Until the English Channel Tunnel British and French have always had a distance much wider than the water that separates them. The 50.45km (32 mile) long tunnel came as an engineering holy grail for England and France. The video and the extract made me keenly google about it. This tunnel was the most expensive project ever conceived till that time. The fully automated boring machines used to bore the channel were as long as two football fields! Wow! I feel that the engineering techniques used at that time were really amazing.
The same boring machines were designed for both the countries. It was estimated that good rock conditions were found on the British side and difficult rock conditions on the French side. In spite of the same machines being used, the British faced some hindrances. The soil that had to be dug was soft and so the tunnel of the English side started to flood. They had to fix the tunnel until it became dry again. I admire the fact that even after facing and going through such difficulties, the English reached the halfway of the tunnel first and never lost hope. They were fixated to their task.
There were many problems that disturbed the Channel. Also it was blurred by the centuries of distrust between the English and the French. Initially there were several arguments that whether The Channel was a good idea or not. Though the tunnel was thought to be an advancement for the economy, but the British were sceptical about it. They viewed the channel as their mode protecting them from invasion. Whereas on the other hand, the French viewed the tunnel with visions of growth and prosperity. Although both the teams mocked each other, but on the ground of engineering they were tuned to their goal and worked out everything efficiently. Engineering reduced the differences between both the teams.
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