The tunnel has been lit up to show you the geological wonders and the history of the ice cap. In 1996, the American Society of Civil Engineers identified the tunnel as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Langjokull Glacier cave tour is truly an adventure to remember. Nobody was seriously hurt in the incident. A scheme in which banks agreed to swap billions of pounds worth of loans for shares saved the tunnel from going under and it showed its first net profit in 1999.įreight traffic was suspended for six months after a fire broke out on a lorry in the tunnel in November 1996. One year into service, Eurotunnel announced a huge loss, one of the biggest in United Kingdom corporate history at the time.

The Chunnel’s $16 billion cost was roughly twice the original estimate, and completion was a year behind schedule. Other efforts followed in the 20th century, but none on the scale of the tunnels begun in June 1988. In 1880, the first real attempt was made by Colonel Beaumont, who bore a tunnel more than a mile long before abandoning the project. Napoleon’s engineer, Albert Mathieu, planned the first tunnel under the English Channel in 1802, envisioning an underground passage with ventilation chimneys that would stretch above the waves.

Ten people were killed during construction. Fifteen thousand people were employed at the peak of construction. Millions of tons of earth were moved to build the two rail tunnels-one for northbound and one for southbound traffic-and one service tunnel.

Age of wonders 3 tunneling