Half Bridge - Half Tunnel

The other day I was in another one of my random thought moods and I discussed the possibility of building a bridge across the Channel between France and England, with Claire. This would make popping over to France sooo much easier and quicker. No queueing, no waiting for hours on either end and no need to adjust your schedule to meet someone else's. Just drive there, like you would pop round to your mum's - well, maybe not my mum's - the length of Africa isn't really a "pop round" distance, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, Claire pointed out that this would never happen as the Channel is a shipping lane, so the bridge would have to be very very high off the water and with the support pillar far apart to ensure some dimwhitted ship captain doesn't knock into something.

Go point, however what about this bridge/tunnel (left - click for larger image)? I got this pic in my email (thanks mum). It links Denmark and Sweden, and has the tunnel bit just so that ships can pass without having to worry about running into anything. What an ingenius bit of engineering.

One of these across the Channel would be great, and I'd even pay a toll for the luxury of crossing it - providing it wasn't insanely expensive.