Le Pont Sur La Manche..
Original green paper wrappers. Spine wrapping largely absent and edges chipped and frayed. Interior clean if slightly browned, with occasional small tear not affecting text.
Details
WELL ILLUSTRATED CHANNEL BRIDGE PLAN, 1892
Publisher
The Channel Bridge and Railway Company Limited (Societe d'Etudes et de la Construction d'un Pont sur la Manche). Siege administratif: 69, Rue de la Victoire, Paris. Siege social: 110 Cannon Street, Londres, E.C.,
Date
1892
Synopsis
Expose complet de la question avec documents, cartes et planches.
Item Description
Large 8vo. 6.75 x 10.75 inches. [iv] + 185 pp. Illustrated with one folding coloured map, and eleven plates, ten of which are folding and diagrams in text. It appears to lack one double page plate called for. Contains tables in text and four appendices. Text in French.
Notes
The idea of a fixed cross-Channel link via a bridge rather than a tunnel, was first suggested in the 1830s-40s by Thome de Gamond, ingenieur en chef du departement du Pas-de-Calais. It received new impetus in the 1880s, following the British government's order to close the trial tunnel borings, commenced in 1880, two years later on the grounds of national security. Publications advocating a bridge had appeared as early as 1874 but the most influential was thatof Schneider and Hersent (collaborating with Fowler and Baker, the Forth Railway Bridge engineers) of 1889. The Channel Bridge and Railway Company had been registered in London in 1884.
In spite of the plan to install lights and fog signals on the bridge piers, the scheme was ultimately rejected on the grounds that it would form a hazard to shipping. One also suspects that the actual construction of such a large scale underwater project, even with the ingenious system illustrated in the plates, would have severely taxed the engineering resources of the day, not to mention the enormity of the task of repainting the ironwork Nevertheless the idea of a channel bridge resurfaced again in 1960 with a new group being formed in France and in 1985 Eurobridge was one of the the three alternative schemes that competed against the successful Eurotunnel bid.
A very rare original copy of this bridge proposal of the late nineteenth century, a period when fixed channel links were much debated and, in fact, actually started. It considers the engineering problems in detail, tackles the question of safe navigation and looks at the economic and financial background that would make the link viable.
[Stock No. 19837]
Subjects
19th Century • Architecture • Channel • Channel Tunnel • Illustrated • Kent • Transport