A MARVELLOUS WATERWAY

Evening Star, Issue 18051, 19 August 1922, Page 11

A MARVELLOUS WATERWAY

A huge canal connecting Rotterdam with Basle via the Swiss lakes of Geneva and Neuchatel is under consideration, and if the project is carried/ through it will be the most wonderful waterway, in the world (according to the ‘Children’s Newspaper’). Part of the canal, which joins the Rhine at Felsenau, is already under construction, and will shortly be ready for navigation. Whether tho whole waterway, running across Europe, will be completed depends to a large extent upon, whether tho fifteen million pounds required to construct it can be found. The greatest difficulty is the section of the canal Which must pass through Geneva—or rather under it, for it is suggested to bore a huge subterranean tunnel right underneath the town largo enough for cargo vessels ot 700 tons to pass through.

Ships would then literally 1 sail o» “ the waters under the earth,” and after having emorgedi from tho subterranean canal they would have next to pass through a series of thirty locks between Geneva and Neuchatel, during which they would be raised to a height of 200 ft above the lake of Geneva. After passing Neuchatel they would join tho nearly-completed waterway along tho Aar and enter the Rhine. The full scheme is at present under the consideration of the Swiss Association for Inland Navigation, and greJs interest is felt in such a novel waterway.