Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1900-06-08
FAMOUS TUNNELS.
BORINGS WHICH TOOK YEARS
TO COMPLETE.
Millions of Money and Years of Labor
Required to- Build Them A Tunnel
Twelve Miles Long-In the Aims of
Switzerlan

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
10 this end
The United States doesn't amount
TO much as country of tunnels
The only American tunnel more than
mile and a quarter long is the
Hoosac which has a length of four and
three-quarters miles. and in fact the
builders broke no records except those
for slowness and expense 1t cost SIS
100000 and took 81 years to build.
The regions in which tunnels grow
to the greatest size are those of the
Alps, where the people point with
pride to the Arlberg tunnel. six and
half miles in length; the Mount
Gents tunnel. seven and a quarter
miles; the st. Gothard, nine and a
quarter miles long. and the Simklon
which will be twelve and quarter
miles long when its builders are
through the mountain
1t WIS 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 a tunnel.
70
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 II occurred
70 Frenchman named Sommeiller
that time could be saved by the use
OF machinery, and so he invented
drill that could bore hole in 20 min
utes that two workmen could not do
in two hours After that the hole in
the mountain progressed more rapidly.
and toward the end the progress was
If feet a day. The tunnel begun in
1857 was finished in 1871
Communications between France
and Italy had scarcely opened when
work began on the st. Gothard rail
way which now connects Italy and
Switzerland through the most stu
pendols system of tunnels in the
world This road. although quite
short. cost more than $50 900 900 Il
passes through one Of the most mount
ainous countries in the world. crossing
II viaducts, 115 bridges and 70 tun-
nels. having a total length of nearly
90 miles.
The third great trans-montane tun-
mel is the Arlberg 1t is six and a half
miles long-almost as long as the
Mont Cenis-and yet II took less than
one-fourth as long TO build Be
gun in 1850, it was finished in 1854
having progressed at the rate of 273i
feet a day It connects the province
of Won Arlberg with the rest of the
Austrian Tyrol through the Ari
tween Austria Hungary and France.
The French took up tunnel build
ing in 1865 in order to connect their
river and canal systems. and built
several such tunnels within the sue
ceeding 200 years. Tunneling for canal
purposes was taken I'D in England in
the middle of the last century. One
of these tunnels only ~ feet high,
was more than 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 81 miles long
Lord Wolseley declared that it would
facilitate the invasion of England. and
il was, therefore abandOred Two OF
the most recent tunnels are that I'M
der the Thames, at Blackwell. for car
riages. 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 feats !
in the world.
The longest underwater tunnel in |
the world is that under the Severn
river in England. It is four and a
half miles long and was opened in
1885, after IL years of building Sew
eral times there were breaks, followed |
by an inflow of water. and once a |
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 far. At last the chief |
diver tied reservoir Of compressed |
air upon his back, walked to the door |
and closed it with a crowbar.
Another noted subaQueous tunnel is
that under the St. Clair river. which |
was bored by the Grand Trunk rail |
way in 90 months at cost of So OO0,- |
600 1t is $3.50 feet long