3310 x 3310 px | 28 x 28 cm | 11 x 11 inches | 300dpi
Aufnahmedatum:
27. September 1988
Ort:
40m under seabed between UK and France, Europe
Weitere Informationen:
Dieses Bild kann kleinere Mängel aufweisen, da es sich um ein historisches Bild oder ein Reportagebild handel
The photograph shows engineers examining the 1882 Beaumont tunnel (still in amazing condition after 106 years) after the present Channel Tunnel intersected with the historic tunnel in 1988. The 1882 tunnel was 7ft (2.13m) in diameter and was support by longitudinal timbers and cast iron rings. The intention had been to enlarge this pilot tunnel to 14ft (4.26m). In the early 1880s, two tunnels were excavated simultaneously in the UK and France in the first serious attempt to build a Channel Tunnel. Two sophisticated compressed air rotary boring machines (invented by Thomas English and built by Frederick Beaumont) were used and, in a year, 1840m was driven on the French side and 1850m on the English side with a daily advance rate of 25 m, a huge achievement for that time. The tunnelling was very successful but both tunnels were abandoned in 1883, defeated by influential British military and political opposition concerned with Britain's national defence. The Channel Tunnel is no ordinary project. The four types of cross-channel service that the Tunnel offers - conventional freight and passenger trains, plus two types of road vehicle shuttle have made it into the busiest railway in the world. The fast and efficient movement of road and rail traffic into, through and out of the Eurotunnel system is integral to that success. The Channel Tunnel is one of the wonders of the modern world. It is thirty-two miles long at an average depth of 45 metres below the sea-bed, the longest undersea tunnel and the second longest rail tunnel in the world (only the Seikan Tunnel in Japan is longer). It was built between 1987 and 1994 by Anglo-French consortium TransManche Link and is owned and operated by Anglo-French Eurotunnel plc. It opened for business in late 1994, offering services including a shuttle train for car, coach and freight vehicles, a Eurostar high-speed passenger service linking London with Paris and Brussels and a rail freight service.
