Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-08-14
SUBDUING THEEARTH
ENGINEERING SKILL AND MODERN
METHODS COUPLED.

MANY Additions During Recent Year. tn
the Seven Wonders of the World,
Railways, Bridges, Canals and Tunn.,.
Which Almost Appan Us.
FOR rat1 onal projects the time was never
as favorable as now. Chief among the con.
oltlons which make success for engineer.
ing WORK s the low rate of interest. An
oIner favorable circumstance is the i'm
RroVemen' OF engineering devices. The
Erie canal was dug in the old wav with
hand shovel and tipcart. The modern on
gineer excavates with steam shovel.
freezes quicksand solid with chemicals and
cuts it out in blocks; dilutes CLAW into a
soupy liquid and lifts it with a suction
pump; carries away his refuse to the,dump
IN hangln cars, which, propelled by cables
upon wire rope tramways, surmount all
obstacles easily. An advantage which is
only beginning to be understood is the
electrical transmission of power, doing
away with shafting and betting. High ey
plosives were never so cheap and effective
by modern methods to dig the channel
tunnel between England and France would
De an easy task and so profitable that CAP
ltal would be ready to undertake it at any
Time but for the objection of the Chavyin-
ISIS on either side, who imagine an inva-
sion thro Ugh hole in the ground danger
Gus In wartime. An East river tunnel is
projected both above and below the Walla-
bout curve, but though cheap and practi-
cable the purpose of the former will be
more pleasantly met by bridges. The new
cascade tunnel at Stevens pass, Washing
ton, Will be 13,11S feet long, but will cost
only 100000. The cost per mile of the
Hoosac tunnel was much greater.
For the crossing of rivers and straits
bridges are more in favor than tunnels in
today's engineering. Cheaper steel means
| an Immense economy in construction. The
Firth of Forth bridge has two spans. each
longer than that of the Brooklyn bridge,
heavier and bigger in every way, but
its cost was practically the same. No
engineering difficulties, only financial,
stand in the way of three more East river
bridges and two over the Hudson. Men
living, and NOT young, will see them built,
and perhaps one over the Narrows so that
man can drive entirely about New York
bay. The grandest bridge project in con-
templat lon-and so seriously contemplated
that considerable money has been spent in
preliminary plans-is that of bridge over
| the English channel above the highest
| masts, its passing and requesting trains
cheating the tumbling sea of its tribute.
After such a flight of the engineering
foresight ordinary railroads seem tame
Still the "ha OK bone line" would be worth
attention il 1t were to get beyond senti-
mental dea, If built from Chill to Den
yer, with branches, it would be the longest
railroad in the world and would pass the
finest scenery. More to the point is the
great transsiberian railroad which Russia
is pushing to completion. If only an Amer
icaE road to Alaska were to meet it mt
Behring's strait, people bound for Europe
could 60 1.-THE other way round" and shun
seasickness. But the Alaskan road is far
in the future. More Immediately impor-
tant is the way in which Asia itself is be-
coming accessible. Think of railroading
from Bltoom to Tifiis and Bakoo crossing
the Caspian in a swift steamer and on by
rail again to SAmarcand! OF climbing
by rail from Calcutta TO the Hin
doc kOosh! OF journeying from Joppa
to Jer ;salem i'll tow of a teakettle on
wheels OF long railway lines already
in japan, whose treaty ports were 80 re-
Gently blown open with gunpowder, and
others soon to come in China. Even in
Europe, the new Bosnian railroad opens a
land where travelling 10 years ago was dam
gerous because of banditti. Soon long re-
quarters
by rail way lines from the Congo, the Nile,
Zanzibar and the cape, all reaching out to-
ward the rich heart of the dark continent
melon. From the Congo and the Nile the
rails are already lengthening. Cecil Rhodes,
true man of destiny, will see Mashona-
land and the cape united before he dies
and Zanzibar is the nearest coast of all.
Canals are again in fashion. The great
problem of civilization is to lift pound of
iron or flour here and set it down yonder at
the least possible expense So the canal
comes again to its own placid but important
sphere. Paris will be seaport, following
the experience of Manchester, whose bap-
tism Of salt cannot be delayed beyond next
year. France designs also to cut a 2115-foot
channel from the Bay of Biscay to the Medi-
terranean, following the river courses from
Bordeaux to Narbonne To save a much
smaller distance England will one day canal
from Gloucester through Shakespeareland
to the Lincoln fens, and perhaps from Man
chester east to the Humber.
In our own country there are Waterways
pressingly needed which would long ago
have been begun but for the timidity and
conservatism of republics. These are too
familiar to need more than recapitulation
an ilshore canal from Massachusetts, bay
to the gulf of Mexico, following natural
waterways much of the way and always
through soft, alluvial soil; ship canal
from the lakes to the Hudson; another
pouring the waters of Lake Michigan into
the Mississippi through the long needed
Hennepin canal. No great work is so easy
as this. There is only S or 10 feet height of
land o cut through, and continents of the
Illinois mark the natural outlet but 10
miles back of the White City.
,I,,,,
attractive task to dwell upon. Such awork
is Hollands draining of the Zuyder Zee,
which will be accomplished within few
years and which is no heavier task under
present conditions than was the retaining
of the HARLEM meer, where now fertile
farms lie 40 feet below the sea level. More
remote than this is the proposed dam at
Lake Albert Nyanza, which, by impound-
ing the surplus water of the Nile for dry