Description

One of a limited edition bronze plaque to commemorate the drilling breakthrough during the construction of the Channel Tunnel on 1 December 1990. The plaque features Marianne and Britannia shaking hands across the Channel. At the bottom centre of the plaque a polished fragment of the piece of stone dislodged during the breakthrough has been embedded with the textual inscription “Breakthrough 1st December 1990” embossed. On the rear of the plaque is a label with the text “Number 01442 in the official limited edition of 14,500 castings of ‘The Breakthrough’ by B T Shiraishi”.

This plaque commemorates one of the key moments for civil engineering of the twentieth century.

For a description of the building of the Channel Tunnel see https://ice-museum-scotland.hw.ac.uk/product/2024-003/.