The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1888-01-13
THE TUNNEL Of MEXICO.

The great valley of Mexico con-
tains 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 surround
ed the whole city and on which
floated the brigantines of Cortez, is
now reduced to about 100 square
miles and has reccded to three
miles from the city, and its waters,
salty and pestilent with the drainage
of three and half centuries, 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
decade, will become uninhabitablc.
The city has often suffered from in
nundations, 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 vice
roys TO hold back the water from the
city by means of dams and dykes,
and in 1907 the great canal and tun-
mel of Nochistongo was begun.
Fifteen thousand Indians in year
opened 5000 metres of canal and
5000 metres of tunnel, most re-
markable achievement in so short n
space of time. The object of this
was to give an exit from the valley
to the waters of the three lakes to
the north of the city, which, by
their overhows into TeXcoco, caused
the inundations. All went well until
the inundation of 1929, mentioned
above, when, by the great volume
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, Il
ditch four miles long by 185 deep in
places, and the unfortunate Indians
were again forced into service and
sent to work from all over the coun-
try by the tens of thousands, and
over 100, 900 died there. The work
was incalculable, as every spadeful
of earth had to be carried away on
the backs of men or beasts. An
idea can be had of its enormous size
as IL work of man by the fact that
the Central railway enters the valley
through this cut, creeping along on
a shelf on its side. The work was
interrupted many times and dragged
along for century and half, not
being completed until 1889. This
worked very well for many years,
but still TeXcoco itself, into which
Mexico drains, had no outlet, and
as its bed rose the government de-
termined to execute such system
of drainage as would accomplish its
object fully and permanently. 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 canal straight from Texcoco
to the mountain wall at the north,
which will be tunneled at Tequis-
quiac, the point where our excur-
sion 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 excavation of portions OF it
have already been let out to the
Bucyrus company of Cleveland,
The tunnel will be five and one-hali
miles long, of which a mile is com
pleted.-[Boston Post.