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00:00The busiest shipping lane in the world.
00:0822 miles of freezing, unforgiving water separates a continent.
00:15For 200 years, they dreamed of building a bridge.
00:21The first plan was in 1802.
00:25Horses and oil lamps.
00:26In 1880, they actually started digging a test tunnel.
00:34But the sea always wins.
00:40After four failed starts, the British and French governments finally agreed.
00:48Two nations.
00:51One incredible risk.
00:52They weren't just building a tunnel.
00:58They were fusing two economies.
01:01Two rail tunnels and one central service tunnel.
01:04On the French side, the village of Sangat became ground zero.
01:17In England, they dug from the legendary cliffs of Dover.
01:21The biggest problem?
01:27Geology.
01:31They had to tunnel through this, the chalk marl.
01:36Hard, but mostly watertight.
01:39If they drifted a few meters high, they hit porous rock and guaranteed flooding.
01:44They were aiming for a layer only 20 meters thick.
01:5875 meters under the sea.
02:01Years of seafloor testing narrowed down the route.
02:04The UK problem.
02:13How do you build a massive portal into a vertical cliff face?
02:20They dynamited 250,000 cubic meters of rock just to create a flat base.
02:26A new piece of Britain was made from chalk and dynamite.
02:36The French built a vast 60 meter deep, circular pit near the coast.
02:43This allowed their tunnel boring machines to launch underground.
02:47The French pits were deep.
02:54The pressure was already immense.
03:02The tunnel machines were not bought.
03:05They were manufactured.
03:0811 tunnel boring machines.
03:11Each one a self-contained subterranean factory.
03:14The cutter head alone weighed 600 tons.
03:26This thing has to grind through 20 miles of solid rock.
03:31Cut.
03:32Clean.
03:32Line.
03:33A simultaneous, continuous process.
03:40Hydraulic arms would lift and seal the prefabricated tons.
03:44These segments are watertight.
03:50The only thing standing between the workers and the ocean.
03:54The UK launched six machines.
03:57Three for the land.
03:58Three for the sea.
04:01The French machines were different.
04:03They were sealed face excavators.
04:05The temperature inside these unventilated tunnels could hit 50 degrees Celsius.
04:21The French side had wetter, looser rocks.
04:23It wasn't just drilling rocks.
04:25So they used pressure to hold the mud.
04:26It was a pressure cooker.
04:27Miles from the sun.
04:28The service tunnel took the lead.
04:41Every meter was a gamble.
04:43They were looking for water seepage.
04:59The earliest warning of trouble.
05:01Every leak had to be found and grouted immediately.
05:10Massive floods threatened to trap entire TBM crews.
05:29The pressure was crushing.
05:39Not just the sea, but the schedule.
05:42To stay in the chalk marl, they needed absolute precision.
05:46A beam of light kept them on the 20-meter path.
05:55The primary guide was a gyroscope.
05:59An electronic compass that knew every turn.
06:03The operator steered the 1,000-tone machine like a car.
06:07The logistics of removing 7.5 million cubic meters of spoil was monstrous.
06:21The British spoil was dumped into the sea, forming a new 90-acre coastal platform.
06:29They've literally pushed the English Channel back.
06:32When you don't know where to put the dirt, you build an island.
06:45The main rail tunnels followed, larger and faster.
06:53The rail tunnels had to be perfect to handle high-speed trains.
06:57The track was specially designed to withstand the heat and pressure.
07:15After 39 kilometers, the service tunnel faces were only meters apart.
07:20Two separate worlds, drilling blindly toward a common point.
07:30They relied on the gyroscope.
07:33Any error, and they would miss completely.
07:38Final moment of truth.
07:40The first pilot hole.
07:47Breakthrough.
07:47December 1, 1990.
07:55The handshake heard round the world.
08:00The final alignment error.
08:02Less than half a meter.
08:0639 kilometers apart.
08:0975 meters down.
08:11That is impossible precision.
08:13The chalk marl held.
08:26The risk paid off.
08:38The main rail tunnels followed, meeting over the next few months.
08:42But what happened to the tunnel-boring machines?
08:56The UK TBM was too big to turn around.
08:59They sealed it up.
09:02Six huge British machines were buried beneath the English Channel.
09:06The French TBMs were dismantled and brought back to the surface.
09:30The French TBMs were dismantled and brought back to the surface.
09:30The tunnels needed air, light, and safety.
09:45Giant fans push fresh air through the length of the tunnels.
09:49A failure in ventilation means a catastrophe.
09:58The system cycles the air every few seconds.
10:02Power and signal cables for the 25 kV electric trains.
10:06The track was precision welded for high-speed operation.
10:25Trains travel at up to 160 kilometers per hour underwater.
10:30Touching that 25,000-volt line is a permanent mistake.
10:48One problem.
10:50The train pushes a wall of air ahead of it.
10:52Fire was the greatest fear.
11:07Every 375 meters, an escape route.
11:11The service tunnel is the lifeline.
11:14A complete fire suppression system lines the entire tunnel.
11:22Emergency lighting is redundant and powerful.
11:32Emergency lighting is redundant and powerful.
11:32The first train runs, but the project is in chaos.
11:52The first train runs, but the project is in chaos.
11:52The cost had ballooned from £4.7 billion to £9.55 billion.
12:09The engineering was a miracle.
12:12The finances?
12:14A disaster.
12:16The terminals in Folkestone and Coquelles were finally complete.
12:31They built a massive logistics hub.
12:35A city for cars.
12:3640 minutes in a custom-designed ferry on wheels.
12:52It's a high-speed underground cruise.
12:55The political dream was ready to be realised.
13:04The cost in human lives, 11 people in total, was tragically real.
13:10The final official act to open the link is completed.
13:24The channel tunnel was open for business.
13:32The impossible had become reality.
13:34No longer separated by water, but joined by steel.
13:46Two years later, the ultimate fear.
13:49A fire inside a truck shuttle, fuelled by tyres and cargo.
13:54The fire suppression systems activated.
13:57The service tunnel became a sanctuary, saving every life aboard the truck shuttle.
14:01The safety system worked.
14:05It proved the three-tunnel design was correct, even under the worst-case scenario.
14:11With the completion of HS1, travel time from London to Paris was finally cut to just over two hours.
14:21Faster than flying, without the security lines or the airport stress.
14:26The seamless crossing of the English Channel, made possible by a century of planning.
14:35The physical link is permanent.
14:38An unbreakable bond of steel and chalk.
14:42It remains one of the greatest collaborative engineering feats in human history.
14:48The channel tunnel proved that human ingenuity can conquer natural barriers.
15:02The next impossible challenge is already underway.
15:08This is the True Connection.
15:10Don't miss what's next.
15:12Subscribe.
15:12Next Gen Manufacturing!
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