Bisbee daily review., 1906-11-16
CURBING RIVER WAS MIGHTY
 PROBLEM
Restoring Colorado River to he Old Channel Ranks With Greatest of Engineering Tasks.
tBy Prof. Edgar L. Larkin.) )

<By Prof. Edgar L. Iarktn.)
 Suppose you were building a house according to a get and drawn plan and when partially done some event should occur to completely prevent carrying out the design of the arch tect; but you had your wits about you. ready for instant action. dire calamity would fall. then the mind would be in deed active The chances are that failure would come and the loss be yours. Now. the Panama canal will doubtless present great engineering difficulties. but it is doubtful If any will be more intricate than those that came to the three great engineers. Epes Randolph. H. T. Cory and Thom- as J. Kinds These three men saved the rich Imperial valley and have elicited the admiration of engineers nere and in Europe.
 The Redwood gate, upon which the original plan entirely depended for success, suddenly collapsed under The cutting and eroding action of the floods. There was not a moment 10 lose. The bursting of this gate left no hope of any kind of aid from pa,- tiai diversion of the water. So, act ually, the engineers had to build the colossal dam by mere force and under stress of constant hurrying. These three men literally dashed in.o the very jaws of the flooding river. Every engineering feat of either ancient or modern times was wrought in deiiher- alton; the engineers had ample time in which to work, but here work had to be carried on with feverish haste. for the regular rise of the Colorado iirer would soon be due.
 Human beings even in the midst of a battle with each other have s-'Ido!n been under greater stress. For. if the floods corIt.nucd d much longer, the vast area of on and one-half million acres of land, so icl that any descrip- rion would be t. ught exaggerated Dy those who do T. know the facts would soon be b nd all hope of irri- gation for all c, -ng time. For ths bottom of the ri,' { would shortly wear away and be lol. q than the beds o' all the canals
 When the great gate toppled over and went down stream. the mighty problem instantly became as follows: A dam 200 feet wide, A feet high and 5000 feet long had to be speedily erect ed
 See the difficulties: The dam must stand on the bottom of river. com posed entirely of very fine silt. This dissolves almost at sight when I comes in contact with water. The silt was supposed to be practically without bottom, anywhere from 500 tt 2ooo feet deep. The dam must b. raised in a broad stream with watei rushing at great speed. Now, her' was the trouble: As the dam advanc cd and the river became narrower, th' velocity of the flow began to increase Narrow and narrower became the pas sageway. and faster and faster the cur rent. It finally became swift enougf to appall the hearts of all engineer who came to see the terrific, roaring 7 rushing liver They all said that tn dam could not be finished A ston' weighing five tons was pushed oh car into the seething flood. Tn boiling currents rolled 1t along th side of the dam over other jagge' rocks to an actual distance of stxt, feet But OUT three engineers sai' that the dam could and would be built And it Is there now as write. stand ing as an impregnabie wall Not CD