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Official records released long after the plan sunk without trace have showed that a colossal suspension bridge was considered a viable alternative to the Channel tunnel in the early 1980s.

The three-lane motorway spanning the 21-mile route from Dover to Calais proposed by the LinktoEurope engineering group would have transported cars and freight lorries 220 feet above the sea.

Families on holiday would have paid a toll of just £5.60 to travel across the bridge if construction had gone ahead, at a time when civil engineers were dismissing plans for an underwater tunnel as 'impractical'.

But problems with the bridge plan, including the obstacle its vast supporting pylons would present to boats trying to traverse the channel, ultimately favoured the 'sub-marine' option.

The construction of the Eurotunnel was beset with difficulties in the early 1990s, but the project was completed in 1994.

More than 7.5 million people travelled through the tunnel in their cars last year, while 7.8 million people sat back in the more luxurious surrounding of the Eurostar train which whisks passengers directly from London Waterloo to Paris Gare du Nord.

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