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Maps and chapters were not a combination Fernando Gallego Herrera liked. In the 1920s, fed up with the break separating Europe and Africa, he decided to capitalize on
Maps and chapters were not a combination Fernando Gallego Herrera liked. In the 1920s, fed up with the break separating Europe and Africa, he decided to capitalize on his knowledge as a civil engineer, grab a pencil, paper, and ruler, and propose a peculiar “seam” between the two regions: an underwater tunnel In the Strait of Gibraltar, between the peninsula and North Africa.
Today Gallego’s infrastructure stands out as one of the pioneering offerings connecting both continents. He was not alone. Not even the first; but of course it is one of the brightest approaches to achieve a goal that still lives in the 21st century.
Who was Galician?
And what was his offer?
Connecting the peninsula to Africa is an old obsession. So much so that the first trials go back more than a century and a half. In the 19th century, Laurent de Villedemil proposed a design to achieve a goal that would be combined in later years by Andrés Avelino Comerma, Jean Baptiste Berlier, Pedro Jenevois, or more recently Alfonso Peña Boeuf or Eugene Tsui.
Each has its own characteristics, approaches and approaches – some even proposed a central island in the middle of the strait to serve as a link between two tunnels – and bet on bridges or subways as the case may be; but they all have a common purpose: zoom both regions.
#build #Date Engineer Fernando Gallego Herrera, the forgotten genius #Villoria.he designed #submarine passage in Gibraltar. One of the prominent construction innovations #Port inspiring buoy #Normandy’s descent: https://t.co/2NnzLmu78A pic.twitter.com/SyFkvwzZDY
— oyrsa (@OYRSA_es) January 15, 2019
Gallego’s proposal in the 1920s proposed an ambitious, multimodal infrastructure that could channel trains and cars without interrupting the passage of ships and crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, which reached 14.4 kilometers at its narrowest point.
The journal in detail Africa In 1930, his plan was “a real tube about 20 meters deep, capable of making a double rail track, a wide road for cars and pedestrian platforms.” The canal contained several routes for drainage and a ventilation system similar to the device found in the “Holland” tunnel in New York, which opened in late 1927.
To overcome the hundreds of meters depth reached in the strait, he proposed an elliptical pipe suspended at a depth of about 25 meters, and this pipe was fixed with brackets to the pieces that served as bridges. weights and anchors.
Over time, he developed his proposal to adapt it to the characteristics of the Bosphorus. In Legacy TechnologyAlejandro Polanco states that the canal is 26 meters wide and 18.5 meters high, large enough to accommodate cars and trains, and will stretch about 15 kilometers from Punta Acebuche in Cádiz. It would add 75 pieces of 200 meters in total and would be fixed to the base with a system of cables and reinforced concrete weights.
Convinced of its potential, the Salamanca engineer proposed the project to the Primo de Rivera government, and his designs were frequently featured in the press of the time. Both were even presented at the International Exhibition in Barcelona in 1929 and the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville.
It was of little use. Although it is seen as a matter of time for the work to start in some channels, the truth is that decades passed, the war came and the plan could not get out of the drawer. One of the reasons is probably costIt is estimated to be around 25,000 million pesetas.
We owe a lot to Fernando Gallego in the use of the funicular arch in buildings… We will explain this on another occasion. We continue with the Strait of Gibraltar pic.twitter.com/5epBDVyRIP
— Engineering Block (@BlocIngenieria) 21 May 2020
Does this mean that the underground project is stuck?
Not really.
The proposal to connect North Africa with the southern peninsula has been on the table since the last century. Decades ago, the Trans-Saharan Railway Association began work to dig a tunnel in the strait, and in the 1980s Spain and Morocco supported the Spanish Association for the Study of Fixed Communications (SECEGSA) and Société Nationale d’Études across the Strait of Gibraltar. du Detroit de Gibraltar (SNED) precisely to strengthen the infrastructure.
A good example of how neither of the two countries thought the project was lost is that just a year ago, Spain, Morocco and The Rock stepped forward to publicly show their support for an infrastructure that British officials claim will be key. area , strategic point It is in international trade because of its dual status as a “gate” between Africa and Europe and a conduit for traffic between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean. Its goal, at least on paper, is to take the next step in the medium term between the 2030s and 2040s.
The project may not have been Gallego’s, but the engineer wrote an important chapter in the race to build both shores. And not just those in the Strait of Gibraltar. Gallego proposed similar designs for other parts of the planet with a situation similar to that of the Mediterranean, and he believed his solution could help connect the regions. His attention was focused on Istanbul, the English Channel, New York, or the border between Denmark and Sweden, and central Portugal.
Gallego reworked his designs to turn his layout from paper into reality. different embassies. In some cases the result was similar to that achieved in Gibraltar: it laid the foundations for future connections, such as those approved by Norway connecting the fjords.
The underground proposal might have been worthy enough to delve into the history of the Spanish inventors, but Gallego also shone in another field, one of the most exciting and productive in Spain at the turn of the 20th century: aviation, the same field. Other brilliant minds of Spain of the time such as Juan de la Cierva, Emilio Herrera, Federico Cantero or Leonardo Torres y Quevedo changed their efforts. The approach with which the Salamanca engineer works, yes, is somewhat different from the rest of his contemporaries and compatriots.
Despite the scarcity of resources, Gallego designed a prototype equipped with a vertical take-off ship, propellers, two blades, and a wood and cloth structure he called an “aerogenium”. He even built a few units to demonstrate that the design was functional and tested to the expectations of his neighbors. For the first time, in 1933, the device was raised by one and a half meters. as needed, as needed WorldIn 1935, he completed another exam, in which he managed to rise significantly.
Before he died in 1973, at the age of 72, Gallego, multilingual, adventurous and gifted with an alert mind, left other important contributions. At least part of the design of the pontoons used in the Normandy landings is an authorship that led him to appeal to leaders like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman or Winston Churchill. As a way of thanking him for his contribution, the US is said to have come to give him – yes, unofficially – a Buick.
Today he has sketches and suggestions. ahead of its time.
Pictures | José Rambaud (Flickr) and BNE
Source: Xataka
Alice Smith is a seasoned journalist and writer for Div Bracket. She has a keen sense of what’s important and is always on top of the latest trends. Alice provides in-depth coverage of the most talked-about news stories, delivering insightful and thought-provoking articles that keep her readers informed and engaged.
