France Opens World's Largest Canal Tunnel.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 207, 8 September 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

France Opens World's Largest Canal Tunnel.

PASSES UNDER AN ENTIRE MOUNTAIN RANGE.

Tiiere lias recently been officially inaugurated at Marseilles by the French Government a tunnel which is unique in the history of civil engineering. It is not only th largest tunnel in ex:stence, but it is one of the longest, be.ng seven kilometres 150 .metres (about 4 l-3rd miles) from end to end. It passes at sea level under an entire range of mountains, and the point that makes it unique is that it is a ship canal tunnel that is to make Marseilles, after 2500 years of history, a really integral part of France. Moreover, it will open up for practical use a great inland liar, bour as large as Sydney's lower bay, and having an average depth of 30ft. There is room in the Etang de Berre for the fleets of the world, and on its flat shores there are factory sites literally by the hundreds of thousands. One of the most marvellous things about this great project (writes Fred. B. Pitney) is that it has been carried out by France in the midst of a great war. -When the war started the tunnel had just been begun, but looking into the future, France refused to stop the work, and, despite the demands oi war, this great undertaking, including doubling the s : ze of the port of Marseilles and its docking facilities, boring a tunnel more than seven kilometres long, and digging a canal 77 kilometres long to the Rhone at Aries', has been continued. The tunnel is through the

mountain range; the canal runs to Aries, and day by day the docks of Marseilles increase in size and number. "Marseilles is at the beginning ot a new epoch m her history," said the president of the Chamber of Commerce. ''Fifteen years hence you will see an American' city on the shores of the Etang de Beixe. That is our ambiton First" there w'.ll he the mushroom growth of one of tlu AVestern min ng camps. Those will be the builders jf the future city. In five years there will be the scattered buddings and factories of a fair-sized town, and in 15 years we will have the city on the latest American model.'' Like all the entrepots of the Mediterranean, Marseilles is not built at the month of the river that feeds it from the interior, but miles off to one side. The Mediterranean rivers are all alluvial, and in the course of centuries have built up huge deltas which make 't necessary for the ports to be built on the solid ground for from the true mouth of the river. Marseilles is built on a rock that juts like a balcony into the sea while on the land side it 's walled in by a circle of massive and rugged hills". There is no opening through the hills, no pass for wagon roads and trains. All the roads leading to Marseilles must climb straight over the mountains, and for centur.es Marsmiles was a foreign city on the border of France. When the kingdom ot France was consolidated from the scores of minor kingdoms, principalities, and dukedoms that mado up the old warring domain, Marseilles was the last stronghold to come in. Even though it was the great Mediterranean port of France, it has always nenur'ned on the outside because of the lack of. comnnincation witli the rest of the country, and for 300 years 't has been the dream of French statesmen and engineers to unite Marseilles with tine rest of the country. The JEMvcr Rhone, the natural bond, is impracticable because it is largely fed by glacial waters from the Alps and its current runs so swiftly and strong that for commercial purposes it is valuable onlv down stream, while for an average of SO days every year it is not nar gable in cither direction.

Many schemes have been tried foi making the Rhone channel practicable.

but the annual floods have made them all failures, and in addition there ha a been the delta extending for miles on each side of the true mouth of the river. The soft soil of the delta, under water a largo part of the t ; me, will not beat the weight of a city, while at the same time it makes exceedingly dangerous navigation for river boats from the river mouth to the port of Marseilles. A hundred years ago, under the first Napoleon the idea was conceived of i canal from Aries, on the Rhone, to Marseilles, but it entailed an-open cut through the mountain range or a lockcanal to cross the mountains. Then came the railroads, 75 years ago, and "t was hoped the problem was solved. But tho development of modern commerce requires a port to be not only a transfer point in the shipment of goods, but a manufacturing centre, and on the rock of Marseilles there was no room left to build factories. In the meantime the canal system of France had been wonderfully developed for the interior transportation of the country. -Starting at Lyons, the canals spread out like a fan and cover all the northera, eastern and wetstern parts of France except the Midi. English barges carrying coal go d:rectly from Newcastle to Lyons without transhipping their cargoes. But there was no outlet to Marseilles and 'the Mediteranean, and there were no f_ac-

Tory sites in Marseilles. Meanwhile France took Northern Africa and spent millions on its development, and unless a practicable Mediterranean port could bo found for France those millions would have been spent for the benefit of others.

The canal project camp-up again. The Etang de Berre offered the factory sites for Marseilles. It was, also, a great natural, land-locked harbour protected Ifroni all the storms of the seas. There is room in its waters for all the ships that want to gather there, and there is place on its shores for all the millions who may come. And France built the canal. One may now go fry water across France from Havre, Calais, or Bordeaux direct to Marseilles. The Midi is opened up, the great Mediterranean port is no longer cut off from the rest of the country, and France's African possessions are tributary to France and not to another people.

The most difficult part of the project was the tunnel, which was finally decided on instead of a lock canal, crossing the mountains. Tins tunnel, mult at sea level, is 70ft. wide. 50ft. high above the water, and has 12ft. of waterway. Not only barges, but boats of the size of small cruisers can pass through it, and ; t is large enough for two-wav traffic. It cost £4,000,000 to build, and Jt leads directly from the new harbour of Marseilles, whero transatlantic vessels can load and unload directly from the barges, to the Etang de Berre. After reaching the lake the canal follows the southern border to Port du Bouc on the west, and then runs along the eastern bank of the Rhone to Aries at the upper one' of the dangerous section of the river, from where boats will take to the river to Lyons and there connect with the canal system that covers all the northern two-thirds of France. Now that the Panama Canal has made with the Suez Canal an all-water route for the commerce carriers of the glob.'.i the successful completion of Hie Marseilles-Rhone Canal has made all Franc? tr'butary to the Mediterranean port, and the people of Marseille" and the Government of France arc hopeful that commercial enterprse will see the opportunity opened by the new canal and the development of the Etang de