Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-30
WORK ON NICARAGUA
The Great Inter-0ceanic Canal is
Rapidly Becoming Reality.
MAKING A HARBOR AT GREYTOWS.
A Hive Of Industry Where Once Was Q
Wide Waste of MOraSS.
DISCIPLINE AMONG THE LABORERs

| tralt OF American character and that
Capacity for conceiving and carrying out
vast enterprises, which Prof. Bryce so often
| dwells upon in his American Common
wealth, can In no place and in no circum-
stances be better exemplifed than by a visit
to this once pokey town and by viewing the
works of the Nicaragua canal.
Eighteen months ago the first expedition.
consisting Of men and material for the great
work, landed here through the surf on
SAND dune. There was no advance party,
no preparation for the strangers or their
stores. They were over 1000 miles from
their source of supply, 100 miles from a
telegraph station through a country of i'm
penetrable swamps, dense virgin forests,
and shallow, obstructed streams. These
pioneers, and those who have Joined them
since, have built quarters for 1000 men
(the number now employed on the eanal)
| and for host of executive officers. Store
houses, machine shops, and hospitals have
been erected. Six miles of railroad have
been constructed, eight miles of forest
through a bottomless morass have been
cleared several hundred feet in width, and
100 miles of telegraph wires connect the
pioneers with the outside world. Vast
stores of material and tools, locomotives.
collected and repaired and made ready for
work.
MAKING A HARSoR.
But the most impressive work of all is the
creation of a harbor. Thirty years ago the
port of Greytown was a deep and commo-
dious haven, capable of admitting the
largest vessels, but the waning currents of
the sea and the San Juan river have piled
up the sand until the harbor is now mere
lagoon, and its main entrance, where the
river flows into the ocean, blocked by bar
with only six feet of water on it, and on
which the waves break ceaselessly. On the
northwest side of the harbor a narrow sand
bank separated the lagoon from the sea.
To cut this, dredge out a harbor Of suf-
hcient depth and a channel out to the six
fathom line, was the problem Mr.. Menocal
had to solve. He determined to make
servants of the forces that had created this
sandbank. He built breakwater to wind
ward of the proposed entrance and perpen-
dicular to the beach. It is now $50 feet in
length and is to be in all about 1000. Its
purpose is TO arrest the shifting sands car
ried along by the waves to the angle where
the bank touches the main coast 1t has
been highly successful, and the river flow
ing into the lagoon, finding its course unop-
posed by the oceans waves, cut Its own way
300 feet wide and feet deep. In this two
Of the great dredges that came from the
Panama Canal are at work Eight and day.
| They will cut channel 800 feet wide and 30
| feet deep.
LESS THAN ESTIMATED COST.
The inner basin will be, when completed,
| 204 acres in area and of an average depth of
| 20 feet, and it is expected that the harbor
| will ha 6nna onI readv for hv Eob
| 1 of next year. Then steamers can enter a
| perfectly sheltered port and discharge at the
company's wharves. Now they anchor two
| miles from shore in the open sea; are un-
loaded by lighters which must 90 in through
| the surf-a slow and expensive method, and
even this is, in bad weather, impossible. On
| one steamer loaded with coal demurrage was
paid to so large an amount (S12, OOO) that the
coal when landed on the beach had cost the
canal company over $40 ton.
The sum estimated to complete the harbor
was, in round numbers. 81, ,00O, 900, and Cap
tain Eads said it could not be done tor
twenty times that sum, and it will be
| finished for less than the estimated amount
! In the spring the work of actual excavation
will begin. Two of the great dredges will
be placed side by side, and will dig to a
depth of Is ieetin aIluvial soil and mud for
distance o! 929 miles to the first lock. These
| gers, which will complete the depth to the
required % feet, and the width will be 2S8
! feet at the top and 120 feet at the bottom.
| When this is completed almost rs much
| work will have been done as has been ac-
complished on the Panama isthmus at a cost
of S265, 100000.
CUTTING THROUGH THE ROCK.
But such excavation as this is held here
to be mere child's plav. The most difficult
work OF the canal will be the cutting of the
| great fissure through the eastern Divide"
| This cut will be within fraction of three
| miles long, its greatest depth 298 feet, and
the average Ill feet. 1t contains 81 per
| cent of the entire excavation Of the canal
and will cost $50, 900, 900, 22 per cent of the
| estimated total cost-truly a stupendous
| work. The material to be removed is solid
| rock and is needed for the Ochoa Dam, for
the breakwater and for tine fills along the
basins, and were this hill not there, the ma
terial would have to be procured from some
| other and more expensive source.
| The contract is let for the railroad from
| Greytown to this great cut, II miles. Five
| OF the six miles already completed lead
through the swamp already mentioned, and
! this portion has been an expensive and
uniuue bit of railroad construction which
| cost 500, 900 mile, and the wonder is that
practically great corduroy road composed
OF LAYERS CT logs laid at right angles to each
other TO a depth OF 8 or 10 feet, and this
structure is covered with sand. 1t forms an
excellent roadbed. Some idea of the depth
of the alluvial deposits OF the swamp NAV
be gathered when it is told that piles ior the
construction of a short bridge over the San
Juanillo Greek were driven down 90 feet.
THE BEST OF MATERIALS
From this stream the ground is solid and
the bed is prepared Tor the track for five
miles more. The ties are al ereosoted wood
and the rails of steel; indeed, it is a notice
able fact that the materials used in the
various constructions o! the canal are the
very best obtaiBable. The piles composing
the breakwater, for instance, are creosoted,
16 pounds of carbolic acid TO the foot and
cost $40 each.
The salaries paid are fairly good, but not
excessive. and all the employees are housed
and fed by tine company. The commoa
laborers receive about S25 a month and their
board and lodging. They are under dis
cIpline almost military in its severity. No
liquor is sold on the company's reservation
aud none is ootainable nearer than Grey
town, two miles distant. The laborers must
be in their quarters at P. NJ, and cannot
thereafter leave until the next morning at
the beginning of working hours without
special permission, aud every care is taken
of their physical welfare, and, indeed, of
their spiritual, too.
The man whose master mind has worked
up the details OF this great scheme, whose
genius commands the energetic labors now
being performed. and whose iuteIlioence