Omaha daily bee., 1905-07-01
PERILoUS WORK in A TUNNEL
breaking Hole with Dynamite I'm
wall of Rock Beneath
Niagara.

Under the cataract of Niagara, from an
opening beneath the Horseshoe Falls to
pit sunk behind a coffer-dam in the bed of
the river 1000 feet upstream, a tunnel has
been bored as an outlet for one of the new
electrical development companies. Its con-
struction was made possible by two Of the
most thrilling Journeys ever undertaken by
workmen.
When the big tunnel-it is twenty-siX feet
high and twenty-three feet wide-was to be
begun, neither end of 1t was within the
reach Of the engineers, for one was 700 feet
out from shore, behind the veil of the falls.
where no man had ever been, and the other
was $50 feet beneath the cascades. An ap-
proach tunnel was therefore drifted out
from shore. 15S feet below ground, under
the brink of the falls, toward the site
selected for the portal
To avoid bringing all material to the sur
face for dumping the engineers had a side
tunnel bored to empty beneath the falls.
Where 1t opened lay a huge pile Of debris,
and as soon as the opening was made spray
from this pile began to fill the tunnel. 1t
came In so fast that work was abandoned
Pumps were started, but still the water
rose till 1t was sixteen feet deep In the
shaft on shore. 1t looked then as If the
whole enterprise, on which a fortune had
been spent, would be failure
Then three foremen employed on the work
volunteered to go through the tunnel In a
skinf and blow away the debris. They Sc
cured punt from the Maid of the Mist and
lowered II down the shaft. The water was
within two feet of the roof Of the tunnel,
but they determined to make the Journey.
They loaded their boat with dynamite and
! electric wire and enough iron to sink It till
! II would allow them to move along the tun-
mel. Then lying on thei backs, they
pushed the boat along the waterway by
pressing against the roof with hands and
feet. Their progress was slow, and theil
situation, directly below the mighty Mia.
| CARA, was as appalling as It was unique
| But they persevered, and at last reached
| the portal through which the water wal
entering.
Only a tiny opening was left there. bu
one by one they left the skiff and crawlet
through, to stand-the first of all men-be
hind the water of the Horseshoe in the
middle of the river. There they fixed tn,
dynamite IN place.
Returning with the wires which were Il
fire the charge, they upset their skiff ant
had to swim much Of the way; but they ar
rived in safety-only to find upon touchin
the button that they had not taken enoug
dynamite to finish the work.
Then a new trick was tried. A line o
volunteers, roped together like Alpine tour
lists, went out along the heap of debris be
hind the fall at the foot of the Horseshoe
carrying dynamite in large quantity. Thes
men, too, were travelling in a place wher
no men had ever before been. On the wa
one OF the boxes OF dynamite was droppe
and burst open on the rocks, but fortu
nately did not explode The rest was burie
at the entrance to the tunnel. At midnigh
that night there was an explosion whic
shook the American side of the river lik
an earthquake-and this time the effor
was crowned with success. The waite
flowed out quickly, and thenceforth work II
the tunnel was prosecuted with ease.-Th
World of Today.