Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1906-01-20
NUMBER 2S
BENEATH NIAGARA.
Two Thrilling Feats That Were PeH-
formed by WOrkmen.

ny
Under the cataract Of Niagara, from
an opening beneath the Horseshoe falls
10 a pit sunk behind a cofferdam 10
the bed of the river 1000 feet up
stream. a tunnel his been bored as an
outlet for one of the new electrical de-
velopment companies. Its construction
was made possible, says The World To
day. by two Of the most thrilling jour-
news ever undertaken by workmen.
When the big tunnel-it is twenty-slx
feet high and twenty-three feet Wide
was to be begun neither end OF II was
within the reach of the engineers, for
one was 700 feet out from shore De-
hind the veil Of the falls, where no man
had ever been, and the other was loo
feet beneath the cascades. An ap-
proach tunnel was therefore drlfted
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
surface for dumping the engineers had
side tunnel bored to empty beneath
the falls. Where 1t opened lay huge
pile of debris, and as soon as the open
ing was made spray from this pile be-
gan to fill the tunnel 1t came in so
fast that work was abandoned. Pumps
were started, but still the water rose
till it was sixteen feet deep in the shaft
on shore. 1t looked then as if the whole
enterprise. OH which fortune had been
spent, would be a failure.
Then three foremen employed on the
work volunteered to go through the
tunnel in a skiff and blow away the
debris. They secured a punt from the
! Maid Of the Mist and lowered it down
4 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 dysamite and
electric wire and enough iron to sink
II till It would allow them to move
along the tunnel Then, lying on their
backs, they pushed the boat along the
waterway by pressing against the roof
with hands and feet. Their progress
was slow and their situation, directly
below the mighty Niagara, was as ap-
palling as it was unique. But they per-
severed and at last reached the portal
through which the water was entering.
Only a tiny opening was left there,
but one by one they left the skiff and
crawled through to stand, the first of
all men, behind the water Of the
Horseshoe in the middle Of the river.
There they fixed the dynamite In
place.
Returning with the wires which were
to fire the charge, they upset their
sklff and had to swim much Of the
way, but they arrived in safety only
to find upon touching the button that
they had not taken enough dynamite
to finish the work.
Then a new trick was tried. A line
of volunteers, roped together like Al
pine tourists. went out along the heap
of debris behind the fall at the foot OF
the Horseshoe, carrying dynamite IN
large quantity These men, too, were
travelling ia a place where no men'had
/ ( ever ;; .Iefore 5esa:S cii m ii i -. =
the boxes of dynamite was dropped
and burst open on the rocks, but fortu-
nately did not explode. The rest was
buried at the entrance to the tunnel.
At midnight that night there was an
explosion which shook the American
side of the river like an earthquake,
and this time the effort was crowned
with success. The water flowed out
quickly, and theaceforth work in the
tunnel was prosecuted with ease.