Omaha daily bee., 1883-07-24
THE CHANNEL TUNNEL.
A Visit to the Greatest Engineering
Work of the World.
London Daily Telegraph.

London Daily Telegraph.
A tall shaft, u steam engine, an air
locomotive and a couple of wooden shan
ties marked the spot, destined, it may be,
to abut upon the English mouth of the
channel tunncl-for there are other
schemes afoot to Join London and the
extreme point of the continent of Europe
III a continuous railway journey and
without change of carriages. Mr., Ed
ward Watkin airily calculates that the
cost of the enterprise in which he is in
terosted would amount to e3, 000, 900
sterling and that the tunnel would allow
the passage of 800 trains each way
every day; at IN average speed of forty.
five miles an hour. So that the tunnel
of % miles in length might be traversed
in half an howr-a speed, he it said,
very much higher than that which
is kept up in the longest
tunnels of the st. Gothard between
Switzerland and Italy, At the bottom
of the shaft, at the mouth of the boring,
no more than seven feet i'll diameter
from end to end-excepting here and
there a somewhat wider square opening,
technically called a ''turnout'-we found
n couple of ~trollies fitted with seats ON
either side, after the manner of the tram
cars of the military train familiar to
habitues of Wimbledon camp. Running
along the sides of the trolly. close to the
ground, was a foot-board, like that at
tached to n railway carriage, and above
the seat was u semi-circular hood, lined
with red baize, sufficient to protect the
head and shoulders from dropping wet or
PARTICLES of falling debris, but not wide
enough to save the legs and feet. BY
reason of the space taken up in the lower
arc of the circle, SO rs to make n level
floor, along which the rails were laid, it
was necessary that we should sit with
knees drawn up and heels bent during
the whole time occupied in journeying to
the face of the tunnel and back again.
A Rembrandt or II Salvador Rosa
might have done pictorial justice to such
a scene Under foot for a great portion
of the was the ground is almost ankle
deep in slush, and the stalwart fellows
who drag and push the t~rollios, %trudging
manfully along, have enough to do to-
keep their foot hold. The travellers, e.
the greater length of time, moving
through a dim twilight, cannot well make
out the features even of those who sit be-
side them. Now and again the little
electric lamps, set i'll rude inches of the
naked gray chalk, cast n brilliant but flu
gitive light on the passing train. Then,
for a while, all is again but darkness visi-
BILE. There are shadows above and be-
meath and all around. Looking backward
and forward through the deepening gloom
the traveller sees an ever-receding, SEEM
ingly endless, tunnel-shaped perspective,
lit at long intervals as with fiery eyes.
Onward, and yet onward-to no sound
save the FLASHING made by the tall work
men tramping through mud, and the drip,
drip of the water upon the hood above
ourheads-we are dragged and pushed be-
meath the single, and the sand of the
shore for n time level with the beach, and
then down a quarter of a mile deep, past
low-water mark, under the bed of the
channel.
The bore has cut clean through the
gray chalk in n circle us round and true
thoroughly indeed, is the instrument
adapted to the work and to the material,
y that in dry places it is possible to see the
chisel-marks made a couple of years ago.
At intervals along the route, where it is
feared the water might come through,
= the sides and roof have been paved with
lead or clay, and held up with solid iron
; bands, apparently about eighteen inches
wide. Sometimes, in the fitful flashes of
> light, the eye rests upon falling red rivu-
lets, like streams of blood, pouring down
the damp walls. Ever and anon
there are 'faults" in the clayey
chalk not yet remedied. SO we
go on and on, moments seeming as min
utes, until the electric lamps cease alto
gether and the long, awful cave is en-
veloped in II darkness that would be i'm
penetrable but for the glimmer of a few
' tallow candles stuck into the bare walls
of the cutting. Even a mile or more
from the mouth of tho shaft it is not diff
ticult to breathe; for the same machine
which works the bore pumps drives a
continuous supply of fresh air into the
seven-foot pipe, which at present forms
no more than the nucles of a tunnel. At
a distance of $500 yards from the pit
mouth we come upon the simple and
wonderful piece of machinery which
can pierce through the bed of
the sea with extraordinary
celebrity, and at n cost cheaper
that is required for the making
of an ordinary tunnel under the hill BY
permission of the president of the board
of trade, the engineer is allowed to make
q couple of turns in order to show our
party the methods of its working. Pres
emily we remount our not too comfOrta-
bic carriage and pass STOPPING once more
along the fearsome narrow way; pass by
spaces of horribles shadows and glimpses
of welcome light. And finally, we are
swung up the shaft into the outer air,
where the glad sunshine catches the tall
cliffs face and bathes the smiling and yet
unbetrayed channel in an atmosphere of
golden glory.