If you live in London or New York you probably know all about the tunnel they have unveiled in the aforementioned cities, which apparently lets you see from one city to the other. Not living in either the United States or the United Kingdom, the news came as quite the surprise to me.

One end of the Telectroscope protrudes from the ground near the Tower Bridge on the banks of the River Thames in London, while the other end is located near Fulton Ferry Landing in NYC. The official story (from artist and inventor, Paul St George) is that there’s a long tunnel running through the earth’s crust and the simplicity of mirrors bounces the reflection of the one city back to the other, similar to a periscope.

St George claims his great-grandad began building the tunnels with plans to make the Telectroscope himself but never finished it. Stick with us, we’re deadly serious, we’re just not sure we can say the same for him . . .

The inventor apparently discovered his grandfather’s plans, finished the tunnels and installed parabolic mirrors at either end. When timeout.com expressed their curiosity about the tunnels, St George said,

“I didn’t build it—I connected existing tunnels. I was able to access lines in the middle of the Atlantic left over from when people laid the first telegraph cables—the “Victorian Internet.” I used mirrors to enlarge the images and bring them up from underground, like a periscope.”

So that’s the “official” story for now, but what would life be without the unofficial story (read speculation)? What’s everyone else saying? While it seems people agree on how impressive the Telectroscope is, they’re not exactly buying St George’s story hook, line and sinker with most gravitating toward the optical fibre/webcam route.

We’re a little dubious of the story ourselves but we’ll wait to see how this one pans out. We also kind of want to see who’s showing whom what after a few too many beers at 2am on Friday night.

The Telectroscope is on display from the 22nd of May (unveiled at 10am) until the 15th of June.