Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-08
ENGINEERS GREAT FEATS
Preparations to Carve Continents and
Tunnel Rivers.

From the Engineering News
rms promises to be a year of unusual
| Importance in the annals of engineering
progress on the North American continent
In all human possibility we will see inau-
gurated in the coming year several great
engineering works. great not only in the
magnitude of the operations involved but
in their prospective influence upon cem-
merce and industry. both national and in
ternational The first of these great tasks
to be undertaken is the construction of the
isthmian canal The dimensions of this
problem are vast, as measured by similar
, enterprises III other parts of the world
and the opportunity will now be given to
American engineers and American contrac-
tors and builders of machinery to utilize
all that knowledge. skill and experience
in conducting public works that has al
ready done so much to make our own
country great. The economical solution
OF the problem calls for mechanical appli-
ances to degree almost unprecedented
and for this machinery we confidently look
to our own engineers and TO our own shops
The climatic conditions will demand the
utmost endeayor in the way of organiZa ton
and the care and handling of labor; and
last but not least, the engineering features
involved are so unusual and of such huge
dimensions that the latest sum of engineer
Ing genius and experience can alone bring
about successful results.
Another great engineering enterprise al
ed in 1904 is the plan of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company to connect its system
with the cities of New York and Brooklyn
by tunneling under the Hudson and East
rivers. Here again is problem that in its
solution includes new and practically I'M
tried engineering methods In the state of
New York the popular vote technically APP
proves of the expenditure of a hundred or
more millions upon the 1O0O-ton barge
canal, connecting the great lakes with the
Atlantic Seaboard.
In many of the inland states the COM
panies controlling the great railway sys-
TENS have an enormous volume of work
either in progress or contemplated which
has for its object the creation of new works
to take the place of those planned and exc
cuted by past generation of engineers.
The enormous traffic developed by the
growth of domestic commerce has
brought into use heavier locomotives, larger
cars and stronger bridges and the resulting
saving in operating expenditures now war
rants an outlay for reduction In distances,
gradients and curvature that would have
been deemed waSteful extravaganza by the
preceding generation.
Northward. in the Canadian possessions,
the coming year will doubtless see notable
beginning made in what will become
other great transcontinental railway. This
Grand Trunk Pacific railway will be nearly
1900 miles long, and will connect the At
lantic seaboard at Halifax with the shores
of the Pacific ocean at Port Simpson II
will be the most northerly railway line of
Importance on the continent practically
following for much of its length the great
divide separating the waters of the ST.
Lawrence basin from those of Hudson bay
Its purpose Is to open up to population,
trade and commerce vast areas of wheat
land, timber land and mines that are now
yalueless by reason of the lack of Transport
tation facilities
With these enterprises once fully started
as they will be in 19G4-there should be
abundant demand for the services of the
engineer for the designer and maker of all
types of engineering machinery and ma
terials. for the men who handle machines
and labor, and for labor itself.