Channel tunnel (Part 1)

The English Channel (Frenchmen call it “La Manche” – which means ‘the sleeve’) is one of the world's most extraordinary pieces of water. For centuries, the Channel has been Britain's defense against invaders. It has also been the way to the Continent. Sailors know it as perhaps the most dangerous sea channel in Europe. Over the years, people have crossed the tunnel by balloons, canoes, rowing boats, parachutes, water skis and by swimming! The British seem to enjoy using the strange methods of crossing the Channel, using everything from a car to a bed.

Connecting the Isles of Great Britain to mainland Europe by means of a tunnel is an idea that appeared more than 200 years ago. Nevertheless we can name very few projects against which there existed a deeper and more powerful prejudice than the construction of a railway tunnel between Dover and Calais. The objections have been cultural, political and, of course, military. The British government objected to the scheme mainly because they thought that the enemy could easily invade England through such a tunnel.

It can be said that the long history of the Channel Tunnel began in 1802 when a French engineer, Albert Mathieu, according to the order of Napoleon, worked out a project of a tunnel to link France with England. But his project was not carried out, because the war between these countries began in 1803 and the Britons were glad that they were separated from the French by the Channel.

Seventy years later, a British colonel, Ernst Beaumont, began tunneling his way out of his native country using equipment that he designed himself, until he was stopped on grounds of national security. In 1950s a research group was set up to study the possibility of the Channel Tunnel construction. In 1963 this group submitted its report to the British and French governments. But when they were to make a final decision about the Channel Tunnel, the British Government refused from its construction because of financial difficulties.

Only in 1987 the question of the Channel Tunnel was studied afresh by a group of French and British engineers and the work actually began. They agreed to start constructing the Eurotunnel, as it was called, on both English and French coasts. The Tunnel was bored under the sea through a layer of dense chalk which is known to be free of cracks and allows water to penetrate it slowly. Saturday, December 1, 1990 was not an ordinary day in the Channel’s long history. At 11.00 a.m. two miners, one Frenchman and one Englishman, cut through the last few centimeters of chalk separating the UK from Europe. The Tunnel was officially opened for traffic on May 7, 1994.