Daily camera. [volume] (Boulder, Colo.) 1891-1928, 1900-06-22
FAMOUS TUNNELS.
BoRlNGs WHICH TOOK YEARS
TO COMPLETE.
Millions of Money and Years of Labor
Required to Build Them A Tnnael
Twelve Miles I.ong--In the Alps of
Switzerland q

A task upon which years of labor
and millions of money are expended
but which when completed saves a
vast expenditure of time and wealth
is that of tunneling. The spirit of the
age is progress and neither spares ex-
penses nor stops at difficulties in saw
ing time in transportation, and tun-
nels, as much as anything else, work
to this end
The United States doesn't amount
to much as country Of tunnels
The only American tunnel more than
a mile and quarter long is the
Hoosac, which has length of four and
! three-quarters miles. and in lact the
| builders broke no records except those
for slowness and expense. It cost $15,-
10000 and took 81 years to build.
The regions in which tunnels grow
to the greatest size are those OF the
Alps, where the people poirt with
pride to the Arlberg tunnel, six and
a half miles in length; the Mount
Gents tunnel seven and quarter
miles; the st. Gothard, nine and a
quarter miles long, and the Simklon.
which will be twelve and quarter
miles long when it's builders are
through the mountain
1t was in the middle of the sos
when the people of France and Italy
became tired of crossing the Alps on
mules and resolved to have tunnel.
| They set to work in 1857 and pro-
J ceeded to white their way into the
hearts Of the everlasting hills with
pickaxes and crowbars Working both
in France and Italy they could only
bore out eight feet a day. Progress
| was almost as slow as that in the
Hoosac tunnel of the United States.
After humping away at the living
rock for about five years it occurred
| to a Frenchman named Sommeiller
| that time could be saved by the use
| OF machinery, and so he invented
drill that could bore a hole in 20 min
utes that two workmen could not 10
in two hours. After that the hole IN
| the mountain progressed more RAPIDLY.
and toward the end the progress W.
IA feet a day. The tunnel begun in
| 1857 was finished in 1871.
Communications between Fran
and Italy had scarcely opened when
work began on the st. Gothard rail
way, which now connects Italy and
! Switzerland through the most stu
! pendous system of tunnels in the
world This Foad although quite
short cost more than $50 900 900. r
| passes through one of the most mount
ainous countries in the world, crossing
| If viaducts, lis bridges and 70 tun-
nels, having total length of nearly
| so miles.
The third great transmontane tun-
mel is the Arlberg. 1t is six and a half
miles long-almost as long as the
Mont Cenis-and yet it took less than
one-fourth as long to build. Be
gun in 1880, it was finished in 1884
having progressed at the rate of 27$l
| feet a day 1t connects the province
of Won Arlberg with the rest of the
Austrian Tyrol through the Ari
| mountains, and facilitates trade be-
! tween Austria Hungary and France.
The French took up tunnel build
| ing in 1866 in order to connect their
river and canal systems, and built
several such tunnels within the Sue
cceding 200 gears. Tunneling for canal
purposes was taken up in England in
the middle of the last century. One
| of these tunnels, only II feet high.
was more than a mile and half LONG
and narrow boats were propelled
| through it by men who lay on their
backs and pushed with their feet
upon the tunnels roof The first tun-
mel in the United States was built be-
tween 1918 and 1921, on the Union
canal 1t was 450 feet long, 20 feet
high and IS feet wide. and has long
since been made into an open cut.
The boldest tunnel ever projected
| was that under the Straits of Dover,
| which would have been q miles long
Lord Wolseley declared that it would
facilitate the invasion of England, and
| it was, therefore, abandoned Two Of
! the most recent tunnels are that I'M
der tfe Thames, at Blackwell, for car
riases, and that under the river, Spree
in Germany for street cars. The Gro
| ton aqueduct, 33 miles long, is one of
the most remarkable engineering feat
| in the world.
The longest underwater tunnel in
the world is that under the Severn
river in England. 1t is four and
half miles long and was opened in
1885. after - years of building. Sev-
eral times there were breaks, followed
] by an inflow of water. and once
! high tide flowed into the shafts and
swamped the whole tunnel. Divers
were employed to close the bulkhead
doors, which were 1000 feet from the
shaft, but were unable to drag the
rubber pipes so far. At last the chief
diver tied a reservoir of compressed
air upon his back, walked to the door
and closed it with crowbar.
Another noted subaqueous tunnel is
that under the St. Clair river. which