The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-11-26

standahe and readable FORM as possible before the road
ers OF the sstD And here before she .uns
sary 70 eonpieis understanding q me subject 20 go
back few years and give suceinct history ~ n' 0
prise from IL incipency up 70 the present 'i"e'
HISTORY ENTERPRISE -, -,
As long ago as the wear 1912 Charles Albert then King
OF Sardinia, entertained the idea Of N some way
ing the passage OF the Alps from France into PIEDMONT
accessible and made il the object OF serious study
The Idea OF tunnel hardly dared then TO be enter
plain occupied by the house OF Savoy from Suss 70 the
fortress OF Alexandria from Conf TO tho Lago Maggore
became covered with railway tracks, the necessity Of
Overcoming the formidable barrier which arrests the
rapid railway circulation through Europe by continued
line OF rail through tunnel to be considered abso
full railway route ACROSS and through the Sem
mering, and the other across the Bremen into
Tyrol The Italian government was naturally
jealous Of the fact that Austria would thus
be in possession Of the only lines Of railway commu-
which has resulted In the tunnel road in process Of
construction
At first the idea Of tunnel, although spoken Of In
whispers was looked upon wild and idle dream, and
the hope that practicable railway could DO made to
vsed with this object but singuIary enough none Of
them considered possessing sufficient degree
70 10 s
the commencement OF the tunnel, railway, upon the
plan invented by an American named Fell Is In actual
course or construction Mount Cents When the
tunnel was talked OF all sorts OF objections made to
Its practlcabty, and tho difficulties in its way
OF actually facing The distance was much greater
than had been before attempted; and how air
TO be obtained In tunnel seven miles in length TO keep
alive the workmen and passengers How was Il known
what obstacles might be encountered in the gloomy
heart OF the noun ain itself; what mountains within
mountains Of iron "copper" Of rock 20 hard that
charge Of powder would blow out Of the hole by
the drill as il would out OF cannon, without affecting
the surrounding masss Imagination pictured within
those UNEMPLOYED bowels of the earth qucksands and
yawnng chasms and caverns-perhaps bottomless
tending down TO Hades itself Molten masses of rock
Arav tsral
and plausible objection seemed TO be the fear OF the tun
mel being whelmed with water percoating through the
earth from the mountain torrents and the mel ing SHOWS
OF the Alps or from sources existing in the interior Tho
rush Of this water through the tunnel drowning the
workmen would then pour out Of the mouth and deuge
the valley OF the Arc and convert II into one mighty
lake. Then there another real and very practical
difficulty about which there could be no doubt
Tho ordinary and quickest and cheapest mode OF
making tunnels is sink down vertical shafts wells
at intervals from the summit This, however In the
case of the Alpine tunnel plainly impraciicabe,
entrance shaft TO reach the level Of the tunnel must
have been 1913 metres deepthe metre is ISL feet; at
three thousand 1t must have been LOIS metres
In depth at FIVE thousand seven hundred II must have
been $40 metres deep, and engineers calculated that
such shaft would require forty years to SINK and II
instead Of y vertical shaft oblquo were sunk il
would be required DO almost long the tunnel it.
self II evident, then, that the mountain must BIO
attacked from the two ends and it desirable that
other than the ordinary Of cutting should be
ployed the latter case the generation which
menced would not have seen IT completed as II would
have required by any known mode Of operation some
sixty seventy years TO bring 1t to u termination
The PROJECT LAID ASIDE AND AGAIN TAKEN
After the disastrous battle Of Novara which lad Sar-
din PROSTATE beneath the foot Of Austria the project
slept for while but when Count Cavour began to inst
new life the veins of Piedmont It revived
heartily than ever and he determined that the Alps
should be tunneed, and to him and to the fact
OF tho annexation Of Savoy 10 France Is due the
great that the Alpine tunnel nearly half completed
The first thing naturally to be decided was, In what part
OF the mountains the tunnel should DO pierced. This
must DO determined by three principal reasons: frst
the least thickness in the intervening barrier in other
words, the shortest passage through the mountains
secondly the most penerabe kind OF rock; and lastly
the most csnvenent points for uniting the tunnel with
the railways existing on either sido OF the Alps More
than thirty years ago nhabilant OF Bardonneche,
the Italian SIDE indicated that point tho where
tunnel should commence and the commission to whom
the Italian Parliament ed the study OF this whole
question and which consisted Of Messrs Sommellier
Grandis and Gratton after long studies and surveys
confirmed the opinion OF Medail by selecting Bardon
neche as the Italian and F0urneaux the Savoy end OF
the tunnel. The following map shows the
TUNNEL