Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-28
SOME or THE WONDERS OF THE GRAND CANYON
Startling Comparisons
With Marvellous Works
Ernnnfh he YnrkTr Tribnnh

.
Grand canyon guides are oftentimes
as much startled as was Mark Twain's
conductor who showed him the statue
Of christopher Columbus. After the
American humorist had heard his guide
dilate on the greatness of the man who
discovered the New World, he calmly
asked IL Columbus was dead.
A Philadelphia man after his first
glimpse Of the canyon not long ago put
this question to his guide:
'If our city hall was put down there
how high would the top reach above
gorund ~
what is the height of your city
hall" asked the guide. The Philadel-
phian grew red in the face. He was
disgusted with the guides ignorance.
lie stamped his foot and shouted:
why man alive, don't you know?
That wonderful building! Listen The
hat OF the great statue of William Penn
on it's top Is 547 feet from the street.
Think of that. sir"
DO you see that crack In the rocks
down there?" asked the guide, point
ing to ~ distant creviCe which looked
no bigger than an open sewer ditch.
"Well. you could drop three Of your
city halls, one on top Of another. into
went"
Some New Workers. unfamiliar with
the bigness Of western things cause the
guides equal amusement. one of them,
who afterwards admitted he had never
been above Fourteenth street before he
inherited fortune he had since been
blowing in on travel, asked il the
Grand canyon was as long as the
Bowery.
In sef-defense, therefore, the canyon
guides recently formulated a number
of comparisons between the biggest
hole in the world and other objects
with which visitors from the east and
elsewhere are more familiar The
guides spring these facts as soon as
they can 1t has the effect, they say,
Of heading off lot of idle questions
and thus saving a tremendous amount
of breath, of which the average tourist
who tries to see the canyon on foot
soon finds himself sadly in need.
Some Striking Comparisons
The guides say, for example, that if
the Eiffel tower, which with a height
of 9S4 feet is the tallest structure in
the world, were placed at the bottom of
the canyon in its deepest part five more
towers just like the first would have
to be piled on top of one another to
reach the rim of the plateau. Eleven
Washington monuments superimposed
would just about equal the depth of
the gorge.
If it were possible to build four st.
Peters, four Strasburg cathedrals and
four pyramids of Cheops, all Of them
would be needed piled one on the other,
to reach from the canyons bottom to
it's top. The skyscrapers of New York
xxrnt f1i ri ha In
The proposed Singer building, which
with tower reaching to the height of
594 feet, will be the tallest structure
of any kind in the new world, would
only reach one-tenth the distance from
the bed of the Colorado river to the
edge of the Arizona plateau. The depth
of the canyon about equals sixteen
Park row buildings, or seventeen such
as the one known as 60 Wall
street.
In length the canyon, if transferred
to the Atlantic coast, would extend
from New York city to Washington.
If a tightrope performer tried to cross
it at it's widest point he would have to
walk a distance equal to that from the
Battery to the northernmost limit of
the Bronx, or about fifteen miles.
Could the canyon be filled in for a
building site ii would furnish room
enough for fifty New York cities In
deed, it would have an area of $4,000
square miles, equal to the whole of
Switzerland, of the states of Massa-
chuSetts, Connecticut, Delaware and
Rhode Island combined.
Were a canal of the size of the pro-
jected cut at Panama to be dug in the
Grand canyon it would appear hardly
larger than baby ribbon to a spectator
on the rim. 1t is estimated that to OBJ
tain enough earth to fill Grand can
yon it would be necessary to excaVate
twenty thousand Panama canals.
Yet when it comes to the age of the
the guides admit they have 10
way of satisfying the questioning tour
lists. 1t is not enough to say that the
Colorado river originated in the early
Tertiary period as the outlet of grea t
Eocene lake, and that it has persisted
in it's course ever since. The material
istic man of business wants figures and
dates. From the geologists the guides
can obtain no relief. AS Clarence Ed
ward Dutton, one of the leading geo.
logical authorities of this country, has
said:
Ages in Building
1.-The question will often be asked,
How long has been the time occupied
in the excavation of the Grand canyon ?
Unfortunately, there is no mystery more
than the duration of geo.
logical time. On this point biologists
have obtained no satisfactory results
T=31y!-.'1'71'