Expression: Under the sea

[Iwanna]

The following sentences are excerpted from a passage about the Verrazano Bridge of New York:

...Two great towers support four huge cables. The towers are built on immense underwater platforms made of steel and concrete. The platforms extend to a depth of over 100 feet under the sea. These alone took sixteen months to build. Above the surface of the water, the towers rise to a height of nearly 700 feet. They support the cables from which the bridge has been suspended...

My question is: What does '100 feet under the sea' mean? or which option of below is right?

1. Each platform's base extends 100 feet lower than the bottom of the sea.

2. Each platform stands 100 feet high on the bottom of the sea(a height of 100 feet).

3. There is a vertical distance of 100 feet from the sea level to the platforms' top .

thanks

[Gray]

[Jamie (K)]

The phrase is definitely confusing in that sentence. Normally when we say "under the sea", we mean under the surface of the ocean. For example, there is the book and movie title "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", and the first line of the theme song from the Sponge Bob Square Pants, which says, "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" In both of those instances, "under the sea" means under the surface of the ocean.

The writer's use of the phrase is inaccurate, and if he meant that the platforms extended below the bottom of the sea, he should have written "a depth of over 100 feet below the sea bed" or "a depth of over 100 feet below the sea bottom".

The first, second and third times I read the sentence, I thought it meant that the bridge was supported by giant floating pontoons that sank 100 feet below the ocean surface but didn't touch the bottom.

[Gray]

Hi,

That level of (in)accuracy is acceptable if the audience know how it works beforehand. Language is such a complex thing that it changes with the audience too :)

~Gray
_________________________
I love words, sounds envy me.
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First lesson - English, not english. I, not i. ~A student of English

[Jamie (K)]

Really, Gray, I think that sentence was written at an unacceptable level of inaccuracy. If it confused me for more than a second, as a literate native speaker, it was way inaccurate.

[Iwanna]

The passage is from a well-known set of ESL textbooks, New Concept English, which is very popular in China. I think Gray is right, but, as Jamie says, it is indeed confusing. I have argued about it with my fellows and nobody could persuade others.

Thank you to Gray and Jamie!

[Jamie (K)]

Gray is right about what the text was supposed to mean, but I am right that the phrase is used incorrectly.

Textbooks can have mistakes in them. I had a book from the same publisher as New Concept English that said that water froze at 100°C, among some other strange statements.

[Iwanna]

[Kanjikook]

Hi Iwanna,
To answer your question, none of the three options are quite correct. The platforms (on which the towers stand) extend more than 100 ft from the surface of the sea towards (and into) the sea bed. The top of the platforms is more or less at sea level, and the towers are constructed on top of the platform.

[Iwanna]