SUBTERRANEANS.

Franklin Times, Volume 10, Issue 798, 9 January 1923, Page 4

SUBTERRANEANS.

Underground railways and subways are common enough. But here is a project whereby vessels will sail under a town. Not pbantom ships, but sea-going vessels of fifteen hundred tons, carrying cargoes from London and the North Sea ports to towns at the foot of the Alps and places fail beyond. Such is the plan by which the engineers engaged on the colossal scheme for linking up( the Rhone with the Rhine hope to solve the problem of navigation through the City of Geneva. The Rhone at this spot beinjf very shallow, a deep canal connecting with Lake Geneva will have to be made, and this it is proposed to construct under the town of Geneva itself. Vast Gain for Geneva. Being anj inland country without a seaport, Switzerland’s economic status would gain enormously by the development of Europe’s international waterways. Once the great arteries of Rhone, with the Rhine, and the Danube a-i'e made navigable for vessels of a thousand tons she will become the “clearing house” for a large part of Europe’s water-borne trade. Traffic up the Rhine is already possible as far as Bale, the Swiss port, and when the scheme recently adopted by the French and Swiss Governments for “regularising" the river is completed, barges of 1500 tons will be able to reach Bale at all seasons of the yea^r. From Bale a series of locks raise vessels to the Lake of Constance, communication with the Danube at Ulb being assured by means of a canal. This will give Switzerland direct connection with Rumania and the wheat-producing countries of the East. Will Cost Millions. But the Rhone is perhaps of even gireateij importance to the Swiss. Many millions will be required for the construction of Jocks and. dams to make it navigable up to Geneva, but by using the lake as a reservoir in summer, power at low cost will be provided for a considerable number of hydraulic stations tot be erected along the waterway. To raise the canal from Lake Geneva to the Lake exf Neuchatel, something like 200 feet, a series of 23 locks will be necessary.. The cost of this section alone is estimated at mefre than seven millions sterling. From Neuchatel the canal will run through the Lake of Bienne alongside the Aar, to enter the Rhine at Felsenau. Tributary waterways will connect with. Surich-Lucerne and Betme-Tohune. Thus meichandise could be transported from London direct to the Lakef’of Thoune, a distance of only 29 miles by rail from the Italian frontier. This would men a big economy in freight on British ade vritn Italy. At least sixteen millioii pounds sterling will nave to be round n tins ambitious project to connect Rotterdam with Marseilles is to be achieved. As an engineering feat it would certainly be one of the wonders of the age.