English Channel

The English Channel ( French language:La Manche) is the part of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the island of Great Britain from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 563 kilometre (350 miles) long and at its widest is 1 E5 m km (150 miles). The Strait of Dover is the narrowest point, it being only 1 E4 m (21 miles) from Dover, England to Cap Gris-Nez. The Strait of Dover (in French: Pas de Calais) is the eastern end of the English Channel, where it meets the North Sea. The Channel Islands lie in the Channel, close to the French side. The �le d'Ouessant marks the western end of the Channel. The French d�partement of Manche, which incorporates the Cotentin Peninsula that juts out into the Channel, takes its name from the surrounding seaway. ==Formation of the Channel== Before the end of the last ice age, around 10,000 years ago, the British Isles were part of mainland Europe. As the icesheet melted, a large freshwater lake formed in the southern part of what is now the North Sea. The outflow channel from the lake entered the Atlantic Ocean in the region of Dover and Calais. At some point around 7th millennium BC, catastrophic erosion swept away the chalk to create the English Channel, which has since been further widened by wave action on the soft, chalk cliffs. The same mechanism continues to widen the English Channel today. ==Historical significance== The Channel has been a key natural defence for Britain, a fact that is referred to in William Shakespeare's play ''Richard II (play)'':

''This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands''

:–''Richard II''. Act 2, Scene 1. It has allowed Britain to intervene but rarely be dangerously threatened in European conflicts. Without the gap Napoleon I and Hitler would possibly have been able to overcome the powerful enemy that the British state represented. Nevertheless, the Channel has been the scene of many invasions (or attempted invasions) including the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Spanish Armada in 1588, and the Battle of Normandy in 1944. The Channel has been the scene of many list of naval battles, including the Battle of Portland (1653), the Battle of La Hougue (1692) and the engagement between USS Kearsarge (1861) and CSS Alabama (1864). However, at times the Channel has served as a link joining shared cultures and political structures, from pre-Roman Celtic society, the Culture of Rome, and the foundation of Brittany by settlers from Great Britain, to the Normans state. Cross-Channel trade has been a significant factor for societies on both sides of the Channel from prehistoric times, and a number of important seaport have developed in England and in France: * Dover * Calais * Dieppe, France * Southampton * Portsmouth * Le Havre * Cherbourg-Octeville Important ferry routes are * Dover-Calais * Newhaven, East Sussex-Dieppe * Portsmouth-Caen (Ouistreham) * Portsmouth-Cherbourg * Portsmouth-Le Havre * Poole-Saint Malo * Weymouth, Dorset-Saint Malo * Plymouth-Roscoff Adding to the high level of cross-Channel traffic is the very significant traffic passing through the Channel, linking the economies of northern Europe with the rest of the world. Combined, this maritime traffic makes the Channel one of the busiest seaways in the world, accounting for a large share of global maritime trade (some sources place this at up to one quarter). The coastal resorts of the Channel, such as Brighton and Deauville, inaugurated an era of aristocratic tourism in the early 19th century which developed into the democratic seaside tourism that has shaped resorts around the world. == The Channel Tunnel == Nowadays, many travellers cross the English Channel underneath, by way of the Channel tunnel or "Chunnel". This grand engineering feat, first proposed in the time of Napoleon, connects England and France by Rail transport. It is now routine to travel between Paris, Brussels and London on the Eurostar train. == Notable Channel crossings == On 7 January 1785 Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and United States John Jeffries travelled from Dover to Calais in a gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air. The first person to swim the channel was Matthew Webb in 1875. On 6 August 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to accomplish this feat, breaking the men's record of the time by two hours. This was quite a feat. In 1909, Louis Bl�riot (France) was the first person to fly over the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft. In 1979, a 75-pound (34-kg) airplane called the ''Gossamer Albatross'' won the �100,000 Kremer prize for being the first human-powered airplane to fly over the Channel. The pilot Bryan Allen (cyclist) pedalled for 3 hours to accomplish this feat. On 31 July 2003, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner, wearing high-tech carbon wings, jumped out of a plane 30,000 feet (9 144 m) above Dover, glided over the Channel, and opened his parachute above Calais. On 14 June 2004, Sir Richard Branson broke the world record for crossing the Channel in an amphibious vehicle. The Gibbs Aquada, a two-seater, open-top sports car, in which he did it, broke the record by some 6 hours. Straits of Europe Seas European geography Straits

English Channel

re: the "Moat that God built" comment -- this appears to be completely spurious. Google cannot find this text anywhere but in the earlier Wikipedia article. The only allusion I can find to a moat in Shakespeare is John of Gaunt's speech from Richard II: This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands, This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England... but it is 'nature' not God that is described as creating the moat. I have removed the comment from the article. If anyone want to reinstate it, can they please provide a cite to show where Shakespeare uses the phrase? [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22Moat+that+God+Built%22 Google search for "Moat that God Built"] ------------ == Mixed Units == Is there any good reason why both miles and km are used as primary united in the same sentence, it doesn't read well... "It is about 350 miles (563km) long and at its widest is 240 km (150 miles)." I have changed the primary unit to kilometres for now, i.e. "It is about 560 km long (350 miles)...", although if someone has a good reason to make the primary unit miles I'm sure that'd work too! User:mattsday 12:18, 22 May, 2004 (UTC) ------------ an enthusiastic German contributor has overwritten the entire entry. What's the process for creating 'other language' pages?--dgd The English channel in Portuguese is known as "canal da Mancha" like in French, in Spanish... the same. and other languages too. Why the English people call it English Channel? User:PedroPVZ 20:41, 7 May 2004 (UTC) :Why shouldn't we call it the English Channel? I don't see why all languages should use identical terms. BTW, the Welsh call it :cy:M�r Udd. I'm not sure why-- I heard it was the corruption of the name of an ancient tribe. User:Marnanel 21:41, May 7, 2004 (UTC) :: I've never eard of Welsh language. It's Strange. Normally translations are used. Is there a reason? Cause the channel could be called French Channel by the French.User:PedroPVZ 22:47, 7 May 2004 (UTC) :::I'm sure the French could call it that if they wished; they don't really need to consult the English on the matter any more than the English needed to ask the opinions of French speakers before naming the channel. I don't really see what the problem is: it seems quite reasonable to me that different communities living on opposite sides of the same sea might pick differing names. :::As to Welsh language-- it has half a million speakers and a fairly active Wikipedia (http://cy.wikipedia.org ). Drop by sometime! User:Marnanel 01:13, May 8, 2004 (UTC) ::And as far as the Welsh name for the English Channel is concerned, 'M�r Udd' is pronounced something like 'More Eeth' with 'th' as in 'there', not 'thank'. 'M�r' means 'sea' (cf Latin 'mare', French 'mer', English 'marine' and 'maritime') and 'Udd' means 'lord'. So an English translation of the Welsh name is 'The Lord's Sea'. ::But I'm English and have only a smattering of Welsh. Maybe a Welsh-speaker out there can confirm, correct or amplify as necessary. :::I'm curious about the Udd==lord part. The BBC's dictionary[http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/wales/learnwelsh/welsh_dictionary.pl] doesn't know "udd" and translates "lord" as "arglwydd", which is the only word I've seen used in Welsh-- not that I'm anything of an expert. User:Marnanel 12:52, May 8, 2004 (UTC) : I've seen the Welsh wikipedia, the language is too obscure. is it widly spoken? Is the first-language of whom? User:PedroPVZ 00:32, 9 May 2004 (UTC) ::It's spoken to some degree by a little more than 20% of the population of Wales: that's about 600,000 people. Several hundred thousand of those speak it as a first language, I believe. All schools in Wales must teach it, and in many it's the primary language of instruction. There's a Welsh-language TV station and it has officially equal status with English in Wales. More information is at Welsh language. User:Marnanel 00:51, May 9, 2004 (UTC) == car transfer == is there any automobile tunnel or any other transfer beneath the Channel? it seems there is only rail tunnel... --User:Monkbel 08:13, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

English channel

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