Friday, 6 May 1994 is a day which could well come to be seen as an important date in British history. For many thousands of years, Britain was an island, cut off from the rest of Europe by which appears on British maps as the English Channel. But since that day in May 1994, when the Channel Tunnel was formally opened by the Queen of England and the President of France, Britain has been joined to 'Continental Europe' by a fixed link. Not everybody in Britain is pleased that Britain is no longer an island. There remains a large number of people who believe that the 20 miles of water between Dover and Calais has been an important defence, not only against invasion, but also against dangerous diseases like rabies, which can be spread by animals. Most people, however, see the Channel Tunnel as a symbol of increasing European unity, another step of the road towards, if not a 'United States of Europe', then at least a European community within which travel would be much easier . But whether one sees the Channel Tunnel as a good thing or a bad thing, It is no doubt that it represents one of the greatest engineering feats of this or any other century.
