The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-26
THE sIMPLON TUNNEL.

Progress of Great Alpine Work
 Modern Methods Used
 Visitors to Switzerland who in the
 course of their travels have visited
 Brigue will know that it Is the present terminus of the Jura- Simplon railway
 (the most important line in the coun- try) in the valley of the Rhone, some
 seventy-two miles above the Lake of
 Geneva. At this point the high moun-
 tains on either side come close to one
 another, leaving in places but narrow
 valley through which the river in
 course of ages has cut itself a passage.
 In order that correct idea of the
 task may be given, it will be desirable 1 to recapitulate very briefly what has | already been done in the way of tun-
 neling the Alps. The Mont Cenis Tun- 1 nel has a length of nearly eight miles, | and all trains have to attain an alti tude of 4,24S feet above the sea level. The Arlberg Is six and one-third miles in length, with a height of forty-three hundred feet. The St. Gothard is nine and one-third miles, with a maximum altitude of 3,7s3 feet. The Simplon Tunnel now in rapid course of con struction, will be twelve and one-quar- ter miles in length, but with the great advantage over the others that its traf- flc has not to be taken to greater al- titude than 2,414 feet above the sea level, or 1474 feet less than in the case nf lao Gofh Tn afbor la level of rails at their highest point is only sixty feet above the present rail- way at Brigue station, so that no cost fly approaches nor helical tunnels are re- quired to gain access to the tunnel at its north end, nor will the haulage of trains be so heavy as in the case of the other tunnels.
 The work will at first consist of one single line tunnel, lined with masonry throughout, and one parallel passage or heading" ten feet in width by eight | feet in height, preparatory to a second | tunnel, placed fifty-sx feet apart axis from axis. When the traffic necessi- | tates second tunnel 1t can be compile | ted for about one-thlrd of the cost of l the first tunnel. The experience gained during the construction of the previous | tunnels is being turned to very good | account, and js resulting in a great | saving of life, in much greater comfort | for the men, and in greatly abbrevia- | ting the period of construction.
 By the end of the present month, Au- gust, the aggregate length of mountain | pierced will be about 9S68 metres, or 10,790 yards, out of a total distance of | 730 metres, CT 21,564 yards thus rather more than half the distance will | probably have been pierced. The work was begun toward the end of 1898, dur ing which year the progress was 447 yards; by the end of 1899 the distance ! attained was 4,227 yards; by December, 190 7,947; and by the end of this month, August, it will be about 10,790 lineal yards.
 The rock through which the tunnel is being driven is exceedingly hard, con- sisting of granite and gneiss, with l veins of white quartz, but in conse- auence of the adoption of the Brandt drill the galleries on the north side are being advanced daily by distance of no less than twenty-one feet three inches, an unprecedented result, and result, and certainly | four to five times what has ever been | attained in tunnels in Great Britain |