Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-06-16

ol the Colorado, (the Colorado sidel to a point opposite the mesa tben dls subway under the river, and hv means of the principle that "wator seeks It's own level,' to siphon if un- oef the Colorado and upon the other siae Where it could be disposed at will.
 The engineering feat which the heclamation Service will celebrate the latter part of this month will ha tle completion of this siphon, the largest in the world and an engineer Ing project fit to rank in magnitude ana masnlflcence of construction with the Roosevelt dam.
 me flrst part of the Services pro- gram was easily accomplished.
 some three miles north of the mesa ehe Colofado was tapped on the west efh shofe and preparations begun for the building of a canal capable of carrying the vast amount of water needed to irrigate the desert region This canal was continued down to polnt opposite the site of the reser- VOLT on the Arizona side, which was to be constructed later.
 lheh commenced the really hard work connected with the project. Prospectors, having sounded the Col orado river at this point, decided that the tunnel under the river would have 10 be at least siXty-five feet below the bed of the Colorado in order to be safe, for the sandy nature of the soil in this region would render it liable to landslides and quicksands which would endanger the workers We're they nearer the surface. Orders were at once issued for the assembling of the necessary appara- tus from the East and the enrolling of the sand hogs" who are versed Tn the art of working inside of cais- sons under high air pressure. These men, for the most part, were recruited from New York where the had just 1Aished working on the Hudson riy- - tunnels, and, although officials figured that they would lose about seventeen men-tunnels of this na- ! ture demanding a toll of about one life for every month which they work ed-one death only was reported dur ing the entire time the tunnel was under construction
 After caissons had been sunk to depth of S45 feet on the California side similar apparatus was install ed on the Arizona bank and the sand was tunnelled away to depth of S3 feet Then commenced the work of digging the sand from beneath the bed of the river and the install
 ing of the brick-lined subway which was to carry the water from one side to the other. Little by little the ar duous work continued until about 8 months ago the entire tunnel was completed and for the first time men were able to walk from one side of the Colorado to the other without get ting their feet wet or passing over the water.
 The rest of the project was con- paratively simple. A large reservoir, capable of holding 50,O00,000 gallons of water was constructed on the Ari- zona side and into this the water pumped by natural power when the sluice gates are thrown open and the 1 16 foot tunnel is flooded with the water from three miles up stream. The tunnel has capacity of 1,0OO,000 not probable that it will ever be all lowed to reach it's full capacity for 1 this would appreciably diminish the volume of the Colorado and cause the Imperial Valley below to suffer 1 from lack of water. Once the giant reservoir on the Arizona side is filled only enough water will be allowed to enter to keep it at reasonable level and properly to irrigate the mesa which. according to Director Newhall, in less than a year will be veritable garden spot comparable | to the best land of southern CalifOr- mia.
 The engineer of the rReclamatiolna n Service Swssre pliguas 4 aAa ;sg syfa sal of tko:r aGhieysns t:s.t tor iia 7 wi,efn' :u tue wo..d dee, ere exist siphon aa.rh .s ,anvar s'a to tns' yuu.a