The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-08

with the United States, serves to point
most important and suggestive politi-
cal moral. The New York Central &
hudson River railroad and the Penn
sylVan1a railroad are in control of
the greater part of the traffic between
nine or the most prosperous and pop
ulous states of the Union. From the
terminals of the New York Central at
New York and Boston the lines con-
verge at the Niagara frontier. There
they separate One group skirts the
southern shores of Lake Erie. The
other group crosses the Niagara river
py bridge. then runs through Canada,
recrossing the frontier at the Detroit
river.
While the Lake Shore route occu-
pies the natural highway between the
Mississippi valley and the east, fact
which has led to the justification of
differential rates in favor of other
railroads which do not possess a favor
able route, having to cross the Allie
ghanies, the Michigan Central one of
the earliest railroads of the west to be
constructed, one of the most important
factors in the transportation of COM
modities and passengers between the
east and the west, has been divided by
the Detroit river. That has entailed
car ferriage and. in the winter months,
frequent and prolonged distractions
to all traffic. In fact, in the early days
1t was found necessary to cross the
river by sleighs.
For years there were many discussions
as to the feasibility of constructing a
tunnel under the Detroit river. 1t was
also proposed to build a great draw
bridge over the river. But the advent of
electric energy made serviceable for
tTanSporta ton purposes brought the pro-
ject to a head. Then there began COM
munica tons shared in on the one hand by
Americans and on the other hand by Can
adams which involved the fundamental
principle of reciprocity. 1t was most
cordial reciprocity. The Canadian author
tiles on the one hand and the American
authorities on the other worked out i'll
construction of a tunnel not to be eX
used by the Michigan Central,
but offering its privileges to the Canadian
Pacific the Grand Trunk and the Pefe
railways. Political and interna-
tional cooperation having been perfec ted,
it remained only for the men of science to
show how tunnel of that kind could
best be constructed. The daring original
ity of the plan impressed engineers quite
as greatly as did the originality of the
plan of the great engineer, c. M. Jacobs,
who put before President Cassatt of the
Pennsylvania railroad a plan for the con-
of a tunnel under the Hudson
supported by pillars sunk to bedrock. Mr..
WilguS proposed to construct the tubes in
the open air and then by means of ade-
quate apparatus, deposit these tubes upon |
the bed of the Detroit river, utilizing con-
crete and that was one of the original |
years after the plans were accepted the |
United States and Canada were connected |
by artificial highway under the De-
troit river occupied with double tracks. |
The construction of this tunnel and the |
elaborate description of the work and the |
story of its history which Mr.. WilguS |
gave to the British Institute of Civil En- |
sineers. we now learn, have greatly slim |
ulated projects for tunnel construction |
with Er. fish capital in various parts of
the wOlS HOLLAND.