Fast Facts
At the time it was being built, the Chunnel was the most expensive construction project ever conceived. It took $21 billion to complete the tunnel. That's 700 times more expensive than the cost to build the Golden Gate Bridge!
Many of the tunnel boring machines used on the Chunnel were as long as two football fields and capable of boring 250 feet a day.
When construction began in 1988, British and French tunnel workers raced to reach the middle of the tunnel first. The British won.
In the first five years of operation, trains carried 28 million passengers and 12 million tons of freight through the tunnel.
Vital Statistics
Location: Folkestone, England, and Sangatte, France
Completion Date: 1994
Cost: $21 billion (£9,000,000,000)
Overall Length: 163,680 feet / 50.45 km / 31.35 miles
Under Sea Length: 38 km / 24 miles
Purpose: Railway
Setting: Underwater
Materials: Steel, concrete
Engineer(s): Transmanche Link Engineering Firm
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