The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1922-09-29
Move 100000 Yards of Dirt at
Rio de Janeiro to Make
Room for Suburb.
TO ADD So BLOCKS TO CITY
High-poWered Pumps Wash Dirt Down
Through Fumes to the Sea-
Mountain Now Disappearing
Has Interesting History.

New YOrk.-Rio de Janerio Is to
have a new suburb and to make room
for 1t 100000 cubic yards OF dirt are
to be catapulted into the sea. Modern
science has once more made land
where there was open sea; sliced of
a rock-rtbbed, rock-girded hill that a
city may have better ventilation and
sanitation. Since 1867, according to the
Literary Digest, the remains of the
founder of Rio de Janeiro, Estacio de
Sa, have rested on this hill, so that
1t is regarded by the devout as nothing
short of vandalism. But despite the
opposition of the church, combined
counsel of medical and housing ex-
perts has prevailed, and in less than
Is months 65 blocks of good business
property and 20-block public park
will stretch along the new sea wall,
built to keep this most recent sub
urb from slipping into the ocean.
Says the New York Times In an
article on the subject:
Although this addition to Rio de
Janeiro is often called suburb, 1t
should be designated an an
mex, for 1t lies not far from the CEN
ter of the city and close to Vermelha
beach, where the exposition is beng
held. To continue the work on the
new flllin, begun in the early part OF
this year, big pumps which carry off
the dirt will have to operate over the
tops of some of the exposition build
ings.
Work of Eight Years to Take Two.
"For protection against fire 1t has
been proposed to make connections
with the discharge lines at convenient
points. According to engineers any
building could be flooded in ten min
utes. In this way the machinery which
is throwing sea water against the dirt
and rock on the hilltop, washing 1t
down through fumes to the sea, will
serve double purpose.
years ago the work of removing
this hill was started by native con-
tractors who used mule-drawn carts to
carry the dirt and stone to the sea
wall. In estimating the cost of this
work it was found that it would be
something like 20 cents cubic yard
and would taken eight years. With
the high-powered pumps now installed
it will not cost more than 25 cents a
cubic yard and will take less than
two years.
'eThe material to be moved is Is per
cent rock and IS per cent dirt. The
rock will be removed by steam shovels
and the dirt by three pumps. One of
these pumps will take care of four
hydraulic giants, each with 3k-inch
stream at the nozzle. Twelve Of these
giants will shoot the earth from the
top of the fill to the film. A sea wall
three miles long and about half a mile
wide has been constructed to receive
the debris.
"Close to the new land being made
along the water front will stand the
permanent United States embassy
building now under construction by
New York firm"
Became One Of the Stones.
The mountain now disappearing has
an interesting history, We are told.
The writer says of it:
SIN the year 1855 Frenchman ar
rived with band of Huguenots in
the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, and here
in this landlockeds bay the first Prot
estant service In the Americas was
said to have been held by t. csc
wandering sailors. To expel these
Frenchmen, the Portuguese governor
at Bahia sent his nephew, Estacio de
Sa, to found a settlement on Guiana
bora bay. In 1867 Sa was killed by the
French. The little village he founded
was then moved to the top of the hill
where the Church Sac Sebastiao was
begun in the year of Estacio de Sa's