Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-09-24
A GREAT WORK.
THE FIRST STONE LAID AN
AERIAL RAILWAY.
Building the Great Dam Across the
american Riyer-What 1t Prom
ises for Sacramento.

On Thursday afternoon, in rocky gorge
through which ordinarily the American
river Tushes with many splash and dash
and world of troublous waring. occurred
an event of great importance to Sacra-
mento. The first stone of the great dam
over the American river bed a quarter
Of a mile above the Folsom Branch Prison
was laid. There were present Warden
Aull, Mr.. Livermore, Chief Engineer Hum
bert, number of foremen, and rep
resentatives of the RECORD UNION.
Passing up the river from the prison
one walks along broad, smooth high
way hewn from the granite ribs of the
great cliffs that rise upon the east side of
the stream and frown upon the dark and
rugged mountains upon the opposite shore
Only few weeks ago one could not pass
half the length of this road, for it was
ABRUPTLY CUT OFF
By granite point rising sheer from the
waters edge and towering far aloft upon
the right. But human energy and me-
chanical appliances have cut through this
great rock barrier and hewn highway, the
floor of which is to constitute the bed of the
great canal through which in a few months
more the larger portion of the waters of
the American river is to fiow The great
granite blocks and huge boulders cut off
and blown out to make this pathway have
been cast over the cliff and lie piled in
huge masses from the rivers edge far be-
low and project from fifteen to twenty feet
nh L
about midway between the dam and the
prison, the bank has been built up into a
great wall of granite as means of protect
ing the suhstructnre of the canal from the
wash of the river at food height, the current
OF which then impinges against the bank
at this point.
PASSING ON
Between tool shops, forges, guard posts and
rude walls OF granite and overhsnging
cliffs, the visitors came to the present end
of the railway, where it plunges into thin
air in one direction and into the lofty
granite hillside in the other.
Here they found half hundred con-
victs operating machines or by the aid of
great derricks loading granite blocks upon
cars and pushing them upon temporary
railway to the remotest end of the road.
poised upon a dump of broken stone ris-
w,
On the right and left. above and below,
clinging TO little terraces of rock, planted
! in the roadway and lashed to the bluff
hillside, are water wheels, derricks, steam
engines, drum hoists and all manner of
stone-lifting apparatus. Far below, and in
| the very bowels of the river-bed, $50 con-
Yicts, in
THEIR STRIPED UNIFORMS,
| Are to be seen digging, lifting, pulling at
ropes, mixing cement, operating lifts, and
busily as bees running hither and thither
| and working with will and vim wholly
| unexpected from involuntary labor Right
| under foot, fifty feet down the bank, is a
wooden dume, or temporary canal 25 feet
in width and 600 feet in length, leading out
| of great sand, brush and stone temporary
| dam thrown across the river above the line
| of workers down on bedrock This tenn
porary dam restraints the river and
feeds it into the fume, which con-
ducts it over the heads of the builders
of the stone dam and discharges the
stream into its own bed far below.
| AS ii r rushes through this fiume at the rate
| of ten miles an hour it is made to do a
share of duty too; for it encounters the
paddles or buckets of great undershot
wheel stretching the width of the fiume
and as this slowly revolves its belt wheel
operates great China pump" and lifts
an immense body of wafer from the bed
rock where the workers are laying the
nement substructura for tho dam This
water Is, OF course,
sIPAGE.
Ii comes squirting in and trickling down
and noiselessly oozing through, and re-
quires not only the power of the great
wheel to cope with it, but the supplemental
power of steam pump of great capacity
that lifts the water and discharges it into
the fiume
Crawling and stumbling down the rocky
side and clambering over granite piles.
straddling streams of water, Slipping in
! muddy paths or climbing low rude stair.
ways with risers evidently made for the
fellow who wore the seven league boots,
we reach the fume, cross it by a rude
bridge and descend by treacheeous path
into the excavations on the river bed.
There great holes have been dug down i'm.
mediately above and adjoining the founda-
ton FOR dam laid twenty two years ago at
a cost of nearly
FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS.
The excavations are four or five in number.
and in every case go down TO the bedrock.
The deepest is 264 feet; the shalloWest
probably from II 10 16 feet. When the
with sand bags, and great hods or bucket
platforms loaded with mixture of cement
gravel and sand (no lime), are swung
down from hillock of sand Just above
where the mixture is made; the cement is
poured in and protected from water until it
SETS. When these cement beds are of suf-
ficient thickness they are smoothed off and
are ready for the masonry. At present
they represent terraces, the upper one COM
iug flush with the level of the foundation
masonry of the old dam. This latter is
about 25 feet in width, and the new one is
nearly or quite the same. When the two
are completed the foundation will thus be
from 55 to so feet in width. On this COM
pounded or partner foundation will rise the
dam of granite blocks to q hight Of 60 feet,
while it will cross the river from bluff to
bluff. 1t will upon the prison side make
half turn and follow the course of the
canal for 21S feet. The cross section
or main dam, that receiving the pressure of
the river direct will be 339 feet long. Thus
the whole dam will take the shape of
mans hand half bent and be 567 feet in
length. 1t will, as said, rise from base of
about 60 feet to mean hight of 60 feet
from the bedrock. Its face toward the
stream will have a slight batter or back
ward inclination, while its down stream
face will make graceful inward curve up
ward so that at the top of the dam the
width will be % feet. This top line will
have slight upward pitch with the cur
rent in order to shoot logs or drift over the
dam with least risk of their colliding with
The stones. The top of the dam will be of
cut granite, bonded and laid closely to-
gether, and in this respect will be fin
ished and
HANDSOME PIECE OF MASONRY.
As will be seen, the overpour will
not be direct, but will be received
upon the curved face of the dam and
finally reach the river bed at the
outer edge Of the old dam 1t will soon
wash out the gravel there and make deep
pool, which will then be filled with broken
stone and riprapped to prevent further
cutting. Perhaps in all the scene of busy
activity on hillside and in river bed, MOTH
ing is more interesting than the transmits
sion of the granite blocks from the bluff TO
The foundation. To construct a railway
down the cliff would have involved enor-
nous cost and have called for great deal
OF derrick lifting and waste of time. The
Messrs. Livermore have already invested
S25l 900 in machinery and material for the
use of the laborers. Included in this out
lay is the cost of the means for handling
the granite blocks, and the device is the in
vention of Engineer Humbert. He pro-
cured two one and half inch steel cables