Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-17

VERY daep the silt Of ages has lodged at IT.
mouth. and. with the sand washed up by
the surf. has formed q bar. which cholxed
on navigation many years ago and sent the
mahogany ships elsewhere At intervals Of
years the government has dredged q cham
mel OF fifteen or sixteen feet, but the bar
soon formed again, and when Pearson q
Son began work here In 10U there was only
nine or ten feet Of water. To make per-
manent channel. with a minimum Of thirty
feet. and to compel the river to keep It
Clean By Its own current, Pearson q Son
the managers OF the Tehuantepec railway
nave contracted with p. q W. Mcclellan
OF GLASGOW to build two training walls or
letties similar to those placed by Can't
nlads at the mouth of the Mississippi river
Ine work ts in charge Of Mr. h Harvey
wife. -o<'A1
The jetties are not parallel, but, starting
from either bank Of the river converge TO-
ward each other as they extend into the sea.
i Lea an open space for an entrance about
40 feet wide. 1t Is proposed to dredRe out q
channei thirty feet deep between them and
tnen let the current Of the river keep II
essa io one OF the pier. or tetties is 8.eoo
built by riprapping-by Dropping roclx into
the water. The material 10 hauled from a
quarry Few miles back on the railway.
ana dumped automatically from cars espe-
claIiy made Tor the purpose. The contrac-
TORS are handling about 1900 tons of stone
q week. several trains averaging forty cars
= Gay. Everything Is done by the most
modern and ingenious machinery
The piers will be finished within two mr.
. snIee months They will be fifteen feet
proad at the top; forty-fye feet thick AT
t the wafer line, and about 200 feet wide at
the bottom. All Of the exposed surface
VIII be protected by artificial hIonLs of
concrete, each weighing twenty tons The
ehs1neers are confident that they will hold
ne sHe pier down, but the water runs pretty
hlsh mere sometimes when northers blow
ana the surf has given a great deal ri
trouble already. Only few weeks aro a
storm carried away about sixty feet at the
s,a VI one or the piers. The force of the
surf was so great that 1t lifted stones that
weighed tons and hurled them over into
the water. There Is big dredge at work
olgging out the channel. They have sew
e ennsct t i. o. water on the bar now and
When the big Hawaiian-American steamers
can come In with cargoes from New york
ana an New Orleans for shipment across the
Iornla and the Hawaiian islands The
company has not built a dry-dock on this
SIDE OF the isthmus because there is a good
o one a. vera Cruz. The dry-dock of solid
concrete at Saltna Cruz which I described
,he other day was absolute necessity
because there Is no other between San
Francisco and Callao.
Complete Railway Terminals.
UP the river about half a mile from its
mouth are the terminals of the Tehuautepec
railway, and as complete and perfect a.
system or docks and warehouses as can be
found anywhere in the world They are
the latest triumph of that sort of engt-
neering, and although not so extensive as
nose at Hamburg, Antwerp, Southamp-
ton, Liverpool and other of the great ports
Of Europe, they are even more perfect in
their equipment. Every facility and every
contrlvance for loading and unloading
shlps ana railway cars has been provided
fyiO
not been spared. The idea of the govern
ment seems to have been to make the
COCKS as perfect as possible, and 1t has
succeeded TO remarkable degree The de-
signs were made in London and the work
mas been done under the direction of James
smith, managing engineer for P & w
MAGELLAN of Ola Sgow
The docks are supported by solid steel
piles fifty-four feet long and six inches
In diameter, fastened together and braced
at frequent intervals from the bottom by
crossed braces of steel. Upon these piles
rest a dock $500 feet long with room for
seven feet of water. The docks are COW
cred with four warehouses three of them
4lo feet long and one 4S5 feet long, all
being 104 feet in width There are matches
In the roofs of the warehouses and sliding
doors on the side toward the river and
there are parallel railway tracks slnken
SO that the door of the car will be at
level with the floor of the warehouse AT
handling three tons at a load with a radius
of forty-eight feet, and they are reinforced
by the most modern inventions for ham
ding cargoes. Everything is done by cleo
tricity.
The docks practically complete and
are ready for business. They are only wait
ing for twenty-five feet of water on the
bar so that ships may cross and bring
freight. They belong to the government
and cost 100000 gold. The entire ex-
penddture for the Improvement of the har-
Dor and the warehouses at Coatza coalcos
will be about s11,C0o,O00, and 1t has been
met by the proceeds OF a loan of $40, 900 600
gold bonds made in New York by Speyer
& Co. in 1903.
The terminals of the Tehuantepec railway
on similar scale. They are as nearly
complete and perfect as money and engi-
neering science can make them and are
planned for handling 100000 tons of
freight a year.
The shipping facilities at Coatzacoalcos
furnish a most striking contrast to those
at Colon. and the latter must be extended
and improved If the Panama railway Is TO
complete successfully in trans isthmian COM
merce with the new Tehuantepec road. The
Mexican government and the COVER nment
of the United States are engaged in
friendly rivalry that will be watched with
interest.