Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1873-07-17
WHOEL NUMBER 325.
Tunneling the Rocky Mountains.

In this age of engineering wonders,
each fresh achievement attracts COM
paratively little attention, and schemes
that twenty years ago would have been
been called Incredible or chimerical are
now heard of as matters of course. The
Pacific Railroad, the Suez Canal, the
tunnel through Mont Gents, and, at last,
even the East River bridge, with its
span hitherto unheard of, are success
sively put down as in the regular routine
of things, and the world is apt to forget
within how short a time it pronounced
each of these enterprises to be impos
sible, and as little worth talking about,
for any practical end, as the philoso-
piers stone or perpetual motion. We're
it not for this blunting of the senses to
engineering triumphs, the newest grand
project of the sort-that of tunneling
the Rocky Mountains-wouldh have had
similar welcome but, as it is, the
scheme is listened to with kind of
passing amazement, indeed, but still
with little trace of incredulity.
Already this colossal undertaking has
been begun, however, and it is hoped in
no long time to push, it to consumma-
ion. The tunnel is to begin at point
near Black Hawk, and to emerge in
Middle Park. It Will be twelve miles
long, and at it's greatest depth, under
James Peak, there viii be 5000 feet of
earth and rock over it. The object of
the tunnel is not only that of furnishing
an avenue for the railroad, thus avoid
ing an immense deal of grading on both
sides the slope, but it is hoped that vast
mining profits will likewise accrue, SO
as to make the work remunerative at a
very early day. The bore is to be eff
fected by diamond pointed drills. !"
driven by machinery and it Is calcu-
lated that the tunnel will be cut at the
rate of five feet per hour, or sixty feet
4 per working day."At- the B1nclS Hawk
terminus work is already in progress /;
and early in 1874 work is to begin at
the other end in Middle Park.
The preliminary operations have been
remarkable. The site of a mountain has
been graded down for the face of the
tunnel, and hume has been built
], 300 feet long from this point to the
nearest water-course. By this means q
fall of twenty-five feet has been pro-
cured for a stream of water which is
made to turn an overshot wheel. This
wheel will be used to force air into the
tunnel-an indispensable measure fol
future proceedings-andth the waste water
will supply the workmen and theil
families 1t is intended so to shape the
line of the tunnel that it will strike Ger
!, tain valuable mines whose ex.stence il
: already definitely ascertained If the
expectations of the "Sierra Madre Tun
mel Company of Colorado" are fully
realized, they will not only construc
one of the most stupendous works o
: engineering ever wrought by human
hands, but will defect through it nearl,,
) the whole line of Pacific travel, ant
: make themselves enormously rich. Th
3 expense, however, of their undertaking
, is certain, while, until it is fully carried
. out, the reward must remain more o
less doubtful. 1
The, national taste for grandeur O
dimension should find, in the Rock
I Mountain tunnel, ample qualification
: 1t will be nearly twice the length of tn
Mont Cenis tunnelLthe distance from
Fourneax to Bardonneche being bu
seven miles five furlongs- tn
deepest point on the Mont Gents lin
7 beneath. the crest of the Alps is bu
3, ,4S0 feet. When to these points c
obvious superiority are added the golo
silver, diamonds, and other gems tn
company hope to find, to say nothing {
q the humber but more useful mineral
/ the metallurgists promise to delve fort
+ in its way, the pre-eminence of th
q American tunnel must at once be CLAIM
= ed and acknowledged. If, now, instea
OF taking fourteen yearS-bne Glme g.
pended in boring the Alps for the MOI
h Gents tunnel, it's Rocky Mountain riv
{, should be ''put through in, say, foI
5, which an average of sixty feet da..
= or even Is, 600 feet a year, working
d but one end should apparently effect
d the element of swiftness of constructic
3 will be attained to endow our coloss
N bore with it's proper and crowniI
national characteristic. Yo1
u Times.