Channel Tunnel The project was abandoned in May 1882, owing to British political and press campaigns asserting that a tunnel would compromise Britain's national defences. These early works were encountered more than a century later during the TML project. A 1907 film, "Tunnelling the English Channel" by pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès, depicts King Edward VII and President Armand Fallières dreaming of building a tunnel under the English Channel. In 1919, during the Paris Peace Conference, the British prime minister, David Lloyd George, repeatedly brought up the idea of a Channel tunnel as a way of reassuring France about British willingness to defend
Channel Tunnel over its predicted budget. Since its construction, the tunnel has faced a few mechanical problems. Both fires and cold weather have temporarily disrupted its operation. People have attempted to use the tunnel to enter the UK illegally since 1997, creating the ongoing issue of the migrants around Calais on the French side, causing both diplomatic disagreement and violence. In 1802, Albert Mathieu-Favier, a French mining engineer, put forward a proposal to tunnel under the English Channel, with illumination from oil lamps, horse-drawn coaches, and an artificial island positioned mid-Channel for changing horses. Mathieu-Favier's design envisaged a bored two-level tunnel with