Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-12-07
WORK AT GREYTOWN
yns GREAT WORK BEING DONE ON
THE NICARAGUA CANAL
er>,ssormsnr Desert into Hive Of In
dusuy-How the Needs OF the La
borers Are Supplied.

borere are buppncos
That tireless activity which 10 40 large
trait OF American character, and that
capacity for conceiving and carrying out
vast enterprises, which Professor B'yce
90 often dwells upon in his American
Commonwealth, can in no place and in
no circumstances be better exemplfed,
says correspondent Of the New York
Times writing from Greytown, Mica
ragua. November 10th, than by visit to
this once pokv town and by viewing the
works Of the Nicaragua canal.
Eighteen months ago the first expedi-
ton, consisting Of men and material for
the great work, landed here through the
surf on o sand dune. There was no adj
vance party, no preparation for the
Strangers OF their stores They were
over 1000 miles from their source OF
supply, 100 miles from telegraph sta
fion through country OF impenetrable
swauIps dense virgin forests, and shall
low, DISTRACTED streams. These pioneers
and those who have joined them since have
built quarters for 2.000men (the number
now employed on the canaD aud for q
host OF executive oificers Storehouses,
mschine.s shops, and hospitals have been
erected. Six miles OF railroad have been
constructed, eight miles Of forest through
n bottomless morass have been cleared
several hundred feet in width, and 100
miles OF telegraph wires connect the pio-
neers with the outside world. Vast stores
OF material and tools, locomotives, steam
shoyels, and dredges have also been col
lected and repaired and made ready for
work.
A HABBoR.
But the most impressive work OF all is
the creation OF harbor. Thirty years
ago the port of Greytown was deep
and commodious haven, capable OF adj
hitting 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 q mere lagoon. and its
main entrance, where the river flows into
the ocean, is blocked by bar with only
six feet OF water on it. and on which the
waves break ceaselessly. On the north
west side OF the harbor narrow sand
bank separated the lagoon from the sea.
To cut this, dredge out harbor OF
sufficient depth and channel ont to the
six.fathom line, WAS the problem Mr..
Menocal had to solve. He determined
10 make servants OF the forces that had
created this sand-bank. He built a
breakwater 10 windwsrd OF the proposed
entrance and perpendicular to the
beach. II is now $40 feet in length
and is TO be in all about 1000.
It's purpose is TO arrest the shift
ing sands carried along by the waves to
the angle where the bank touches the
main coast. 1t has been highly success
full, and the river flowing into the lagoon,
finding its course unopposed by the
oceans waves, cut its own way through
che bank into the sea, a channel 300 feet
wide and four feet deep. In this one OF
the great dredges that came from the
Panama canal is at work night and day,
. and another joins her this week. They
will cut channel 500 feet wide and 30
feet deep.
The inner basin will be. when COM
pletsd, 204 acres in area and OF an ave-
rage depth OF twenty feet, and it is ex-
pected that the harbor will be done and
ready for use by February LIST of next
year. Then steamers can enter per-
fectly.sheltered port and discharge at the
company's wharyes Now they anchor
two miles from shore In the open sea
are unloaded by lighters, which must 90
in through the surf-a slow and expen-
sive method-and even this is, In bad
weather, impossible. On one steamer
loaded with coal demurrage was paid to
% large an amount (S12, 0O0 that the coal
when landed on the beach had cost the
canal company over $40 ton.
ACTUAL EXCAVATION.
The sum estimated TO complete the
harbor was, in round numbers, $1,000
600, and Captain Eads said it could not
be done for twenty times that sum, and
IL will be finished for less than the esti
mated amount
In the spring the work OF actual exca-
walton will begin. Two OF the great
dredges will he placed side 10y side and
will dig to depth of ID feet in alluvial
soil and mud for distance af 9.29 miles
TO the first lock. These will be followed
by another brace OF diggers, which will
complete the depth to the required %
feet, and the width will be 2SS feet at the
top and 100 feet at the bottom. When
this is completed almost as much work
will have been done as has been accom-
plished on the Panama isthmus at 4 cost
Of S265, 10000
But such excavation as this is held here
to be mere childs play. The most diff
cult work Of the canal will he the cutting
OF the great fssure through the EAST
ern Divide" This cut will DO within a
fraction Of three miles long. its greatest
depth 29S feet, and the average Ill feet
II contains 81 per cent OF the entire ex-
eayation OF the canal and will cost S2O,-
100000, - per cent. of the estimated
total cost-truly stupendoue work. The
material to be removed is solid rock and
Is needed for the Ochoa dam. for the
breakwater, and for the fills along the
basins, and were this hill not there the
material 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, seven
teen miles. Five OF the six miles already
completed lead through the swamp here
tofore mentioned, and this portion has
been an expensive and unique bit OF
railroad construction which cost $780,
900 mile, and the wonder is that it
could have been built at all. The bed
is practically a great corduroy road CON-
posed Of layers Of logs laid at right an
giles to each other TO depth OF eight or
ten feet, and this structure is COW
cred with sand. 1t forms an ex-
cellent road-bed. Some idea of the
depth OF tho slluvisl deposits Of
the swamp may be gathered when it is
told that piles for the construction of
short bridge over the San Juanillo creek
we're driven down ninety feet. From
this stream the ground is solid and the
bed is prepared for the track for FIVE
miles more. The ties are all of creosoted
wood and the rails of steel indeed, il Is