1. Dezember 1990. Der Brite Graham Fagg und der Franzose Philippe Cozette durchbrachen den Servicetunnel des Ärmelkanaltunnels und markierten damit einen Meilenstein in einem der größten Ingenieurprojekte Europas. Sie tauschten Flaggen, die Briten schickten einen Paddington Bear und die Franzosen antworteten mit Champagner.

The Channel Tunnel, or „Chunnel,“ links Folkestone, England, with Coquelles, France, and is the world’s longest undersea tunnel at 50.45 km (31.3 mi). Proposed for well over a century, construction finally began in 1988. On 1 December 1990, British and French workers achieved a historic breakthrough in the service tunnel, symbolically meeting under the Channel. The project, completed in May 1994, comprises two rail tunnels and a central service tunnel, carved using massive tunnelling machines, and remains a landmark of European engineering and cooperation.

The head of the tunneling machine called Virginie is exposed on a roundabout. Those machines are massive and that’s only the head [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Tunnelier_de_Coquelles_en_2013_06.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Tunnelier_de_Coquelles_en_2013_06.jpg)