The+History+of+the+Chunnel

The Chunnel The Channel Tunnel, or Chunnel as it is more commonly known, is the underwater railroad connecting England to France amd Brussels. Operating by 1994, it runs beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. The Eurostar is the name for the train that runs in the tunnel. The Channel Tunnel consists of interconnecting tubes: railtracks each way and service tunnels. The length of this revolutionary transportation system is a total of 31 miles, of which 23 are underwater at an average of 150 feet deep. It is the second longest undersea tunnel in the world.

 Foundations: a brief outline
 * First suggested by Napoleon in 1802
 * Initiated by President Mitterand of France and Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1988
 * Took $15 billion and six years to begin the operation of the chunnel: 3 of which consisted of hollowing the tunnel out
 * Excavated by tunnel boring machines that cut away the rock and sand
 * First building of the chunnel consisted of three tunnels
 * Second section opened in 2007: expanded to 11 tunnels, and Great Britain's first high speed line was opened.

 Creating the Chunnel Engineers were faced with a huge challenge when the idea of connecting England in France was first brought up. There were several tunnel calamities that had occured during this time, such as the Holland Tunnel disaster. The builders had to not only build a safe tunnel of this immense size, but also convince passengers of their safety. The engineer's resolution was to build the service tunnels. This design was put to the test a year after the Chunnel opened when over thirty people were trapped when a fire broke out. Everyone escaped safely through the service tunnel. The Chunnel was funded entirely by private finance. The opening of the Chunnel - the celebrations


 * 1994 [[image:http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38587000/jpg/_38587675_eurostar_queen_mitt_238.jpg width="238" height="178" align="right" caption="President Mitterand and the Queen"]]
 * Two eleborate ceremonies in Great Britain and France
 * Both Queen Elizabeth and President Mitterand arrived at Calais at the same time
 * Simultaneous national anthems were played while the red, white and blue ribbon was cut

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">
<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif"> The Eurostar


 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Eighteen carriage class 373 trains
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">High speed carriage trains
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Travel at speeds up to 300 km/h
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">London to Paris in 2 hours and 15 minutes
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">HSL 1 cut speeds to Brussels
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">High Speed 1 cut speeds to Kent and Brussels by an average of 2o minutes [[image:http://www.seavision.info/Eurostar.jpg width="272" height="162" align="right" caption="The Eurostar "]] <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif"><span style="COLOR: #08c0f7; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">The Main Stations:
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Waterloo, London
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Ashford International, Kent
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Calais-Frethun, Calais
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Lille Europe, Europe
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Brussels-Midi/Zuid, Brussels
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Gare du Nord, Paris



<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Facts
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Owned by the National railways of Belgium
 * Deemed one of the seven wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Civil Engineers
 * At the time it was build, the Chunnel was the most expensive construction project
 * Some of the tunnel boring machines were the size of two football fields
 * There was competition between the British and French to reach the center of the tunnel first: the British won
 * In the first five years of operation, the trains carried 28 million people and 12 million tons of cargo



<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">It was one of the greatest techonological accomplishment of the era. With ideas that spread over the course of two centuries, the planning and building of this structure had to maintain a broader perspective on idealistic concerns. <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">The 20th century is remembered for its architectural achievments. The Chunnel, along with The Bauhaus movement and the Louvre pyramid (modernism) are some of the most significant 20th century European developments. People can finally hop a train to London, see a play at The West End; also famous in this time, and be back in the same day, and for much cheaper than flying. The Chunnel remains one of the most astounding techonological developments of our time, and as it continues to seek improvments, will only become additionally advanced.

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif"><span style="COLOR: #1af468; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Sources [|**http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/eurostar/channel_tunnel.htm**] http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/eurostar/index.htm?WT.mc_id=google.Eurostar_US_Dollars.cpc&WT.srch=1&gclid=COHD5uaVtZMCFQ3_sgod9VjHCw [|**http://goeurope.about.com/library/bl_eurostar_intro.htm**] http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/6/newsid_2511000/2511653.stm <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">[|******http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/channel.html******] <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif"> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">[|**http://www.lib.utah.edu/gould/lecture95.html**] <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">[|http://usd316.k12.ks.us/projectfolder/Kristin0102/chunnel/chunneldiagram2.gif</span]> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">[|http://images.google.com/imgres?] <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">[|http://scrappinbyann.com/images/chunnel.jpg</span]> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">[|http://www.bized.co.uk/images/tunnelwork.jpg</span]> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">[|http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/subway-7.jpg</span]> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">[|http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00662/eurostar_662524n.jpg</span]> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">[|http://www.tunnelbuilder.com/suppliers/skanska_pic2.jpg</span]> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">[|http://www.seavision.info/Eurostar.jpg</span]> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">[|http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/1/18/180px-Channel_Tunnel_NRM.jpg               </span]>