Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-03-13
ANCIENT TUNNELS.
The Romans as Engin GERS and Some of
Their Works.

Correspondence indianapolis Journal
If you leave, with me, Naples by carriage
although We might go by steam train. mar
row-gauge railroadl, we Immediately 60
through tunnel three-quarters of mile
long, cut right through mountain 800 feet
nigh. This tunnel is driven through a
volcanic rock called tufa which is about as
hard as the Indiana freestone," found in
the vicinity of the bluffs of White river,
near Waverly. When was this tunnel
(which forms the highway for the whole
country west of Naples) cut through the
mountain of Posilippo? The answer to
this inquiry will be interesting to all en-
gineers, and is worthy of a place in your
railroad "colvume." which keeps US posted
up in the railway traffic, and in the dia-
mond-paned, nickel-plated Union De-
pot" This tunnel of Posilippo, as it now
exists, was cut through only twenty-seven
years before Christ, and, therefore, has the
Juvenile age of 1913 years. or 1919 years
older than the discovery of America by
Christopher Columbus.
Augustus Cesar's great Minister of Pub
lie Works, Marcus Agrippa, made the
present tunnel-or he may have enlarged
it from smaller one that answered the
commercial communications and necessi-
ties of the days before the empire. This
tunnel is to-day, as | said, the great high
way to the heart of Naples, as it has been
for more than 1900 years. The great APP
plan way ran to Capua, within thirty miles
OF Puteoli; thence this magnificent Roman
high road, under the name OF the Con-
sular " way, was continued TO Puteoli, and
then the Consular way pushed on through
Neapolis tNaples), Herculaneurn. Pom
peii, Stabia, Nucera, Saiernum, Postum,
down to Rheuim. This tunnel of Posilippo
was formerly called the grotto or tunnel of
pntaGli The a xynr,y cd int hic
ner. viz: they began their perforahons
at each end, and also from above in two
places equidistant from the termini of the
tunnel. The guide-books, both Murray
and Baedekar will tell you that the perfora-
tons or shafts from above were made by
Alfonso l., in the fifteenth century, which
is altogether wrong. No less than four
tunnels of Roman construction existed in
the vicinity of Naples, and they, all of
them-even the latest rediscovered and
opened in lS42-have shafts from above
The Romans were great road, tunnel and
bridge builders, and we have never vet
given their engineers half the credit which
we should for their great science and skill
Nowhere, not even iii the city of Rome, or
On the Roman Campagna, are there so many
evidences of their engineering skill as are
to be found in the vicinity of Naples. a
young architect from London, with whom
| have recently gone over these classic
scenes, has been perfectly astonished at the
engineering abilities displayed by the Ro-
mans in their public and private works
near Naples. have been glad to see that
at the recent meeting of the British ASso-
citation of Science held at Aberdeen, Scot
land, B. Baker, an eminent British civil
engineer, read paper recalling certain en-
gineering feats of the ancients. As there
are many engineers and others who are
readers of the Journal, / think it will inter
est them for me to quote one portion of
Mr.. Bakers paper. Mr.. Baker says
g l have no doubt that as able and enter
prising engineers existed prior to the age of
steam and steel as exist now, and their
work was as beneficial to mankind though
different in direction. In the important
matter of water supply to towns, indeed,
doubt whether. having reference TO facility
OF execution, even greater works were not
done 1000 years ago than now Herodotus
speaks of a tunnel, eight feet square and
nearly a mile long, driven through noun
tain in order to supply the City of Samos
with water, and his statement, though long
doubted, was verified in 1882, through the
Abbot of neighboring cloister accidentally
unearthing some stone slabs. The German
Archaeological Society sent out Ernst Fabri-
cins to make a complete survey of the work,
and the record reads like that of q
modern engineering skill. Thus from
u covered reservoir in the hills
proceeded an arched conduit about 900
yards long, partly driven as tunnel, and
partly executed on the "cut and cover"
system adopted on the London under
ground railway. The tunnel proper, more
than /, 100 yards in length. was hewn by
hammer and chisel through the solid lime
stone rock. 1t was driven from the two
ends, like the great Alpine tunnels, without
intermediate shafts, and the engineers of
., 400 years ago might well be congratulated
for getting only some dozen feet out of
level, and little more out of line. From
the lower end of the tunnel branches were
constructed to supply the city mains and
fountains, and the explorers found venti-
lating shafts and side entrances, earthen-
ware socket pipes, with cement joints, and
other interesting details connected with the
water supply of towns.
This tunnel of Posilippo is also fine
specimen of ancient engineering. Millions
of human beings have each year. for nearly
twenty centuries, passed through it, Roman
chariots and other ancient vehicles have
left their autographs scraped and scratched
into the livingstone; and modern wagons
and carriages still rub their hubs against
it, leaving their traces for generations to
come. Strabo wrote about this tunnel.
Seneca described his passage through it
Pctronious satirized it. and Petrarch, Boo
caccio, Cappaccio, and more modern writers
have told us-their thoughts about it; and
it seems good for thousand years to come
Yirgil's tomb is just above its eastern en-
trance. and the poets farms (wberc he
wrote part of both the Georges" and the
81 No.. ~