Chunnel Vision

In the 1860’s, the British and French first began thinking about building a 30-plus mile tunnel under the English Channel to connect their two countries. The engineering companies estimated that it would cost over $10 million (U.S.) to complete– not a small piece of change 150 years ago.

A little old Jewish man heard about their plans. He approached the Commissioner of Transportation and said he would do the job for $50,000.

“How’s that possible?” he asked.
“Listen, my son will start digging from one end, I’ll start digging from the other end and we’ll meet in the middle.”
“What happens if you miss?”
“So,” he shrugged, “You’ll have two tunnels.”

He didn’t get the job.

In a recent study of embryonic science, it was discovered that when the eye begins to form in an unborn fetus, protruding from the back of the eyeball is the optic nerve containing over 50,000 individual nerve fibers.  “Coincidentally”, the brain also starts developing the other end of the optic nerve, also with 50,000 nerve fibers. In terms of actual measurement, the distance between the two ends is less than 3 inches. In cellular size, that’s the equivalent of millions of miles. Over a short period of time, the two ends find each other amidst the myriad of other nerves of the body, join each other seamlessly, accurately matching all 100,000 fibers.

The English Channel Tunnel (dubbed, the “Chunnel”), was finally completed in 1994. It took six years to build, required sophisticated, heavy equipment and computerized monitoring, cost almost $10 billion and came in 80% over budget. It still has its occasional problems but overall, it works fine.

There are over 6 billion people in the world with untold numbers of animals, fish and birds. We all, more or less, share the same physiology of the eye. (One notable exception being the octopus, but, then again, they have a lot more limbs to worry about).

In almost every instance throughout the world, throughout history, the eye-brain connection has worked flawlessly. No heavy equipment, no $50,000 and no two tunnels.

A marvelous bit of engineering from the Supreme Engineer.