Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1874-03-06

blocks, clamped together by iron, have
been wrenched asunder and swept away
into the harbor. These piers are about
twenty-three feet broad on the top and
thirty feet at their base. They are now
nearly completed. They enclose an a.
rea of $50 acres. But the labor does
not end here. The whole harbor is
now to be dredged to the depth ofthirty
feet, and the material carried away
The locks separating the harbor from
the canal are most magnificent pieces
of masonry. At high water the sea ls
ten feet above the level of the canal
and must be barred out by these sea
gates.
There are no rocks in Holland. The
immense amount of stone required for
these piers has been manufactured by
the canal company. They have large
works for this purpose. The concrete
is made ofequal parts of cement, gravel
and sands, mixed with water, in large
iron cylinders. The blocks are then
cast into moulds, and must stand to
dry for five mouths before they are
l0lus
No body of men have ever undertak-
en- a more difficult piece of labor than
the building of this canal and harbor.
| have never been so much impress
ed with the vast resources OF human
skill and the indomitable enterprise OF
a people, as on this occasion, when
visited all these works with the Engi-
neers and Directors of the Company.
We first inspected the dam which holds
back all the waters of the Zuyder Zee.
Here were steam pumps which raise
$4,000 cubic feet of water per minute
from the Y into the Zuyder Zee. We
next went in steamer through this
magnificent canal, 800 feet wide, and
the immense sea gates to the harbor,
and then along the lofty piers to their
extremity, where the whole force of the
ocean was roaring and fretting against
their massive walls. Here we could
stand and see the whole of this grand
est piece of masonary in the world, en-
closing an area of $50 acres. We pass
ed on the canal thousands of acres of
land which was a few months before
covered with tidewater, where now
crops are growing, and by the immense
manufactures of concrete. AS | view
ed it all was filled with amazement at
the daring which could undertake, and
with admiration at the skill which
could accomplish, such marvellous
work as this. If the Dutch succeed
making their harbor to stand, they
will have become benefactors to the
whole civilized world. They will have
demonstrated the practicability of
building artificial harbors. This e1-
pertinent will be of vast importance to
the United States, with its $4,000 miles
of sea coast. Such are some of the
great works of the Dutch people. They
have to contend with the whole power
of the ocean. The Zuyder Zee covers
an area of 200 miles, and was formed
by an irruption of the ocean. They
are constantly draining portions of it.
Nearly one-half of Holland has thus
been reclaimed from the sea. The
Harlem Lake in 1S49 covered an area
thirty-miles in circumference. In four
years they pumped the lake dry, and
it is now richly cultivated farms. In
view of what has been said we wish to
propose one problem: If the little
kingdom of Netherlands can in ten
years build the North Sea Canal, to
save the commerce of Amsterdam, how
how long shall it take the United
States to build the canal between the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, to con-
troll the commerce of the world?