The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-08
Detroit River Tunnel Amazing
Piece of Work.
INFLUENCE OF ELECTRICITY
For Years Means of Crossing
River Were Discussed.
English Engineers Enthusiast
tic Over Plans Used.

interest in the paper read before the
Institute of Civil Engineers of Great
Britain last year by William JOIN:
/ Wilgus formerly vice president of the
! New York Central and Hudson River
/ Railroad company, descriptive of the
manner in which the Detroit river tun-
mel was constructed that the institute
| has caused to be published in attractive
| form and handsome binding not only
a full report of Mr.. Wilgus' paper, bui
also abstract of the extraordinarily
| interesting discussion upon the paper
| which followed it's reading. The mere
fact that the chief authoritative as
ISOLATION of civil engineers of Great
Britain was persuaded to ask Mr.
| Wilgus to set forth to the institute the
history of the construction of the De-
troit river tunnel of itself indicates the
very great Importance with which men
| of science regard this amazing and, in
many of its aspects, truly original
work.
| 1t is observed that in the discussions
which followed the reading of Mr.. Will
| gus paper some of the leading engineers
| of Great Britain went so far as to in
| innate that the Detroit river tunnel
| pointed the way by which the English
| channel would at last be conquered by
science so that an adequate subaque
Gus artificial highway could be con-
| structed connecting Great Britain with
France. For instance, one of the lead
ing authorities of Great Britain, Mr.
E. w. Moir, felt justified in saying that
he fully anticipated that some day the
English channel would be subaqueously
bridged by a system on the line of the
work carried out at Detroit. &c. also,
it was intimated that the Detroit tun-
mel may have pointed the way by which
Denmark and Sweden may, at some
time in the fture, be connected by ar
fifni9l highway Under the and
Furthermore, that it was not at all i'm
probable that this method would be
adopted for crossing the habor of RiC
de JanierO.
Another of the men of science OF
Great Britain, Mr.. r. J. G. Reed, call
ed attention to the fact that a worh
somewhat similar to that by means OF
which Canada and the United States
are connected by artificial highway un-
der the Detroit river was undertaken by
the Metropolitan railway of Paris, so
that the river Seine could be crossed
But the French method differed in somq
important aspects from that adopted
at Detroit Other members of the Brit |
ish institute also intimated that -1r |
their view the Detroit river TUNE,
would probably be followed by the con- |
struction of tunnel under the English |
channel, 20 miles in length.
A Scientific Discussion.
Much of the discussion which took
place before the British Institute of
Civil Engineers was highly technical
and not understandable by laymen.
But the one striking feature of the |
discussion was the undercurrent
which ran through all the remarks
indicating that the great body of civil
engineers believes that an epoch MAX
ing era of tunnel construction the
world over has now begun and that
the brilliantly original work done at
Detroit, together with the successful
have carried tunnels under the Hud
son and the East rivers with scientific
as well as commercial success, fur
nishes the strongest proof that this
forecast is correct
The commercial and political fea-
lures outside of the purely scientific
problems associated with great tunnel
building are recognized not only by
the statesmen of Great Britain, but
also by leading men of affairs of the |
United States.
In fact, it was this feature upon
which Mr.. Wilgus dwelt in the first
sentence of his important paper. He
called attention to the fact that the
inevitably created new bond of
friendly intercourse between the
United States and Canada. From this
point of view the event is of interest
quite as important as any that at
taches to it as an achievement in en-
gineering.
Between the Atlantic and the Pa
cific coasts the chain of great lakes
offers a natural barrier to railway
accommodation AS soon as the
of the west end of British
North America began, the engineers
employed to build railroads construct
ed bridges-one at Montreal, one at
Cornwall on the st. Lawrence, sew
eral at the Niagara frontier and one
over the straits which connect Lake
Superior with Lake Huron. Within
some forty years seven bridges of this
kind have been constructed, and
these carry no small part of railway
traffic between the Atlantic and the
Pacific. The builders of the Grand
Trunk railroad, desiring to perfect
ada and the United States, construct
ed at Sarnia, Canada, opposite the
outlet of Lake Huron a single track
tunnel. 1t served its purpose, nut not
entirely satisfactorily
Electricity as an Ally.
1t was not until the men of science
occupied with the invention of electri-
cal apparatus and with the capture
and tanning of electric energy to COM
mercial ends had shown capital that
this new agent could be made service
able for transportation purposes that
the plan for constructing a tunnel
under the Detroit river was finally ac- {
cepted. The decision was to build a
double track, electrically operated tun- ]
mel. Very likely that decision would
not have been reached in 1905 had
not Mr.. Wilgus, at that time vice presi-
dent of the. New York Central, and !
other engineers of great ability work
ed out a highly organized plan where
by the approaches TO the Grand Cen
trail station at New York could be so
electrified for a distance
of anywhere from ten to twenty-five
miles north of the station that it would