Despite its official inauguration Friday, the historic new tunnel beneath the English Channel linking Britain and France won't be open to the public for a few more months.
Even so, the chunnel - as it has long been called - is already starting to make an impact.Part of the impact is in the form of lost revenue resulting from construction delays that doubled the cost of the project and made the tunnel unavailable until after the peak of the coming tourist season.
Another part of the impact is in the form of increased carping between the British and French, some of whom see the cross-channel link as a plot to benefit London at the expense of Paris - and vice versa.
But the fact remains that speedier travel between the two countries is bound eventually to increase trade between the two countries. With increased trade should come increased cooperation. More cooperation, in turn, should enhance the prospects for the creation of a United States of Europe - a process that already is well under way.
Even if that ambitious dream is never realized, the 30.7-mile-long chunnel - the world's longest undersea tunnel - is still an engineering marvel that is a testimony to the technological prowess of the British and French.
It is also a testimony to their persistence, having taken six years to complete once new life was finally breathed into a proposal that originated in the era of Napoleon.
The challenge now is to surpass this technological achievement with the social and political harmony needed when improved transportation and communication put people in Europe - and elsewhere - in closer contact with each other.