Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1925-10-01
Ry Reno Bache

miracle now DelB8 dClUillplloIlGhy anu
comparable in Importance to the Pan
anna Canal. has escaped public atten-
tion almost entirely?
The Isthmian ditch joined the At
lantic and Pacific Oceans for water
transportation. The tunnel that is be-
ing dug through the Rocky Noun
tains will give a free flow of land
traffic by railroad across the North
American continent.
1t will be the longest tunnel in the
| Western Hemisphere. 1t will place
Denver at last on a trans-continental
steam line.
1t will be finished by 1928. To blast
the hole, over six miles in length,
nearly two million tons Of rock must
be driven out Of the heart of the Rock
les. 1t will require the use of $780,
600 pounds Of high explosives.
Two Miles Above The Sea
The Great Divide has it's highest
/ ridge, north to south, in Colorado.
Rollins Pass, where the tracks of the
Denver and Salt Lake Railroad cross
it, is the highest point in the United
States reached by standard-guage
railway. The climb from Tolland on
4 the east slope attains an altitude of
two miles above sea level.
The Union Pacific Railroad did not
think it advisable to tackle that climb
/, Its tracks are laid along the northern
| border of Colorado. The Santa Fe
skirts the mountain barrier through
| the southeast corner of that State.
The Denver and Salt Lake goes over
1 through Rollins Pass, using four loco
4 motives of the most powerful type to
haul twenty-five freight cars, 1900
tons, up the Giants Ladder. The vast
age of power and money cost, not to
mention time, is enormous. One ordi-
nary locomotive will do the same work
through the tunnel.
| The tunnel will run through the
mountain range 5000 feet beneath
/ the Pass. It will reduce the Gift"
by that much, and will do away with
twenty-three miles of circuitous
climbing track.
1t will provide a netrly-
hole through the Rockies near James
Peak, about fifty miles from Denver,
the bore providing for single track
railroad. The tunnel will be sixteen
feet wide and twenty-four feet high.
A Water Tunnel
An auxiliary tunnel, eight feet in
both diameters, and parallel to the
main bore, is designed to carry water
for irrigating purposes from the west
to the east slope. It's immediate pur-
/ pose, however, is to expedite the Dig
ging of the main tube by serving as a
haulage way for rock and dirt.
The auxiliary tunnel, being so much
smaller, can be dug much faster than
the main one. Thus, by crosscuts
from it into the line of the main bore
work on the latter can be carried on
at number of different points stimuli
taneously, rushing the job to cor
respondent extent.
The tunnel, according to modern en-
gineering methods. is being dug from
both ends the prospect of meeting at
the middle being mathematical GER
tainty Mostly, the rock is granite,
periphery and gneiss. At the east
end it is solid granite; at the west end
the rock is much disintegrated, so
that much strong timbering is re-
quired.
There might be trouble with water.
When the Simplon Tunnel was dug
through the Alps, mighty outpour
of boiling water, heated from volcanic
sources, brought the work to pause
for quite while. Nothing of the
kind is to be expected in this instance;
and, as for water that comes from the
pentrated rocks-fowing into the tun-
/ mel, as it is sure to do, through riffs
and cracks opened by explosives-the
grade of the bore eastward and west
ward will carry it off without pump
ing.
The tunnel, one should understand
will not be absolutely horizontal. 1t
will have grade of one-third of one
per cent, on the east side. It's eleva-
ton at the highest point will be g.
242 feet above sea level.
The idea of finding practicable
path for transportation across the
Great Divide is older than history.
Long before the first white man ar
rived on this continent the aboriginal
Indians tried to find solution of the
problem. How should the mountain
barrier, dividing east from west, be
passed
Ancient Indian Trail
There were various routes; which
was tho pociect +? That which xro 9