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
Gotthard Road Tunnel north-south line in Switzerland. It was opened in 1882. In this category it is no longer the record-holder. The Seikan Tunnel in Japan and the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France are both in excess of . Under construction since 2002 and opened on 1 June 2016, the Gotthard Base Tunnel (a second rail tunnel, long), is the world's longest. It was built for the use of trains travelling from northern Switzerland to the Ticino area and beyond. The Gotthard Tunnel is the core and culminating point of the A2 motorway in Switzerland, running south from Basel through