I meant to do this one as a podcast, but I couldn't get Audacity to work, so the podcasts will have to come later.
Talk about dilatory! How about the Channel Tunnel that runs from England to France under La Manche (the English Channel)? That was a project with quite a few dilatory events.
Concieved in 1802, the Chunnel (for short) wasn't open for business until 1994! Of course in 1802 the dilatory problem was the lack of technology. Horse-drawn carts weren't quite efficient and powerful enough to plow through dirt and stone that had been packed down by the English Channel for a million years or so.
When the technology did come along, both sides of the river were worried about their own national security; after all, the French and the English haven't always been friends. Then when they decided they did want to be friends and make it easy to pay visits to the neighbors, they ran out of dough. A large portion of the construction was funded by private, small-time investors who have never gotten their money back. Finally in 1994, there was a big ceremony attended by the Queen and the Chunnel was open for business. These days, it's easy to take it for granted because if you take the Eurorail, you won't even have any way to know you're under the sea.
Hi everyone, I thought you might enjoy my podcast: 
Hi everyone, I posted an episode to my podcast, Melissa Wolfs Podcast.
Click this link to check it out:
How interesting... I've never heard any of this before. My one and only channel crossing was marred by choppy water and motion sickness. Got pretty green around the gills that day. The chunnel was not yet finished then. I would have preferred the underground crossing by far.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think about that, but you're right - there were so many delays with that project. I vaguely remember the big ceremony. I wonder if people still sail across on boats sometimes....
ReplyDeleteSlightly off topic, but wasn't there a movie about a guy who swam across the channel?
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize it took so long to build that thing. I'm kind of surprised they thought about it in 1802. Very cool.
1802?!? Whoa. That's quite a long time for a project by human-reckoning. To think that I consider a road project to be slow if they don't finish within a year or two.
ReplyDeleteUhhhh thats a really long time.... how did maintain funding for something that took so long to open???? And I'm thinking that after my last final (which is in 2 hrs EEEEEK, I might revamp my posts...everyone's posts are so good ane mine are so bland)
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