document: Cheers erupted Saturday on both sides of the English Channel when British and French workers digging the Channel Tunnel finally met after knocking out a passage large enough to walk through and shake hands . `` Today , for the first time , men can cross the channel underground , '' French President Francois Mitterrand said . `` What a brilliant sign of the vitality of our two countries . '' The breakthrough came in a 6-foot-tall service tunnel that will be used to maintain two rail tunnels still being bored . It marked a symbolic milestone in Europe 's biggest engineering project . Using jackhammers , Graham Fagg , 42 , of Dover , England , and Philippe Cozette , 37 , of Calais , France , knocked out the last foot of chalk to link up the British and French sides of the tunnel -- which has been dubbed a `` chunnel . '' The smiling pair then clasped hands , embraced and exchanged their national flags . Workers in overalls looked on and applauded . `` God save the queen ! '' cried French workers , uncorking Champagne bottles . `` Vive la France ! '' came the reply from the British side . Saturday 's handshake came three years to the day after tunneling began at Sangatte , near Calais , and in Folkestone , England . The $ 16.7-billion Channel Tunnel will make it possible to travel from Paris to London by high-speed train in 3 1/2 hours when it opens in June , 1993 . The train trip through just the tunnel is expected to take 35 minutes , compared with 90 minutes to cross the channel by ferry . Fares for the undersea crossing have not been set . But experts say the charges may be at least double the 1986 projections of $ 46 per person in a car and $ 19 per train passenger . The tunnelers have spent the last month drilling through the last 100 yards of chalk with giant American-built boring machines , trying to align the two halves . The British tunnelers actually linked up with the French on Oct. 29 , when workers drilled a 2-inch hole through the chalk in a service tunnel . The connection ended Britain 's island separation from continental Europe for the first time since the last Ice Age about 8,000 years ago . Fagg and Cozette were chosen by draw from among the 3,000 workers to represent their countries in Saturday 's meeting . After widening the passage from the size of a peephole to a window , they laid down their tools and shook hands . `` Bonjour , '' boomed Fagg . `` Hello , '' Cozette said , chuckling . Michel Delebarre and Malcolm Rifkind , the French and British transportation ministers , rode in small service trains down the maintenance tunnel to witness the handshake . Fagg and Rifkind rode on to Sangatte , while Cozette and Delebarre headed for Folkestone to join in celebrations that lasted into the night . Nine workers have been killed during the project . The cost has climbed from an initial estimate of $ 9.4 billion to $ 16.7 billion . The tunnel is viewed positively in France , where it is expected to revive economically depressed northern areas . But Britain has shown worry over the loss of its historic moat from the Continent . Many Britons fear drug traffickers or terrorists will invade their island via the tunnel .
extractive_keyphrases: english channel channel tunnel brilliant sign engineering project continental europe rail tunnels symbolic milestone
abstractive_keyphrases: high-speed train 6-foot-tall service tunnel