Lesson 64 The Channel Tunnel 海峡隧道 【Text】 In 1858, a French engineer, Aime Thome de Gamond, arrived in England with a plan for a twenty-one-mile tunnel under 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 if 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 if 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
The world had t