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184 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
way for men on horseback, and men in
wagons, between the two countries. As
alternatives he offered a bridge to cost
$80,000,000—doubtless a chimera—and
the more practical idea of two riprap
jetties, each five miles long, with ferry
boats operating between, and a continuous
causeway, broken for sea commerce,
by three drawbridges.
Lastly, in 1856, the tunnel scheme was
eagerly advanced by him as the real solution
of quickening traffic between the two
nations. The invention of the steam
locomotive stimulated interest in the
value of the idea.
Ten more years went by. Then in
1866 de Gamond offered an artificial
island in mid-channel, with a shaft for
entrance to the tube at that point. Experts
pointed out the vulnerability of the
island if attacked by a hostile fleet, and
de Gamond then omitted this feature
from his plan. By 1869 interest in the
idea had so waxed that a joint Anglo-
French committee was appointed seriously
to consider the plan and to make a
detailed report on its findings.
Efficiency experts were not altogether
unknown in those days, for it was estimated
that if $40,000,000 were spent to
put through the project, a revenue of
$10,000 would be derived over operating
expenses. This, in a day when $3,000,000
per mile is expended by a railway in
straightening its line and when more
than this sum is appropriated for the
construction of a railway station, does not
seem like a huge figure.
Neither were the projectors of the
Cross-Sections of the Proposed Tunnel
enterprise scared by the cost. In both
nations, companies were organized by
law. It was agreed that the British corporation
was to complete its half while
the French were similarly engaged upon
the Continental side.
The outlook for the project looked
bright. Six hundred thousand dollars
actually was spent in boring a tunnel
from either shore.
Now, if the English and French really
had been awake to the seriousness of the
war, if they had started boring two years
ago, the project would be over half
finished. For as soon as the franchise
was granted, the French company bored
a tentative tunnel 6,033 feet long, seven
feet in diameter. The British company
sank two shafts, one 2,641 feet long; the
other 6,075 feet long. Both companies
have maintained these tubes in good condition,
keeping them free from water by
pumping. A word from the French and
British Governments, and the work could
be resumed at once, finished perhaps, before
the conclusion of the war; it would
serve as an artery to pump the last ounce
of British energy into the western armies.
Or, if the war were over, it would bind
together the Anglo and French peoples
in a bond that would cause any power to
think twice before launching an attack
upon either.
Because coal-burning locomotives
would in a short time make such a tube—
of such length, and hence so difficult to
ventilate—dangerous to human life, a
scheme to employ a compressed air type
of locomotive was worked out. De
Gamond had ingeniously attempted
to make use of the
tides in putting through this
idea.
Today, if the tunnel were
in operation, the electric
locomotive would obviously
provide the tractive power.
In 1906, the French, who
have always been keenly desirous
of seeing the tube put
through, made a last appeal
to the British public who