Cover of the magazine La Science et La Vie n°278 of October 1940: Canal du...

Cover of the magazine La Science et La Vie n°278 of October 1940: project to amend the Canal du Midi (Canal des deux mers) for large ships. This pharaonic project, never realized, planned to extend the canal to 90 metres and even 250 metres in certain places, for a minimum depth of 13.50 m. This alteration, resulting in the relocation of 1000 to 1500 million cubic metres of land (compared to 74 million “only” for the Suez Canal), would also have required the construction of 13 new large-scale locks, 34 bridges, 39 tunnels and 200 kilometres of new roads. The illustration shows a liner sailing on the extended canal, between a four-lane road along a railway line and a barkage wharf. In the distance, the silhouette of the Cite de Carcassonne stands above cultivated fields and residential houses.