additional resting place for the islanders.
She drew a big lagoon inside the ellipse – a marine for pleasure yachts.
Then she drew a road from the island to the nearest mountain – a future tunnel which had to be a road and a railway tunnel at the same time, for a small archaistic locomotive and almost toy coaches.
After that Super Queen-Mother proceeded to the mountain part of her project.
This part of her plan was more detailed.
At the point of juncture of two mountain rivers, in front of the narrow, long gorge, she drew a high dam.
Its height allowed raising the water level in the gorge with the right tribute, to make it accessible to small boats and yawls.
The flooded left tribute would make an arch-like lake, with a curve near the dam, one and a half to two miles long. It would be an excellent area for boating.
The flooded river-banks had to be embedded in concrete with walking routes along them and a park with numerous fountains, flower beds and small comfortable cafes.
To the right of the right tribute Super Queen-Mother mapped a small railway station.
The trains, coming out of the tunnel, would cross the river over the dam and stop at the station.
Farther on it would cross the river over a metal cobweb bridge. A wonderful view of the beautiful gorge of white limestone opened from its pedestrian part.
From the bridge, the railway road ran to the mountain slope, to its track built in a half-oval cut out in the rock, above the precipice.
After that, the railway road went to another bridge, only a stone one, decorated with various granite sculptures and gilded copper statues.
It joined the two banks of the left river tributary. From it, the railway road went to the tunnel, leading to the island in the sea.
Super Queen-Mother thought that a two-storied café might be built in the dam body, from the side of the gorge, under the stream of the falling water.
It would be an assembly point for tourists and the start of the walking route from the left side of the gorge to the spring, spouting from the ground half a mile from it, down the river.
Right after the gorge, ahead of the spring, she wanted to make a walking site with a café.
Farther, a sideway would go from the walking site over a bridge, hanging above the river, to the right side of it.
Then the road would serpentine up the long-lying talus of limestone to the path, trailed during centuries, and lead to an old fortress.
Behind the fortress the path had to be widened and continued farther to the gorge, thus closing the walking route at the café in the dam.
Super Queen-Mother, in her mind, once more walked on the route she had drawn.
She saw a large rest site raised over the river, embedded in concrete, on its left bank, where the path went out of the gorge, with numerous small tables on it set with hot drinks and lap blankets on the chairs.
The area was bounded by a low parapet made of crude stone, which continued around the whole square, except for its left edge.
There the marble staircase began, going down to the spouting spring, for those, who wanted to drink water from it. From this edge of the site, near the staircase, a passage to the hanging bridge also began.
Super Queen-Mother pondered over her plan – what else she could do with the park zone at the lower tier of the plot of land, allocated to her, and… left it for the architects, to unite everything in one whole.
The upper tier of the tableland, just above the lower one, was her proximate place of work. It was a small mountainous plateau, stretching along the river, slightly sloping to the lower tier and ending in a rock-chasm.
She drew one hundred feet high fort walls at the precipice, with square towers at the corners and semicircular ones along the walls. Super Queen-Mother planned a wide walking path on them, under a transparent glass shed.
The walls of the fortress would extend not only over the lower tier of the site, but would also surround the upper tableland.
Along the wall there had to be a walking path and a bikeway.
The lowering part of the mountainous plateau had to be raised much higher by means of grouted concrete ceilings, supported by concrete poles.
She planned to provide the buildings with parking facilities, a power plant, all housing services and public utilities.
The remaining part of the plateau Super Queen-Mother divided into:
– Administrative zone, where they had to work;
– A housing area;
– A sport zone;
– An entertainment zone;
– A park.
The park zone was a small woodland on the lowering part of the plateau, bounded by the precipice, the river and the road, leading to a huge abandoned foundation pit (Super Queen-Mother planned to make an excellent lake out of it, filled with large carps).
The park had to be fenced and provided with iron lanes, raised over the ground, not to interfere with the movements of the forest dwellers.
Between the administrative sector and the housing zone would be a theatre, a restaurant, a multiplex and several hotels.
Super Queen-Mother decided to design the housing sector with seven-storey buildings with dwelling mansards, and fretwork on the front, around the windows and doors.
She also included numerous small cafes on narrow paved streets and shops on the first floors of the buildings.
A stadium, a swimming pool and open sport sites had to be near the housing sector.
At the top she planned a big church and a sightseeing platform a thousand feet from it, with five or seven cafes.
Super Queen-Mother marked a layout scheme of buildings and constructions on the map, invited the architects over and told them what she wished.
Their meeting was short; they at once went to the spot to define the boundaries of the planned construction.
Super Queen-Mother decided to help the builders and cut out a tunnel, connecting the mountainous and insular parts of the project, thus accelerating the construction.
The workers had only to smooth the floor of the tunnel, to fit out ground-water runoff on the left and on the right, and to lay a rail track alongside with the auto-road.
Thereafter nobody had time to turn round. The architects controlled the construction. Documentation was being prepared and signed in parallel with construction.
The builders worked in three shifts.
The
