Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-07-17
Tunneling the Rocky Mountains.

luHHcilHS tHt hOcAf MOuntalnSs
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 it's
span hitherto unheard of, are success
slvely put down as in the regular routine
OF things, and the world is apt to forget
within how short 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 OF perpetual motion. Were
1t not for this bunting of the senses to
engineering triumphs, the newest grand
project of the sort-that of tunneling
the Rocky Mountains-would have had
similar welcome but, as it is, the
scheme is listened to with a 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. 1t will be twelve miles
long, and at its greatest depth, under
James Peak, there will 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
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
per working day. At the Black 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 fume has been built
1900 feet long from this point to the
nearest water-course. By this means a
fall of twenty-five feet has been pro-
cured for 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 for
future proceedings the waste water
will supply the workmen and their
families. It is intended so to shape the
line of the tunnel that it Will strike GER
tain valuable mines whose existence is
already definitely ascertained If the
expectations of the "Sierra Madre Tun-
mel Company of Colorado" are fully
realized, they will not only construct
one OF the most stupendous works of
engineering ever wrought by human
hands, but will defect through it nearly
the whole line of Pacific travel. and
make themselves enormously rich. The
expense, however, of their undertaking
is certain, while, until it is fully carried
out, the reward must remain more or
less doubtful.
The national taste for grandeur of
dimension should find, in the Rocky
Mountain tunnel, ample qualification.
1t will be nearly twice the length of the
| Mont Gems tunnel-the distance from
Fourneax to Bardonneche being but
seven miles five furlongs-while the
deepest point ON the Mont Gents line
cN1AN"eAA oA4O SACob VI Alps OuU
3,4S0 feet. When to these points of
obvious superiority are added the gold,
silver, diamonds, and other gems the
company hope to find, to say nothing of
the humber but more useful minerals
the metallurgists promise to delve forth
in its way, the pre-eminence of the
American tunnel must at once be claim
ed and acknowledged. If, now, instead
OF taking fourteen years-the time ex-
pended in boring the Alps for the Mont
Gems tunnel, its Rocky Mountain rival
should be "put through" in, say, four
which an average of sixty feet day,
or even $4,000 feet year, working at
but one end should apparently effect
the element of swiftness of construction
will be attained to endow our colossal
bore with its proper and browning
national characteristic.-New York
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