Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1917 — Great French Seaport [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Great French Seaport

WITH, the opening on May 7, last year, of the great canal connecting Marseilles with the River Rhone came the announcement that Marseilles was to become a free port in direct competition with Hamburg. The object in view when designing the canal was to connect Marseilles, the premier French port and one serving numerous industrial establishments, with the center of France, "by a waterway sufficient to deal with a larger amount of goods of greater bulk than could be carried by the existing railway lines. There being a number of French canals connected with the Rhone and its tributary, the Saone, the new waterway will put Marseilles in direct communication with a large part of northern Europe and permit a more effective distribution of-those products which come to the French port from countries bordering on the Mediterranean. The Marseilles canal, which threatens serious consequences to Hamburg’s trade, is one of the important public works that were carried on. despite the war. The waterway connects Marseilles with Arles, on the Rhone, and for part of the distance runs in a tunnel under the Nerthe range of hills to of the great port. It also connects London with' the Mediterranean by an almost straight line, making Marseilles the greatest gateway to the East and the Central clearing house for all North African trade. Fifty miles long, it has taken 12 years to build,* and cost The scheme has been carried out with financial aid from the state, the department of the Bouches-du-Rhone, and, more especially, from the chamber of commerce of Marseilles, which expects great results from the work. Rhone an Interesting River. Engineers point out that the Rhone is certainly the most interesting French river. It has been utilized in the past in a large measure, and since 1878, under the influence of the great enthusiasm shown in France in favor of internal navigation schemes, its flow has been improved from time to time. The river in its main portion runs in a north to south direction, and is continued northward at Lyons, and in an almost straight line, by the Saone, thus forming a water course which should be capable, according to a writer in the English journal, Engineering, of placing the Mediterranean in direct communication with northern Europe. He adds :

“It is even, it might be said, the sole watercourse available in this respect, for there are practically no other important watercourses which flow southward into the Mediterranean.” ■- > The new canal, In the sections on a straight line, is 82 feet in width, with a normal depth of eight feet, two Inches. The depth is nine feet, ten inches between Marseilles and the Etang de Berre, as it is hoped that in that portion of the canal larger craft, sea-going barges, perhaps, will be used owing to the prospective development of industrial establishments on the Etang de Berre. This presupposes the transshipment of some of the goods loaded on larger barges and destined for towns and districts up the River Rhone. The canal section in the straight will always be five times the immersed section of the present Rhone barges when loaded to their maximum .carrying capacity, or 600 tons on a five-foot nine-inch draught. Something About the City. Marseilles already is the chief seaport of France and the second city of the republic in point of population. It is on an inlet of the Gulf of Lyons, 25 miles east of the principal mouth of the Rhone. The location is very picturesque, the ground rising on all sides in an amphitheater of woodcrowned hills 1,200 to 1,800 feet high, which terminate in a steep promontory a few miles south of the city, z A century ago the r city wap a duster of narrow, crooked streets grouped around the cove that formed the old harbor. Now several wide avenues < traverse this old portion, and nearly the whole city is laid, out with broad and straight streets, and generally presents a modern aspect. The city; is dominated by the hill of Notre Dame de la Gardg», Which rises to a height of <BO Wetbetween the town and the shore. This hill is. encircled'on the water side by the picturesque Confiche

road which leads southward along the shore of the gulf. There is a citadel on a promontory guarding the old harbor, now a landlocked cove reaching into the heart of the city. The harbor is defended also by the fortified islands of Ra tonneau and Pomegue, and by the Chateau d’lf, the last named formerly a state prison immortalized by Dumas in “The Count of Monte Cristo.” Although it was a Greek settlement as early as 600 B. C. and before that was the site of a Phoenician colony, Marseilles has no interesting remains of ancient times, and few architectural monuments.

THE CROWDED HARBOR OF MARSEILLES