St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-10-06
THE "IRON GATES"
"A Barrier Between Western and
Eastern Europe Soon to BE Re-

moved.
New York Tribune.
Recent cable dispatches from Europe,
to the effect that Russia wants her naval
cadets to learn the navigation of the
Danube, have caused many notices to
be published about the famous Obstruc-
lions in the river, the Iron Gates"
name which is sometimes spelled IN the
singular, when there are, in fact, four of
the gates. They form what is called the
Kiissura, sixty miles long. and COM
prising several passages: The ''small
iron gate" the basin of MilanOvacZ, the
picturesque gorge OF canyon of KaZan
and the great iron gate"
In It's issue of Oct. so, 1889, the Trib-
une gave brife account of the efforts
make at that time by the engineer to
open navigation through those Iron
Gates" At that point the Blue Danube,
which has width of 800 yards at Buda-
Pesth, and over 1000 at Semlin and
Belgrade. is now only IT'S yards wide,
and runs with great velocity between
cliffs which are so yards high at some
places, while the depth of the river sud-
denly increases from twenty yards
above the Coates" to eighty yards i'm
mediately below the point at which
they begin. The whole length of the OBJ
structions Is about sixty miles, from
Alibeg to Sip, below Orsova. The Dam
ube, on its course of about 1.700 miles
from the Black Forest to the Black sea,
flows quietly, except at the Iron
Gates" where the river has to force its
way through and along the mountains
of Bohemia, the Haurusck, the Little
Carpathians, and the heights of the
Leitha. Like the Rhine, and still more
than the Rhine, the Danube is Eu-
ropean and international river, touching
German, Austro-Hungarian Slav, Rou-
manian and Bulgarian countries.
The Revue Franchise, published in
Paris for the last eighteen years, and
an authority in regard to questions rela-
tive to European colonies and explora-
tons. furnishes in its number of Sept. l
the latest particulars, full of interest,
concerning the history and the natural
condition of the Iron Gates" IL refers
to the work undertaken by the Romans
of building a cauSeway along the exceed
ingly narrow banks of the Danube at
that stage of its course. Upon rock
above the Gospodjin-Vir, Or WOmen's
Whirlpool, are to be see stone tablets
stating that in the year 81 A. D., the
Fourth and Fifth Roman legiOnS built on
the right bank of tile river, the road
the remains of which are yet visible.
At another point on the same bank is
the famous 'Trojan's Table, erected
at the time of the Dacian war, 101 A. D.,
the inscription on which stone relates
that this road, begun under Tiberius,
was finished by Nerva'S son. At the top
of the table Roman eagle and dolphins
are Seulptured in the stone.
The ancients considered the Danabe
cataractS impossible. The Revue Fran
caise sketches briefly all the attempts
which have been made to subdue the
river at its most dangerous point. AS
early as the latter part of the eighteenth
century engineers, like the Austrian
Capt. Lauterer, proposed plans to that
effect. But nothing practical was done
at that time. In 1884 the gigantic
project was taken up. under
the patronage of Count Ste
tan Szechenyi-"the great Hungar-
ian''-and short canal was dug across
the rocky bottom of Dojke. But polit-
zeal occurrences and international rival
ries seon stopped the work. and it re-
manned at standstill until the question
was taken up the congress of Paris,
after the Crimean war. The congress
decreed the free navigation of the Dan
ube Old March 80, 1856. and the London
congress of 1871 recognized the right
of the powers whose territory bor-
de"of an that river TO raise Gus
90. ill.,, ,r2es, uestl..sG 70 cover