2009 (178)
Lesson 64 The Channel Tunnel
In 1858, 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. Recently, there has again been great interest in the idea of a channel tunnel. If it is built, it will connect Britain to Europe for the first time in history.
