The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-30
THE DANUBE,s IRON GATE.
The Obstruction which Has SO Long
Impcded Navigation.
New York World.

A>SW lOih W Ofiu
The most memorial feature of Hum
gary,s millennial celebration will be the
opening of the Iron Gate. thereby restor-
ing the navigation of the lower Danube
strrction of Emperor TraJan's canal. eigh-
teen centuries ago.
and the Roman Emperor realizing the inn
portance of making the Danube there nav
lga bic for his legions, set the Fourth Scy-
THAN and Fifth Macedonian Legions to
work A. ID. 9S. In A. d. 1o1 the Iron Gate
Vas VA pierced by a narrow canal, and the
Danube. known TO the Romans as the
lister. was navigable almost from it's source
IN the Black Forest. in Germany, TO the
And. as if to make the river feel the all
encompasslng might of man still more,
Trajan caused Appolodor. his celebrated
architect. to design bridge below the Iron
Gate which Dio Sassius one hundred years
later pronounced the greatest work accom-
plished in Trajan reign.
Both bridge and canal were subsequently
neglected and destroyed, and nothing re-
engineering achievements save an inscrp-'
ton on Trajan's Table, rock at the mar
rows of Kazan, enumerating that En-
peror's titles and referring to the great
work he accomplished there.
Centuries elapsed. few traces of the canal
remained and of the bridge every vestige
was gone Indeed, the bridge came to e
regarded as myth until suddenly. in 1919,
the Danube became exceptionally low and.
revealed sixteen massive stone piers. -.r
Iron Gate" is misleading name given
to a series of five cataracts beginning at
properly so called, about four miles below
Orsova. The distance from the first to the
fifth cataract is about sxty-seven miles.
Near the end of Moldova island rises u
twenty-foot sandstone mouolith, the Bah
akai Rock, sentinel to warn boatmen OF
the perilS of the waters beyond. Stenka,
the first cataract, is nine miles further
down the river and extends about two
miles. Ten miles further is the KOZla Do1ka
cataract. which swirls in a sem-circle for
three miles. mountain torrent, the SIR
niya, rushes roaring in the Danube there,
swelling it's tide.
The three-mile-long Izlas-Tachtalia is the
third cataract, and eight miles further on
ter in length. Here the Danube circles
gracefully to the south and marks the
southernmost point of Hungary.
Another dozen miles brings one to the
celebrated gorge of kazan and twelve
miles beyond is the least and most danger
of all the cataracts, the Iron Gate
proper, with its mighty, treacherous cliffs,
the Prigida, the Ploesa and the Recza.
This cataract most taxed the engineers
skill. After vainly trying to blow up these
those of Hell Gate, in the East river, We're
mere pebbles the engineers determined to
diVrt the Danube long enough to enable
them to operate upon it's rocks dry-shod.
Dams were constructed and the channel
pumped dry.
Old coins, bones wreckage of all sorts
and a part of the hull of the Turkish war
ship Silistria, which foundered there hun
dredS of years ago, were brought to view.
In three years and a half the obstruct-
with q Uniform depth of about nine feet
and as smooth a floor was built and
the Danubes waters were once more al
lowed to rush in through their ancient bed.
wide and runs through the middle of the
stream,