Evening journal., 1913-08-30
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Prediction Of the
Builder of the HOOSaC Tunnel
By Holland.

by H0lland.
Not until General Edward L. Serrell
was in his eightieth year did have an
opportunity to meet and chat with
him. although ] had once. some ten
years earlier. met him long enough to
exchange a few words Of courtesy.
General Serrell was one of the
spectacular figures of the Civil War;
at least in my estimation for I re-
member TO have heard that the engl-
neering feat by which the famous
Swamp Angel was placed on Morris
Island in the harbor of Charleston, S.
c., at the time Of the siege of that city
was the work Of as skillful an engineer
as the Union armies contained.
The Swamp Angel" was a solitary
gun of great capacity which threw
with regularity tried to throw
shells from Morris Island some five
miles distant, into the city of Charles
ton. Il has passed into tradition as
one Of the sensational incidents of the
Civil War AT the time | met General
Serrell any one who. not knowing his
age. had seen him as ! did in his Of
flee much occupied with business af-
fairs, mentally alert anG physically
vigorous, would have been likely to
say that he might be about 60 years
! of age. I had heard that General Ser
rel was greatly interested in the
! proposition, then strongly agitated of
constructing canal across the
Panama isthmus; in fact. taking up
the work where De Lesseps, the
French engineer. had left IT,
AS an engineer and one too. fa-
milar with the isthmus Of Panama,
| for aided in the survey Of the PAN
/ anna railroad line. I am frank to say
that ! think a better choice could be
made than the Panama isthmus for
an ocean-to-ocean canal" said the old
engineer.
''To my thinking. the ideal geo
graphical and physical conditions for
an artificial waterway capable Of
floating vessels of any draft. are those
which are to he found further down
on the Central American peninsula
than the Panama group.
CAS- an American citizen. and es-
pecially one who has sentimental in
terests in the Panama isthmus, |
cannot help feeling some sense of
pride that the United States will in
all probability, build a canal across
the isthmus. think work will be
begun by authority of Congress upon
the Panama canal within two or three
years.
But I am speaking to you now
from the point of view OF an engi-
ncer and man of science when
say that the ideal conditions for a
tidewater or sea-level canal are to be
found hundred or more miles south
of the Panama isthmus.
There is only one obstacle to very
economical construction of the cana
al that place and that is mountain
of almost solid rock which stands
about half way between the Gulf o
Mexico and the Pacific coast.
MY plan as an engineer would bl
to cut a tunnel directly through tina
mountain. IL would have to be higl
enough and broad enough TO permi
any steamship or sailing vessel to e
through. But when ] speak of thi
folks are inclined to laugh at me
saying that il would be absurd to tr.
TO cut a tunnel a hundred and fift!
feet high and perhaps a hundred fee
wide straight through a mountain.
81 know that il would not be alb
surd and | know from my experience
as an engineer in the cutting OF on
of the great American tunnels tina
are under Hoosac mountain in Massa
chusetts. For If il is possible TO Gu
tunnel five miles in length directl
through a mountain as was done d
Hoosac, IL ought 10 be possible to Gu
a tunnel Of that length which has
height of a hundred and fifty feet.
with a tunnel of that kind a tru
sea-level canal only about twenty-iv
miles In length could be constructe
at very much less cost than the build
ing OF the canal across the Panam
isthmus would entail
But | am satisfied that the Unite
States is TO take up the abandone
French Panama canal proposition an
complete t. Now | want to indule
in just one prediction n-the building
a canal across the Panama isthmus
nations enormously. After a gener;
tion or so. South America will be ric
enough to undertake the constructio
OF new canal across the Centr5
American isthmus and venture
say that by the middle OF the presei
century the South American natioI
will unite upon a canal propositiC
and will select the route which ha'
just described to you. The people
the North American continent Gel
tainly cannot reasonably object II n
/ people of the South American col
, tinen; decide TO build a canal aero
the lower part of the isthmus viii,
is in fact a part of South America" "
Copyright, 1913. by f. J. Edward
All rights reserved.