Grove Koger

I struggled for a bit with the title of today’s post, in part because I had frustratingly little information about my subject, and in part because I couldn’t decide what attitude to take toward that information.

André Basdevant was a French engineer who put forward at least two arresting proposals that, while visionary enough, were wildly impractical. A third proposal was equally visionary but far more practical, although his involvement in it, sadly enough, came to nothing,

If we take those concepts in order, we can begin in 1936 with Basdevant’s proposal to build a pair of helical access ramps spiraling up from the streets of Paris to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.

Judging from the online image I’ve found, each ramp would have involved ten tight revolutions—meaning that a dizzying corkscrew ride would have carried you up 377 feet from street level. Once you’d accomplished that feat, you would be able to dine at your leisure in the tower’s restaurant. But this being Paris, you would of course be wining and dining—all before making what I’m pretty sure would have been an equally dizzying descent, an experience that I can imagine might well lead to another serious bout of wining.

I think can we can agree that this was a wildly bad idea.

Basdevant’s second concept, dating from 1938, was even grander in design. He proposed the construction of a rotating elevated landing strip in the middle of Paris directly above the Seine.

Yes, you’ve read that correctly.

The project would have placed the strip on two very large, circular platforms supported by a series of immense towers. (Or are they skyscrapers?) In case you’re wondering, the artist who prepared the second image you see in today’s post has seated the viewer in what may be a biplane, looking down at the airstrip through the plane’s crossed rigging wires.  

Again, I’m sure we can all agree that this was a wildly bad idea.

Basdevant’s third concept was grander still. In 1938, he presented a proposal to the French Chamber (the CCI de France) to dig a tunnel beneath the English Channel. His design provided for a double-track railway on its lower level and four lanes for automobiles on its upper level. Of course, the idea of a tunnel beneath the channel wasn’t new, having been around for at least two centuries, but technical and political considerations had long delayed its implementation.

In any case, Basdevant’s proposal was impressive enough to win the sponsorship of the French Chamber, but the approach of World War II forestalled all such projects, although the Supreme Allied War Council briefly considered whether the tunnel might be dug quickly enough to aid the allied cause. After the war, Basdevant was able to present his proposal officially to an Anglo-French commission, but British authorities rejected it, citing technical issues involving geology and ventilation. In coordination with several other engineers, Basdevant submitted a revised proposal in 1958, but it was not to be (although by this point you might be rooting for the poor fellow). Under the terms of an alternative proposal, the tunnel was eventually dug by the Anglo-French construction consortium TransManche Link and opened for rail service, and rail service only, in 1994.

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