The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-09-06
SUBDUING TIIEEARTH
ENGINEERING SKILL AND MODERN
METHODS COUPLED.
Many Additions During Recent fosrs 10
the seven Wonders of the World
Railways. Bridges, Canals and Tunnels
Which Almost Appall Us.


ditions which make success for engineer
ing work il the low rate Of interest. An
o,ber favorable circumstance IS the i'm
provement Of engineering devices Inc
Erie canal was dug in the old way with
hand shovel and tipcart The modern en-
ripeer excavates with steam Shovel
freezes qucksand solid with chemicals and
cuts II out In blocks; dilutes clay into
SONNY liouid and lifts It with suction
pump: carries away his refuse to the dump
in hanging cars, which, propelled by cables
upon wire rope tramways, surmount al
obstacles easily. An advantage which Is
only beginning TO be understood IS the
electrical transmission of power, doing
away with shafting and betting. High ex-
nlosives were never so cheap and effective.
BY modern methods to dig the channel
tunnel between England and France would
be an easy task md 80 profitable that cap
ital would be ready to undertake IL at any
time but for tho objection Of the Chayvln-
lists on either side. who imagine an inva-
sion through hole in the ground danger
ous i'm wartime An East river tunnel 10
projected both above and below the Walia-
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 BIS feet long, but will cost
only q. 10000. 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 III
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
it's 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 NaTows so that
n man can drive entirely about New YORK
bay. The erandest bridge project IN CON
templation-and 50 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 repassing trains
cheating the tumbing sea Of its tribute.
After such a fight Of the engineering
foresight ordinary railroads seem tame.
Still the backbone line" would be worth
attention if it were TO get beyond a senti-
mental idea. If built from Chilli 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
lean road TO Alaska were to meet 1t at
Behring's strait, people bound for Europe
could go 1.-THE other way round" and shun
seasckness. 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 Batoom to Tifiis and Bakoo crossing
the Caspian in a swift steamer and on by
rail again 20 Samarcand OF climbing
by rail from Calcutta TO the Hin
doc Koosh OF journeying from Joppa
to Jerusalem in tow Of a teakettle OH
wheels. OF long railway lines already
In Japan, whose treaty ports were so re-
Gently blown open with gunpowder, and
others soon 10 come in China. Even in
Europe. the new Bosnian railroad opens a
land where travelling 10 years ago was dan
gerous because Of banditti Soon long re-
sisting. black Africa will be cut in quarters
10y railway 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,
n true man of destiny, will see Mashona-
lard 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 it's own placid but important
sphere. Paris will be a seaport, following
the experience OF Manchester, whose bap-
tism of salt cannot be delayed beyond next
year, France designs also TO cut a 81 foot
channel from the Bay of Biscay to the Medi-
terranean, following the river courses from
Bordeaux to Narbonne To save 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
prcssingy needed which would long ago
have been begun but for the timidity and
conservatism of republics. These are too
familiar to need more thnn n recapitulation
an inshore canal from Massachusetts bay
TO the gulf Of Mexico. following natural
waterways much of the way and always
through soft, alluvial soil; a 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 or 10 feet height Of
land to cut through, and continents of the
Illinois mark the natural outlet but 10
miles back Of the White City.
Retaining waste places is particularly
attractive task to dwell upon. Such a work
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
seasons, will one day make Egypt again
blossom as the rose. Even as our own
Great American Desert" has vanished
from the maps viii the Saharan waste one
day shrink as the Gases and fertile borders
press upon it until there is nothing left
but green. But much sooner must the Mis-
sissippi problem be solved, not by building
higher the impotent levees, but by holding
It's upper waters in reservoirs, where they
may bs used for irrigation and never reach
the gulf at all nor drop their destructive silt
along its yearly rising channel.-John L.
Heaton in New York Recorder