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Kind: captions
Language: en

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I am under the English Channel on a train

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in one of the wonders of the modern world:

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the Channel Tunnel.

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And it's easy to take the tunnel for granted these days:

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you just buy a ticket, take your somewhat ridiculous leopard print suitcase--

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it's not mine--

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on board the train, and a couple of hours later you're in Paris.

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And it's easy to forget just what a wonder this thing is,

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and it's easy to forget that it was 200 years, nearly,

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from the first proposal to put a train under the English Channel--

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actually, it wasn't a train back then, it would've been horse drawn carrages

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lit by oil lamps--

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to this wonderful construction under the seabed itself.

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And here is something you might not know:

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those older schemes, those somewhat ridiculous Victorian schemes,

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some of them actually started.

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In 1881 exploratory tunnels were made about a mile out from the UK, and out from France.

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There was a tunnel started,

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but then the British press and politicians got cold feet,

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and thought it might compromise our national  security.

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And in the 1970s the British government at the time was all for building a tunnel,

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but then they got cold feet when the economy tanked.

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But just imagine:

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we might have had a Channel Tunnel a century earlier

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if it hadn't been for Britain being worried about its sovereignty,

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although given there was World War II and Hitler really could have invaded through it,

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perhaps they were onto the right idea.

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That is something you might not have known.

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[Closed captions by MM.
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