The earliest recorded proposal was by a French engineer named Nicolas Desmaret dating from 1751. About fifty years later Albert Mathieu Favier suggested a horse drawn railroad under the Channel; his scheme included an artificial island that would serve as a staging post.
In 1850 French mining engineer, Aimé Thomé de Gamond proposed to Napoleon a railroad tunnel between Folkstone in the southern English country of Kent and Cap Griz-Nez on the French Coast.
In 1875 a proposal from a British engineer, Peter Barlow to build a floating steel tube across the Channel led to concessions being granted by both the French and British parliaments, although insufficient funds meant that the project did not proceed.
In the mid 1870s, Channel Tunnel companies ware formed and boring began from France and British sides of the channel in 1878. However, British government forced abandonment of the project after public opinion, fearing invasion by the French, turned against the tunnel.
In 1930-40 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the French government supported the digging of a tunnel. Years of surveys and research yielded a scheme the coast of which would be divided equally between Britain and France, and work began on both sides of the Channel in 1974.
In the United Kingdom, an access tunnel was made between the upper and lower sites at Shakespeare Cliff near Dover, and a rail access adit was bored from the lower site down to the level of the future rail tunnels.
The Channel was officially opened on 10 December 1993, and Eurotunnel commenced its commercial operations six months later.
Channel tunnel
