Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-06
What the Project Means.

looked on as especially significant.
What the Project Means.
From Paris to Soudan without changing
cars!' 1t is difficult at first hearing for
even the enthusiastic French to realize all
that it means. This twelve-mile tunnel I'M
derneath the narrow strait of Gibraltar is
to unite, In the most intimate way, all
Frances African possessions with the
mother country. France Is to be extended
practically to the utmost confines Of her
long-cherished expensive colony of Algeria
Half of the objections to it's colonization by
French farmers, artisans and industrials-
all the worst kind of stay-at-homes-must
disappear. The French horror of sea
voyage-something inexplica Bile to Amer
leans and English-is no longer to stand in
the way of tourists, settlers and specu-
lators.
But this is only a beginning" says the
Frenchman glibly. THE projected railway
line along the northern coast of Africa will
extend to meet the line of Tripoli. and so
continue to Cairo and the Isthmus of Suez.
There another tunnel will be cut under the
Suez canal itself. and the railroad will con-
tinue on triumphantly along the shores of
the Persian gulf on, on, across the CONT
nent of Asia to-Bombay!"
NJ. Berlier. engineer Of the Gibraltar tun-
mel. declares that the work will not cost
more than 1913 900 francs. When the
actually bored a mile and more of 1t be-
fore an invasion scare in England put a
stop to everything-the engineering diff
culties were the easiest disposed of. M.
Ber,ier's experience with the Seine tunnel
and the Metropolitan Underground has put
In his hands new methods and corps of
experienced lieutenants. and the fact that
the work Is home will give the
French investor confidence that he might
lack since Panama.
Canal of the Two Seas.
1t is proposed, by taking advantage Of
the present waterways of the interior of
France, to make a ship canal from a we'll
guarded port on the Atlantic coast to as
we'll guarded port on the Mediterranean.
From Bordeaux, up the Garonne river.
the canal boats that carry freight so eco
nomically throughout all France plod their
way to Agen, to Toulouse, and then
through the Canal du Midi, by a great lock
system. climb and descend the watershed
of the formidable Neck of Naurouze. Be-
low Carcasonne the Canal du Midi strikes
the River Aude, and then starts off north
east along winding route to Beziers, COM
pleting a great complicated system. BY
way of the Aude the canal boats descend
to the Mediterranean below Narbonne. The
engineer of genius to whom France owes
the Canal du Midi-in old-time called the
Canal de Languedoc-was that Pierre Paul
Riquet, first created Baron and then Count
| of Caraman, by Louis XIV, long ago as
1856. His grandson married the sister of
the last Prince de Chimay before the direct
male line became extinct, on which event
the title was transferred to his descend
ants. now properly the house of Garaman-
Chimay, into which Clara Ward, a pretty
girl from Detroit. married. only to abandon
it in company Of a Hungarian gypsy violin
list of the name of Rigo. This canal of
Languedoc was the first great artificial
waterway Of Europe, and the seventeenth
century genius of Pierre Paul Riquet shines
as brightly ever. The hardest task of
modern engineers will be to follow him
over the Neck of Naurouze 1.-The black
mountain" where the cuttings must be
sixty-five feet deep. Millions and millions
1t will cost to widen and deepen the old
canal through this most difficult part of
its route.
An Enormous Undertaking..
Where the canal boats now drag their
slow way the Canal des Deux-Msrs will
give passage to the heaviest men-of-war
whirled across France through hills and
vaneys, not by mules, but by steam loco
motives. Thirty-two feet deep and wide
enough to permit two warships to pass
each other in it will be the Canal des
Deux-Mers.
Contrary to what would seem the natural
Atlantic terminus, Bordeaux is proposed to
be neglected in favor of what will be prac-
tically a new port Arcachon, with its
great natural basin lends itself ideally to
the kind of fertilization that would be de-
| manded by a canal that would, by the fact
| of Its existence, come to be the central
| strategic feature of the country Area
! chon. when the canal is finished will be
! the Brest of today hundred times magni-
| fled. Bordeaux. that could never be made
| to give the necessary ease and security to
| a war fleet. will remain the great CONNER
cial port 1t Is. branch canal is to con-
meet it with the great canal; and, without
any of the Inconvenience of a naval GEN.
| ter 1t will thus find it's commercial adyan-
tages immensely increased. Today France
| sees so per cent of her products carried
under foreign flags. Where French boats
carry 25OO,OO tens. more than 100 600 600
tons are lugged around the world in En-
glsh bottoms.
An Economic Measure.
Another advantage of the canal as PLAN
| ned by the effervescent Gaul will be to
| furnish work for years to the French work.
| ingman to the calming of the laborlng
mind and the security of the republic The
L hoi,, 20.