The idea of joining England and France by means of a tunnel is by no means a new one. A couple of engineers proposed a tunnel to Napoleon; in 1802, Albert Mathieu wanted to build a tunnel for horse-drawn carriages, with an island halfway for ventilation and changing horses; and in 1856, Aimé Thomé de Gamond suggested it again. But none of these schemes came to anything.
The first serious attempt at construction came in 1881. A 1,893-metre pilot tunnel was dug from Shakespeare Cliff, and a 1,669-metre tunnel from Sangatte. That endeavour was abandoned in May 1882 after the British government got cold feet, worried about the French using it for nefarious invasion purposes.
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