Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-01-24
GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS.
Retrospect of the Engineering Feats
of 1910.


of 1910.
In any retrospect Of the engineering
work of the past year, the Panama
canal necessarily looms largest in the
minds of all Americans. This great
undertaking has made most satisfac-
tory progress. The hydraulic fill of the
Gatun dam has reached an elevation
of about seventy feet above mean tide;
the spillway has been cut through and
concreted; the excavation for the ad-
joining locks is nearly done, and one
quarter of the total 100000 yards of
concrete required in the locks has been
built into place. The contract for all
the huge lock gates for the whole canal
has been let, and the successful bidders
will have them completed by June l,
1913. In spite of heavy slides, the
Culebra cut will be finished approxi-
mately at the same time as the locks,
and, judging from present conditions,
the canal will be practically finished
fully twelve months before the date,
January 1. 1915. originally set for COM
have charge of the works. Col. Goeth-
ais, his staff and the great body Of
workmen at the isthmus are to be con-
graduated on their successful mastery
of this once seemingly hopeless task.
Second only in Importance to the
foregoing work is the construction Of
the New York State Barge canal,
whose total length as completed will be
442 miles. It extends from the Hudson
river at an elevation of 125 above sea
level to Tonawanda near Buffalo, on
Lake Erie, where the final stretch of
the canal Is at elevation 5656. The ma
sonry structures alone will require A.
250,000 cubic yards of concrete; and
100000 cubic yards of earth and
silt, and 100000 cubic yards of rock
will have been excavated by the time
the canal Is completed. At the present
time nearly the whole of the work Is
under contract, and from now on prog
ress will be greatly accelerated. An
other vast enterprise designed to i'm
prove the waterways of the United
States Is the scheme known as the At
lantic Coast Canal, which, as contem-
plated by act of congress, Is designed
to provide an inland waterway, paral-
lei and adjacent to the Atlantic coast,
over the whole distance from Boston,
wi
way of the Gulf of Mexico to New Or
leans. Col. Black, of the corps Of engi-
neers, has recently presented a report
upon that section of the canal extend
ing from New York to Philadelphia,
which pronounces the plan to be feasi-
BILE.
The estimate Of the time of transit
between New York and Philadelphia
through sea-level canal costing under
sac. 100000 would be about seven hours.
Steady progress has been made on the
Cape Cod canal, which is designed to
provide a deep waterway about four
miles in length through the neck Of
Cape Cod, and thus afford an u.,broken
inland waterway from New York to
Boston, by which ships can avoid the
stormy ocean trip around Cape Cod
and save several hours in the time Of
transit The most notable canal pro-
ject in Europe that has received public
attention Is the Firth Of Forth canal,
which will open waterway for the
largest ships across Scotland from the
Firth Of Forth to the Firth Of Clyde.
1t is estimated that the work can be
completed in nine y-ars at cost or
500, ,O00, 900. The great project for
bringing a daily supply Of 500 000.000
Gallons Of water from the Castkills to
throueh hv the contractors with such
activity that the great Ashokan dam Is
nnarino completion. and the prospects
Of delivering the first irstallment of
water to the present Croton dam with
in four or five years time are very en-
couraging.
The CITY government has recently
authorized the construction Of a re-
markahly deem tunnel aqueduct, II to
16a feet IN diameter, for distributing
the Catstill supply. which will extend
at a depth Of 10 feet or more from
vorkers beneath the full length of
Manhattan Island, a distance Of nearly
twenty miles. At intervals shafts will
communicate with the surface mains
Of the citv. This work will he alto
rether without precedent in the histo-
nv Of mnnicinal water supply. A nota-
BILE event of the year was the compile