Re: Submerged Tower?

[shawl@torchlake.com (Jonathan Shawl)]

Paul Julius wrote:

> I was just thinking of a tower that stretches from the surface to the bottom of some body of water, say a lake, maybe 100 feet.  Inside the tower, it is dry and 1 atm.  Outside the pressure varies from the top to the bottom.  This would make a great tourist attraction, as they could go down and see the underwater life!  Anything like this in existence?  What type of extra engineering concerns must we consider?
>
> Paul

The biggest problem is to make it heavy enough to stay down or to anchor it to bed rock.
Lets say it's 20' dia, room enough for a spiral stair and a elevator down the center, and 100' deep.
That's about   31,416 cubic feet of water displaced at 64 lbs (fresh) per cubic foot.
64 x 31,416 =  2,010,619.lbs, even if you could build it for a low .50 cents a pound, for steel and concrete alone.
that would be about a $ 1,005,309.00 hole in the water. I think that $ figure might be way too low? Anybody into that type of work? Ever been to Weechie Wachie Springs? Somebody from Florida correct my spelling on that one and tell him what that place is like.
Jon Shawl