New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1929-02-23
ENGLISH CHANNEL
NEARING REALITY
London to Plrk ltliB Ny Ru
Within Five YolB

The greatest engineering project
Of all ages-that Of joining England
and France by q subterranean pas
sags may become Z reality within
the next five years. II plans do not
so amiss. The project IL not new ~
1t was talked about for more than
a century and fought against again
and again by England. Recently
however the English parliament has
passed = bill favoring the gigantic
undertaking AMI work In that direc-
ton may start in the near future.
And 20. the dream Of engineers for
more than = century will at last be-
come . reality.
Despite the fact that at least So.
900 workmen will be engaged In
the construction of the tunnel. 1t ii
estimated that it will take at least
five years to complete At 4 cost Of
approximately 9l70.0O0.000. The
English terminus of the tunnel will
be Dover and the French terminus
between Calais and Boulogne near
place called st. Raphael. The un-
derground passage will be about 10
miles In length. while the greater
part OF the tracks will be sub
merged about Is yards under the
bottom Of the English Channel. The
passengers will be taken to the sub.
terranean stations by means of ele-
vators. where they can board the
electrically driven trains and make
the distance between either term
I'M within 10 minutes. q saving Of
anywhere from six to eight hours.
Hundreds of engineers during the
past years have studied the problem
thoroughly and all agree that there
are no great technical Obstacles to
overcome. The land under the chan
mel 10 of a chalky composition -
therefore giving little resistance to
the huge dredzes. There remains
however, one great material draw.
back-that of ending England's
complete isolation by connecting
her with the mainland. To overcome
this. the plan contains special means
by which the tunnel could be CON-
pletely inundated, or filled with
poisonous gases within a short space
of time. II there was reason to close
the passageway between the two
countries. In case of war between
the two countries, England could
isolate itself AMI become an "islan nd"
again without much difficulty. This
means Of finding protection for
England was material in winning
the assent Of many leading English
political men. who were heretofore
very much opposed to the project.
Until few years ago the plan
was not thought Of seriously. There
was talk of building not one. but
four tunnels. One OF these was to be
used entirely for motor vehicle traf-
fic. to enable business men, bankers.
diplomats and the like to make
frequent and unbroken trips to the
French capital and back within -
hours According to present plans
the electric trains will be able to
carry 10000 passengers and 10000
tons Of merchandise daily. A special
power-house to supply the necessary
electricity for running the trains
will be built, and here again the
project stumbles over another OBJ
stacle. England, naturally. wants the
power.house on her soil and France
likewise on hers. This point un-
doubtedly will raise quite contro-
versy between the two countries be-
fore 1t IL amicably settled.
In the early years Of the last
century a French engineer named
Matthew presented Napoleon with a
plan for q tunnel which the Little
Corporal" studied infinitely and
thought q great deal of, but never
took action on. The Frenchman's
plan however did not call for di-
rect underground connection. but a
tunnel to the Varne sand bars. stu
ated about halfway between France
and England. The sand-bar is about
IS to so feet under the top level of
the channel and 1t was his plan to
build q sort Of an observation post.
The Franchmaa went even further
and proposed the building Of large
town for the purpose of establishing
a rescue port for laundering ships.
Napoleon at first thought seriously
Of the proposition, but after study