New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-06-10
THE CORINTH CANAL.
REALIZING THE DREAMS OF TWO THOUSAND
YEARS AGO.


One of the most interesting as we'll as mncui'
eugineering undertakings OF our Tunes Is thav
of cutting a ship-canal through the lsshmus Oh
Corinth and thus opening new era In the 'r''ue
relations of the whole Levant ms enterprise
.alos q necular interest to itself from the 1act
that the idea is such an old one, ana that u mas
been left to our day to carry out a project "nicn
interested the Greek republics and which trouoieo
the brain of Roman Emperor The lsthmus oi
Corinth. which is about three miles wide aV ~,
narrowest Mace. connecting from time immemorial
two busy seas has always provoked the attention
~ sbrcwd-minded men The old Greeks with their
small 3at-bottomed boats quickly conceived the
idea Of a portage from sea to sea, and they 1aclh-
.ated this by constructing a rude sort oil track
along which they dragged their boats on heaVy
trucks. The Romans, with their larger boats saw
the inconvenience and the waste OF labor lnVoi'eu
in all this and thought of cutting through the
isthmus We know now that with their impie-
ments it would have been the most hercuieah
labor of antiquity had they carried out the design
Even in our day of gunpowder and dynamite 'hc
task has proved most serious one Your COZ
respondent has had the satisfaction OF LOOKUP
over these interesting works and OF taking WIN
those who know most about them, and he is largely
indebted for the following statements 10 MI
Edward Rosenbush the inspector OF the Eastern
bush is a Hanoverian by BIRTH who has spehO
most of his life in the Levant, having been at
Malta for TWENTY-FIVE years. He has won many
distinctions and medals for services in the pasc
and was especially serviceabe to an American
astronomical expedition sent out some years ago
to witness solar eclipse in the Levant. -,
While the canal of the Isthmus of Corlnth VIII
be of the utmost benefit TO Greece ana whlie
all the country is most interested IN the unoertk
ing. especially King George, the whole analr Is
in the hands of French company. DE LessepS
is getting to be name 10 .cohJure W!
Tho French company that has undertaken 10
pierce the Isthmus of Corinth was organized IN
ssl under the honorary presidency of NJ. de Les
seps and with General Turr as president and resi-
dent manager of the work The technical name OF
the company is "Societe Internationale du Canal
Maritime de Corinthe7 The Greek Government
gave sanction to the undertaking and conceded the
land for the canal as well as all the uncutivated
land on either side Of the survey, with the single
condition that the work should be carried through
10 its completion by the company and that the
Greek Government should never be called upon
for a subsidy The actual work of digging began
with appropriate ceremonies in the month oil May
1882 The capital of the company Is 3O0oo'ooo
francs The president, General Turr, is man OF
great energy lie is Pole by birth and fought
under Garabaldi.
When the work was begun it was not looked
npon as a very serious matter but after several
years of digging they upon the solid rock that
connects the Peloponnesus with the mainland.
This proved to be very hard quality of schst or
granite, and very soon the contractors who had
not reckoned this were obliged to throw up
their contracts and retire. This occasioned some
delay but those who had the matter in hand,
nothing daunted, made new estimate and secured
new contractors, and in February last the work
began again with renewed vigor They are
now making great progress when we take into
consideration the difficulties found in the materials
they are at work upon. They are extracting 1900
cubic metres of rock each day. They employ a
corps of $500 men and fifteen engines each draw
ing from sixty to seventy trucks They are at
work from one end to the other of the cutting,
which stretches exactly $500 metres from sea to
sea. The width is forty metres, and they intend to
60 down eight metres below sea level, giving the
canal the same depth of water as is found IN the
Suez Canal But the difficulties Of cutting this
canal are much greater than those that were
found in constructing the Suez Canal In
that case it was matter Of digging out
the sand of the desert here it is q
question of blasting All night long explosions
can be heard and the day is spent in removing the
debris. Gunpowder is found to be the best fol
blasting purposes and dynamite for SCATTERING the
rocks The highest point of the cutting at Ii
Calotte is ninety-seven metres above water level
At this point the engineers have found the
hardest nut to crack. On the average they have
got down to point fourteen metres above SCI
level ana hence the task before them is to go dow
through solid granite twenty-five metres more 70
a length of $500 metres. 1t will take three year
Mt n m m A occOmDllSh
One of the satisfactory things about this work
that there is comparatively no sickness among tn
worlymen and the terrible experiences Of the Sue
undertaking and the eyel more awful ones a
Panama are not repeated OF course there ar
many accidents, there in any large quarry
and many cases of amputation. But the compan.
has done everything it can to care for the sufferers
There is q regularly established hospital and
good physician resident. The $500 men are mad
up mostly of Montenegrins Italians and residents
of Asia Minor There are very few Greeks en-
ployed. As Mr. ROsenbush said, the Greeks art
too lazy to work, and their highest ambition is tC
lounge around with cigarette in mouth and lei
others do the hard work This seems to be G
rather extreme statement and your correspondent
has seen many indications of industry during his
investigations in Greece but it is certainly tell
ing argument against Greek labor when such 0
large company has TO 60 far to get good work
men, 1t is true the Greek prefers to live by his
wits rather than by manual LABOR, and he has nc
conception of the dignity of such labor.
At the western end of the canal. on the Gulf OF
Corinth, about two miles north of New-Cornth q
town of about $500 inhabitants are situated al
the large depots and Offices of the canal company
Here new town is growing up called Isthmia, and
in future will probably stretch all along the shore
of the isthmus to New-Corinth. The depth of wa
ter a short distance from the shore is thirty
fathoms. and there drifting sands to OBJ
struct the canal or the docks. There will be nc
such difficulty here is found at Suez. The sides
of the canal will be solid granite. and there will be
no washing away or necessity of dredging. The