Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-31
Big Engineering Projects.
Nel0 York Times.

He would be a rash man who should
stake a fortune in these times against
the success of an engineering scheme,
however large and Seemingly absurd it
might be; but there Is news of two such
schemes in Europe that seem lat least one
of them seems) impossible enough to
make such venture wholly safe. They
contemplate nothing less than the crea
ton of seapOrts out of two great inland
cities, Manchester and Paris. The Man.
chester scheme, by far the least startling,
is, however, not wholly new. 1t has
been talked of and talked of, and always
to the same little purpose, railway shares
enduring the talk unflinchingly and
Liverpool giving not a sign of
alarm. Perhaps the case will now be
otherwise; it is, at least, said that the
Manchester party is in dead earnest; that
it has resolved to live to see ocean ships
ride the waters directly from foreign
ports to the wharves of Manchester, and
accordingly it has been arranged for esti-
mates and surveys and resolved, if they
are favorable. to begin its tasks imme-
diately. Manchester lies on the
River Irwel, some thirty
miles distant from the point
where it flows into the broad
and deep Mersey, so that good start for
the ship canal has already been made by
nature. 1t is estimated that to deepen
this river sufficiently to admit the tide
would cost at least $25, 1000, 900, and
might cost $75, 900, 900; but that in car
riage alone upward of $5,000,000 per
year could be saved while property in
Manchester would rise enormously, vii
lagos would spring up along the way,
and Liverpool and Birkenhead would
see the grass growing in some of their
now busy thorOughfares, all to the clear
gain of Manchester. The details of the
Paris project are these: The Seine is to
be deepened by dredging between Rouen
and Poissy, forming a maritime basin
1913 miles long by $50 feet wide At
Poissy the excavation would reach a
depth of some fifty feet below the pres
ent bottom, the quantity of. matter to be
taken out being estimated at $4,000, 900
cubic metres. From Poissy the scheme
| cOntemplates the construction of a
cascade of locks. rising to an
upper canal fed by water from the
Seine, and extending to Aubervilliers,
a village five miles out of Paris The
uTSL u JucSG WOIhS WOulu COSb only
$50, 600, 900, and the second only $780,
900, 900. At any rate, so says M. Bou.
quet de la Grye, photographer to the
navy and the author of the entire scheme
M. de la Grye counts among his oppo-
nents, however, several eminent engi-
neers. They ask how are the steamers
entering the Seine between Rouen and
Poissy to be cared for-their mouths so
treated as not to damage property on their
banks. They doubt if the bridges can
be so easily arranged as M. de la Grye
thinks; they believe that by lowering the
level of the river cultivation would be
injured, and that the integrity of springs,
wells and the foundations of houses
would be imperiled The success of
the Suez scheme appears. indeed, to have
filled the heads of countless engineers
with visions of ship canals in every
quarter of the globe. Probably at the
present time there are a score of them on
paper.