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 it 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 it 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. lf it is built, it will connect Britain to Europe for the first
time in history.