Napoleon first had the notion to build a tunnel under the channel between France and Britain nearly 200 years ago. To the British, aware of Napoleon's reputation for marching unannounced into neighboring territories, it was a preposterous idea, worthy of no further comment.
But in 1883, the thought was revived when construction workers in both countries began digging at their respective ends, intending to meet somewhere in the middle. The project soon ran out of money and was abandoned before either side had advanced more than a few hundred yards.
A more organized effort surfaced in 1974, but that too was cut short a year later by the newly elected Labor government when potentially dispossessed homeowners in England's southeast county of Kent launched a massive campaign against the scheme, mainly on the grounds that it would devastate the environment.
Since that time, British opinion about a fixed-link between the Continent and the island nation has not changed much. Despite the fact that 60 percent of Britain's total exports go to European Economic Community countries, and despite the government's prediction that by the year 2000 traffic across the English Channel will have doubled, the majority do not see the point of it and, one suspects, have great difficulty in dealing with it psychologically. To be a part of Europe is one thing but to be joined to Europe is clearly another.
"Where are you going on vacation this year?" one typically might hear a Briton ask a fellow Briton. "Oh, I think we might go to Europe," comes the reply.
But contrary to the wishes of the masses, by the year 1993 a cross-channel rail tunnel--or Chunnel, as it is sometimes known--will, if everything goes according to schedule, be in operation from Cheriton in southeast England to Frethun, in northwest France.
This was agreed to by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Francois Mitterrand when they met in Lille, France in January to announce that the proposal submitted by the Channel Tunnel/France-Manche Group (CTG) had been chosen as the most viable and mutually accepted.
During an elaborate ceremony, complete with national anthems, guards of honor, and an army of schoolchildren waving British and French flags, Thatcher and Mitterrand signed an historic agreement which both leaders no doubt hope will ensure them immortality in the history books of science and technology.
"From today, two neighboring and friendly countries with great history behind them will be having a new link and one should not underestimate its genuine and symbolic importance," said Mitterrand, who, with the French National Assembly elections looming in March, has been especially anxious to nail down a tunnel agreement, and then extol its merits to the electorate.
Thatcher, who enamored herself to the French with an attempt at speaking their language, said the tunnel would have "immense significance for trade and communications" and will give "the private sector a chance to demonstrate its ability and enterprise in a project of the utmost public
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