"So long as the ocean remains our friend, do not let us destroy its power to help us."
- British Cabinet decision against channel tunnel, 1930.
The English have always been suspicious of their European neighbors across the English Channel - a sometimes treacherous body of water the French prefer to call La Manche. But by whichever name, the channel has been a natural geographic defense barrier that more than once has thwarted, or caused foreign invaders to reconsider their plans.
At one time the English had a European-born king who couldn't speak English. At another, a royal relative who led a war against them. Now, before long, it looks like French engine drivers will drive French trains from Paris right into the English coast at Folkestone. That's something Napoleon would have tried if his 1803 idea to build a cross-channel tunnel had found any backers. He would have continued on to London's WaterlooStation. Of course, he would not have arrived at Waterloo Station in any case, since that terminus got its name after Napoleon met his Wellington at Waterloo. Still, the English have always preferred to keep to themselves, and their Channel gave them a sense of protective isolation from the turmoils of Europe.
All this will now end. That's the intent behind an Anglo-French agreement signed this week that will put an operational twin-rail link between the two countries under the English Channel by 1993. The pact was signed by the English prime minister and the French president in a northern French town - further evidence that the English are taking yet another step into Europe.
However, the most significant point to be noted in this $7-billion privately financed joint English-French venture is not additional commitment to Europe on the part of the British, or a softening of the centuries-old Anglo-French animosity and distrust by both nations. Rather, the primary motivation in burrowing under the Strait of Dover is to be found in the bedrock of politics and economics. Construction of the tunnel will provide an estimated 30,000 jobs for English and French workers. And with both Prime Minister Thatcher and French President Mitterrand in political trouble over their inability to cure their respective nation's economic doldrums, what could be better political public relations than to create long-term employment for their countrymen?
Whether or not the tunnel will prove an effective investment for commerce and travel remains to be seen. One thing, however, is certain. After 26 failures by successive generations of politicians to link England and France by cross-channel tunnel, it appears that this time the political will, technology and financing have met on common ground.
Perhaps the tunnel will eventually alter the way in which the English and the French view each other. But that would require more than an engineering miracle. The cross-channel neighbors may have to be satisfied with one miracle in 200 years - the chunnel.