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
Pressure Tunnel and Shafts In 1831 Michael Ryan was granted 100 acres in Bankstown, which included this site, and for many years the area was called Ryan's Paddock. The Church of England School established here in 1862, becoming the first public school in 1868, but was moved to North Bankstown in 1913. The first post office opened in 1863, but closed in 1918. Investigation for a large pressure tunnel was begun in 1914, to assist the trunk mains between Potts Hill and Crown Street. The tunnel was to extend from Potts Hill Reservoir to the Waterloo pumping station, approximately 16 kilometres. To allow for