NAPOLEON THOUGHT OF A TUNNEL
Will there ever be a tunnel under the Ehglish Channel? As a matter of fact—and this may surprise you —it was Napoleon Bonaparte who first suggested such a tunnel. This was before the Battle of Waterloo, of course, and a famous Paris engineer actually prepared rough plans of the scheme. Then came Napoleon’s defeat, and the subject was not mentioned again for 30 years. In 1834, another French engineer suggested that there should be a submerged archway, a train ferry, and finally a regular
tunnel under the English Channel, and he. too. had a lot of plans drawn up. But Queen Victoria and Napoleon 111 did not think much of the idea, and it was again shelved. From that time until the present day there have been many suggestions for this marvellous tunnel, and it is now estimated that the work would cost more than £30.000,000 and take more than five years. The whole tunnel would have to be some 36 miles in length, the under-sea section being 24 miles, and the journey to Fiance from the English coast would take one hour.
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Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22335, 24 February 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)
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188NAPOLEON THOUGHT OF A TUNNEL Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22335, 24 February 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)
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