The Invasion Too Easy

The idea of a tunnel under the English Channel is not modern. Napoleon considered it in 1802, envisioning horse-drawn carriages traveling through a lit tunnel with a ventilation chimney poking out of the sea. The British killed the plan, not for technical reasons, but because they feared it would make invasion too easy.

Over the next 175 years, at least six serious proposals were abandoned for the same reason. The project finally went ahead in the 1980s, driven by the European push for integration. Even then, the 1986 Anglo-French treaty carried explicit provisions to flood or demolish the tunnel in a security emergency. British paranoia never fully went away.