Tunnel is one of them, connecting the east and west sides of the city, from the Vedado neighborhood to the Miramar neighborhood.

This tunnel passes under the Almendares River, very close to its mouth. It was built by the French company Grands Travaux de Marseille during the 1950s.

The tunnel is perfectly preserved and fully operational. Besides cars, it's also designed for pedestrians. It often allowed me to reach the other side of the city by crossing under the Almendares River.

This time I wanted to look at it with creative eyes and experiment with my cell phone camera, exploring new ways of observing. This way, I not only captured its modern architectural lines, but also the hurried passage of cars.

For a while I tried to capture, through this circle, the exact moment the cars passed through it in their rapid race to the outside...

As I walked deeper into the tunnel, the blue faded and the colors became more gray. I then noticed the cars entering the tunnel's belly, adding speed to the static volumes of the walls.

Spotting the exit, the blue returns to the lens and completely changes the light that now floods the images from the outside, giving the sensation of entering deep into the earth.

This tunnel does not have a mechanical ventilation system due to its short length, but it does have drainage and fire suppression systems, as well as emergency telephones. It is an excellent route connecting both parts of the city and, in fact, the fastest.

The photos were taken with my Motog82 cell phone. The text is my own work and was translated from Spanish using Google Translate.