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| The '''English Channel''' is the body of water that separates the ] of ] from northern ], and the ] from the ]. In ] it is called '''La Manche''' ("the sleeve"). It is about 350 miles long and at its widest is ] (150 miles). The narrowest point is only ] (21 miles), from ] to Cape Gris-Nez. | The '''English Channel''' is the body of water that separates the ] of ] from northern ], and the ] from the ]. In ] it is called '''La Manche''' ("the sleeve"). It is about 350 miles long and at its widest is ] (150 miles). The narrowest point is only ] (21 miles), from ] to Cape Gris-Nez. | ||
| The Channel has been extremely significant for the defence of Britain,] called it the "Moat that God Built". It has allowed Britain to intervene but rarely be dangerously threatened in European conflicts. Without the gap Napoleon and Hitler may well have had different careers. | |||
| The first person to swim the channel was Matthew Webb in ]. In ], ] became the first woman to accomplish this feat, breaking the current men's record by two hours. | The first person to swim the channel was Matthew Webb in ]. In ], ] became the first woman to accomplish this feat, breaking the current men's record by two hours. | ||
Revision as of 03:03, 21 June 2002
The English Channel is the body of water that separates the island of Great Britain from northern France, and the Atlantic Ocean from the North Sea. In French it is called La Manche ("the sleeve"). It is about 350 miles long and at its widest is 240 km (150 miles). The narrowest point is only 34 km (21 miles), from Dover to Cape Gris-Nez.
The Channel has been extremely significant for the defence of Britain,Shakespeare called it the "Moat that God Built". It has allowed Britain to intervene but rarely be dangerously threatened in European conflicts. Without the gap Napoleon and Hitler may well have had different careers.
The first person to swim the channel was Matthew Webb in 1875. In 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to accomplish this feat, breaking the current men's record by two hours.
In 1909, Louis Bleriot from France was the first person to fly over the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft.
In 1979, a 75-pound airplane called the Gossamer Albatross won the £100,000 Kremer prize for being the first human-powered airplane to fly over the Channel. The pilot Bryan Allen pedaled for 3 hours to accomplish this feat.
Nowadays, many travelers cross the English Channel from below, by way of the Channel tunnel or "Chunnel". This grand engineering feat, first proposed in the time of Napoleon, connects England and France via rail. The English and French actually began a tunnel as long ago as 1881, but the British aborted it for fear it could serve the French as an invasion route. The British attempted to build another tunnel in the late 1970s, but were forced to abandon it for lack of money.
In the end, England and France put their concerns aside and completed the joint Channel Tunnel in 1994. To build the tunnel, they drilled two main train tunnels, with a smaller access tunnel between them, through the chalk marl beneath the water. The French drilled their tunnels out from Calais, the British from Folkestone. The two efforts met roughly halfway, and were linked to form a continuous passage. Enormous drilling machines used to dig the tunnels were driven aside and remain entombed beneath the seabed, abandoned to future archeologists.
It is now routine to travel from Paris to London on the Eurostar train.