St. Paul daily globe., 1893-03-13
REMARKABLE FEA1S.
Some Of the Remarkable Ac-
complishments Of Ex-
perts.
Engineering Ventures Which
We're Completed Under
Difficulties.
Constructing Seeming Impos-
sibilities After Many
Years.
Great Bridges, Canals. Tun-
nels and Mountain
Railways.

The recent article on threat IToJ-
ects," which dealt with engineering
proposals of q more or less chimericai
character, may be suitably supple
mented by some brief notes on a few
of the greater engineering works which
have been quite recently completed, or
which are actually in progress. with
every prospect of their being success
fully finished in due course, says Lon
don Tit Bits.
To begin at home, the great tower,
which owes its origin to the energies OF
Sir E. w. Watkin. M. p, deserves first
place, as worthy rival to the great
Eiffel tower, the engineering boast or
France. This tower, which is being
erected at Wembley Park, where a spe-
cial station has been already opened,
fourteen minutes from Baker Street
station. is being actively pushed for
ward. The foundation works have been
completed, and the laying out OF the
grounds is so far advanced that 1t Is eX-
pected the park. which covers $50 acres.
will be opened in the spring. The toun-
datiOns are composed of huge concrete
y,
weight feet to sixty feet, according to
the level of the land.
The tower itself will measure 960 feet
in circumference at the base and 1,100
feet in height. or $50 feet higher than
the Eiffel, while it will be larger than
its prototype in every way. The mate
rial destined for its erection is polished
steel. The summit will be l.450 feet
above sea level. The tower itself is
expected to take about eighteen months
to build.
The tower bridge is another great
London engineering venture which is
rapidly approaching completion, al
though the final date of opening for
traffic has had to be shifted forward
several times. This bridge, which is built
on the "bascule" principle, presents
novel feature in the center span,
which is 200 feet wide and cut in halves,
which are to be raised and brought
flush with the towers by the machinery
concealed within them.
When opened for passage of vessels,
foot passengers may cross by a lofty
footpath. to which access is obtained by
staircases and lifts within the towers.
These immense piers in the bed of the
river are said to be the largest in the
world.
The total length of bridge and ap-
proaches is 2,64O feet. About 81. 200, 900
bricks, 1880 tons of cement, 70,500
cubic yards of concrete and $1,000 tons
OF iron and steel will be utilized in the
structure.
When the great Siberian railway
chain-at present being constructed is
finished, Russia can boast of possess
ing the greatest railway in the world.
This tremendous system will stretch
right across the immense territory of
Siberia, no less than 4,7S5 miles, or
twice the length of the Canadian Pa
cific railway; and the total cost, in
elusive of rolling stock. etc., isigiven as
e56, ,765, 900. or 81, $50 per mile.
O This very low cost is due to the favor
able nature of the ground for engineer
ing operations. and the absence of huge
parliamentary expenses and compulsory
purchase of land, which have in our
country made railways so costly. The
first sod of this huge undertaking was
cut by the cZar at VladivoStock May "a,
1891.
On the eastern section as many as
$4,000 men are employed, and part of
the line has already been open to
traffic.
On the opposite side of the globe the
Tlans-Andine railway in South Amer
lea deserves mention, owing to the ire
mendous engineering problems to be
solved in crossing the great mountain
chain forming the backbone of the con-
tinent.
OF this railway, begun twenty years
ago. and reaching from Buenos Ayres
on the Atlantic to Valparaiso on the
Pacific-a stretch of $40 miles-only the
section i'll the heart of the
Andes is unfinished. The Andes are
passed by the Cumbre Pass, Is, ,045 feet
above sea level.
OF this altitude, 1900 feet are cut off
by three-mile tunnel, and altogether
among the mountains there are five tun-
nels, with q total length of over ten
miles, while in the mountain section the
locomotives, for siXty-fve miles of the
line, have toothed wheels to work on
the rack system when necessary to sur
mount the heavier gradients.
1t may well be imagined that driving
a tunnel in the beightS of the Andes is
quite a different matter from the same
work performed at ordinary levels in
settled countries.
The workmen, even though accus-
toned to living at great elevations, have
to be acclmated to the rarhed air, and
this difficulty is f0rcibly exemplified in
the case of the loftiest tunnel in the
world, that being bored through the
Peruvian Andes, near Galeria. This is
the highest village in the world, 1865
feet above the sea, or only 100 feet lower
than the summit OF Mount Blanc.
Near this village a tunnel 3,S47 feet
long is being bored through the summit
Of the mountain, 800 feet above the line
Of perpetual snow. This certainly NAV
take rank as one of the most extra
ordinary of railway engineering enter
priSes.
The Alps have been tunneled through
so frequently that the proposal to bore
hem once more, this time below the
famed Simplon pass, causes no surprise,
though this tunnel will be the longest
Of the lot-twelve and a half miles i'll
all, about three miles longer than the
st. GOthard tunnel.
This tunnel, which is estimated to
cost 100,000,000 francs, will present a
novel feature. being single with double
railway track in It's northern half, while
The southern half will consist of two
parallel tunnels, each with a single
track, this arrangement being adopted
with view to improving the ventila-
ton.
; There is, however, another proposal !
to cross the Simplon pass 6,6O0 feet |
high by railway, the steepest section
Of which would be built on the cog
wheel system. with tunnel five miles |
ong, costing in all 30,0O0.000 francs.
Il The highest mountain railway in Eu- |
rope is the BrienZer Rothombahn rail- |
way. which was opened in November, |
1871, and ascends to height of 5,6O6 |
feet at the summit level. Tue journey |
IS performed in one and one-half hours, |
and the steeDeStsgradient is one in four. |
1t is purely rack and pinion line |
and is further remarkable !
rom the short time in which it was ,
having been begun in Oc- |
Ober, 1890. Thus, in little over year |
his was finished, though the work ne
,essitated the boring of ten tunnels. the |
of several streamlets, and the /
of heavy stone dams.
Another remarkable mountain rail- |
way is that up Pixies peak, in Colorado
which was opened in the summer of |
S9l. This line. nine miles long. climbs |
o height of l4.147 feet above the sea |
.eI.