The Channel Tunnel

更新：2023-11-22

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[00:16.31]Lesson 64
[00:18.81]The Channel Tunnel
[00:20.86]finally connecting Britain to the European continent.
[00:21.44]In 1858,a French engineer,Aime Thome de Gamond,
[00:28.09]arrived in England with a plan for a 21-mile tunnel under the English Channel.
[00:35.26]He said that it would be possible to build a platform in the centre of the Channel.
[00:41.14]This platform would serve as a port and a railway station.
[00:45.99]The tunnel would be well-ventilated if tall chimneys were built above sea level.
[00:52.30]In 1860,a better plan was put forward by an Englishman,William Low.
[00:59.13]He suggested that a double railway-tunnel should be built.
[01:03.73]This would solve the problem of ventilation
[01:07.04]for if a train entered this tunnel,it would draw in fresh air behind it.
[01:13.40]Forty-two years later a tunnel was actually begun.
[01:17.63]If,at the time,the British had not feared invasion,it would have been completed.
[01:24.89]The world had to wait almost another 100 years for the Channel Tunnel.
[01:31.67]It was officially opened on March 7, 1994,
 
Why was the first tunnel not completed?