The Channel Tunnel, from pipe dream to European reality

This Monday marks 30 years since France and the United Kingdom officially opened the Channel Tunnel. It was the culmination of two centuries of dreaming about linking the two neighbours by land.

"England is no longer an island," French newscasters solemnly announced in their evening bulletins of 6 May 1994 (conveniently forgetting that it never had been).

At 12.40pm that afternoon, a Eurostar from London had pulled into Coquelles, northern France.

It was carrying the first official guests to travel under the English Channel by rail: Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip.

They were greeted by French President François Mitterrand, who had made the less exciting journey from Paris aboard a sister Eurostar.

"It's the first time in history that the heads of state of France and Great Britain have met without having to take either the boat or a plane," the Queen said in precise, clipped French.

Hands were shaken, national anthems played and a symbolic ribbon was cut.

Then Mitterrand and Elizabeth II piled into the royal Rolls Royce and boarded Le Shuttle, the train that carries vehicles through the tunnel.

Some 35 minutes later they were in Cheriton, on the southern English coast.

"When Britain and France agree to work together and pool their natural and human resources, they achieve great things," the French president declared.

It had only taken them almost 200 years.

Two centuries in the making

His design included ventilation spouts that would tower above the waves and an artificial island in the middle where coachmen could change horses.

Read more on RFI English

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