The Cordova daily times., 1916-06-22
NEW PORT BULL I BY FRENCH |S
 IMPORTANT

DE BERRE, Provence, France, June 20. -- Correspondence of the hssoci- ated Press. The "Etang de Berre." meaning Berre Pond, formerly a gulf of the Mediterranean. but now a l1ke. is a name which Americans are likely to encounter frequently in the future. French activity ta preparing there a new industrial center and conner ciai port which competent persons say must by force of circumstances, become Franco-American
 "riucan years from today We shall see an important Franco-Amcrican commercial and industrial city on the banks Of the Etang de Berrc." is the prediction made to the correspondent of the Associated Press by Monsieur Victor Berard. a recognized expert on economic problems.
 "The Etang de Berre, transformed into seaport of unrivallcd advantages by the canal from Marseilles to the Rhone being inaugurated today" he added, twill be the natural warehouse for American products that no longer find storage room in Marseilles."
 The Etang de Berre is the first sheet of water with the Mediterranean blue tint that catches the travellers eye from the car window after leav- ing Aries for Marseilles; it is general ly mistaken for the Mediterranean it was formerly part of it and is now connected with it by canal, opening up for merchant marine one of the worlds finest harbors. Fifty thou sand acres of ample shelter from that fierce wind, the mistral, are afforded. with natural projections from the at Jacks of an enemy. The lake is about 27 feet deep in most parts. The en- tire sho~- length with little difficulty may be utilized for docking facilities and for the construction of factories and warehouses.
 The Etaug de Berre has heeu con nected with the sea at the Port of Bouc since 1864, but by a canal too narrow and too shallow to accommo- date big ships. It's development as an industrial and commarcial port required a deeper and wider outlet to the sea and a closer connection with the port of Marseilles, from which it was separated by the rocky ridge of the Nerthe that shuts off Frances great Mediterranean port from the in terior and prevents its further ex- tension or development. To get ell bow room Marseilles had to push through that rocky ridge, and it re- mained for this stupendous enterprise to be carried out while legions of Frenchmen are engaged with the Ger mans at Verdun.
 The original cutting through the rocky ridge northwest of Marseilles at height of 50 yards above the level of the Mediterranean and about three miles long, was intended for lock canal, the railroad forestalled the slower enterprise and it is through that tunnel today that the Paris-Mar- seilles express whizzes after passing Niramas. With this railroad connect ing with Avignon, Marseilles forgot the canal until 1873, when the Nation al Assembly took it up. Monsieur de Freycinet, today minister of state, gave the project the benefit of his engineering experience, while he was premier in 1886. With various modi- fications in the plans, the project was discussed until legislation was en- acted in 1903 calling for canal about 50 miles long, running from the Medi- terranean at the port of the Estaque, about ten miles from Marseilles, to Aries, to connect with the river Rhone.
 It is a water-level canal from the sea to the Etange Berre; from theI Etang Berre to the Rhone locks are required to prevent the river from pouring it's mud into the waterway
 Work was begun in April, 1911, onI the port of Lave, near the Estaque, which gives access to the canal from the Mediterranean, but the actual of the Nerthe ridge began only during the first year of the war