Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-01-07
THE GREAT TUNNEL OF MEXICO.
Enormous Engineering Work to Be Done
to Save the Life of a City.

Enormous Engineering Work to BE Done
to Save the Life of City.
The great valley of Mexico contains
six lakes, five of which are from three
to fourteen feet higher than the streets
of the city. The sixth and largest,
Texcoco, into which the city drains, is
a few feet lower than the streets, but
the fall is so slight that after heavy
rains they remain flooded for several
hours. Moreover, what is most seri-
Gus and wherein lies the real danger is
that as this lake has no outlet it is
gradually filling up, so that this body
of water, which once surrounded the
whole city and on which floated the
brigantines of CorteZ, is now reduced
to about one hundred square miles and
has receded to three miles from the city,
and it's waters, salty and pestilent with
the drainage of three and half cen
turtles, are but three feet deep and
growing shoaler at the rate Of one and
one-half inches yearly. 1t is evident
that something must be done, and that
quickly, too, or the city in another de-
cade will become uninhabitable. The
city has often suffered from inunda-
tons, that of 1929 being the greatest
and lasting five years. Since before
the Spanish conquest in 1919 efforts
had been made by the Aztec kings and
Spanish viceroys to hold back the water
from the city by means of dams and
dykes, and in 1907 the great canal and
tunnel of Nochistongo was begun.
Fifteen thousand Indians in year
opened 5000 meters of canal and $500
meters of tunnel, a most remarkable
achievement in so short space of
time. The object of this was to give
an exit from the valley for the waters
of the three lakes to the north of the
city, which, by their overfoWs into
Texcoco, caused the foundations. All
went well until the inundation of 1929,
mentioned above, when, by the great
valume and force of the waters the
tunnel caved in and became stopped
up and useless. In 1857, as last re-
sort, it was decided to cut an open
canal where the tunnel had been; it
was colossal undertaking, a ditch
four miles long by 1856 feet deep in
places, and the unfortunate Indians
were again forced into service and
sent to the work from all over the
countro by the tens of thousands. and
over one hundred thousand died there.
The work was incalculable, and every
spadeful of earth had to be carried
away on the backs of men and beasts.
An idea can be had of its enormous
size as work of man by the fact that
the Central railway enters the valley
through this cut, creeping along On
shelf on it's side. The work was in
terrupted many times and dragged
along for century and half, not be-
ing completed until 1889. This worked
very well for many years, but still Tex
coco itself, into which Mexico drains,
had no outlet, and as its bed rose the
government determined to execute
such system of drainage as would ac-
complish its object fully and perman-
emily. AS far back as 1880 the plan
had been marked out which has now
been decided as the best. and is being
executed to-day. This plan is to cut a
canal straight from Texcoco to the
mountain wall at the north, which will
be tunneled at Tequisquiac, the point
where our excursion has just arrived.
The canal will be about thirty miles
long, though not more than fifteen feet
deep the. greater part of the way, and
the excavations of portions of it have
already been let out to the BucyruS
company of Cleveland. The tunnel
will be five and one-half miles long
Boston Post.