In l858, a French engineer, Aime Thome de Gamond, arrived in England with a
plan for a twenty-one-mile tunnel across the English Channel. He said that it
would be possible to build a platform in the centre of the Channel. This
platform would serve as a port and a railway station. The tunnel would be
well-ventilated if tall chimneys were built above sea level. In 1860, a better
plan was put forward by an Englishman, William Low. He suggested that a double
railway tunnel should be built. This would solve the problem of ventilation,
for if a train entered this tunnel, it would draw in fresh air behind it.
Forty-two years later a tunnel was actually begun. If, at the time, the
British had not feared invasion, it would have been completed. The world had
to wait almost 100 years for the Channel Tunnel. It was officially opened on
March 7, 1994, finally connecting Britain to the European continent.&