244 



ENGINEERING. 



the extent to which the world's commerce has 

 developed, and the conditions under which it 

 is carried on. It needed only the assurance that 

 engineering art is competent to construct a 

 channel through which the tides can wash, and 

 monster steamships float from one sea to an- 

 other, to give rise to numerous projects of this 

 kind, the advantages of which can be calculated 

 \\itli tolerable precision. The piercing of the 

 Isthmus of Suez, the most necessary to be re- 

 moved of these barriers, though not the most 

 formidable one, furnished the needed example. 

 Kvi-n in the far East a project for a ship-canal 

 is taking shape. It is proposed to dig a canal 

 tli rough the Isthmus of Krah, the narrowest 

 part of the Malayan Peninsula. Such a cutting 

 would shorten the commercial route to China 

 and Japan by more than six hundred miles. 

 The isthmus is about fifty miles wide ; but the 

 route of the proposed canal is shortened by 

 natural water-ways on both sides. By utilizing 

 the bed of the Pakchan River on the western 

 coast, and that of the Htassay on the eastern, 

 the length of. the cutting which would have to 

 be made would probably not exceed thirty 

 miles. The engineering difficulties are not great, 

 as far as known. The neighboring region is 

 fertile, and contains minerals of value, tin-mines 

 being already established, and gold having been 

 found in promising quantities. 



The Arlberg Tunnel was a project of six or 

 eight years' standing, and all the engineers of 

 Austria had been called into counsel as to the 

 best route, when a definite line was decided 

 upon by the Government in 1880, and the work 

 was finally begun. The only outlet for Aus- 

 trian products has been either over the German 

 lines or Italian lines of railway, so that in view 

 of possible complications, and as a condition of 

 political independence, it was necessary to con- 

 struct this railway, at whatever cost. The suc- 

 cess of the Mont Cenis and St. Gothard Tunnels 

 has encouraged the Austrians to seek an inde- 

 pendent outlet by boring through the mass of 

 lofty mountains between Austria and Switzer- 

 land. The tunnel will be over six miles in 

 length. It will be completed in about six years. 

 The total cost of the railroad will be about 

 $18,000,000. 



On the American Continent the Panama Ship- 

 canal, which has been vigorously begun, over- 

 shadows all other engineering projects now 

 under way. The scarcely less ambitious and 

 more striking design of a ship-railway across 

 the Isthmus of Tehuantepec has not yet been 

 definitely undertaken ; but the scheme is more 

 seriously considered, and appears to have a 

 better prospect of accomplishment, than at the 

 time of its first promulgation. The Florida 

 Ship-canal, the Chesapeake and Delaware Ship- 

 canal, and the Cape Cod Ship-canal are the first 

 projects for deep-draught canals which have a 

 prospect of being constructed in the United 

 States. Another ship-railway scheme has been 

 broached as a substitute for the old project 

 for joining the Bay of Fundy and Baie Verte 



on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A railway for 

 conveying vessels eighteen miles across the 

 Isthmus of Chignecto would save the long and 

 dangerous voyage between ports of the United 

 States and ports on the St. Lawrence Gulf and 

 River, which must now be made around Nova 

 Scotia. The Dominion Government has this 

 plan under consideration. 



Although in the United States no new canals 

 of importance have been opened for many 

 years, and the impression prevails that inland 

 water communications are destined to be super- 

 seded by railroads, in several of the Continental 

 countries of Europe the canal systems are being 

 extended greatly at the present time. In Great 

 Britain no new water-ways are under construc- 

 tion, and the existing ones are owned by the 

 railroad companies, and made entirely tributary 

 to the business of the railroads, even to the ex- 

 tent sometimes of abandoning their operation. 

 Of 4,200 miles of inland navigation in Great 

 Britain, fully 40 per cent have been purchased, 

 leased, or subsidized by the railway companies. 

 The most active country in the extension of 

 water communications is Germany. The Gov- 

 ernment's plan for uniting by a system of ca- 

 nals the Elbe, the "Weser, the Ems, the Rhine, 

 and the Meuse, is maturing. The system, con- 

 necting with the canal systems of Belgium, 

 France, and Holland, it is expected will be 

 further expanded and joined to the canals of 

 East Germany by a deep-draught canal which 

 English capitalists have proposed to construct 

 between Kiel and some point on the Elbe. 



The Austrian Government is resolved to 

 improve the navigation of the Danube. The 

 opinion prevails in that country that the re- 

 moval of the obstacles in the Danube would 

 enable Austro-Hungary to compete successfully 

 with America in supplying Europe with grain. 

 The rocks which are called the Iron Gates are 

 to be destroyed by blasting, and rocky obstruc- 

 tions are to be cleared away in the channel of 

 the upper Danube. The Bavarian and Wur- 

 temberg Governments show a willingness to 

 co-operate with the Austrian, and so improve 

 the river that barges can be towed throughout 

 its whole course. The project of connecting 

 the Danube with the Oder by a canal, which 

 will enable the cereals of Austro-Hungary to 

 be transported to the Baltic, is likewise a favor- 

 ite one at Vienna. The scheme of digging a 

 canal between the Dniester and the Vistula, 

 and thus establishing a commercial highway 

 between the Baltic and the Black Sea, is favor- 

 ably entertained by Central European capital- 

 ists. The products of the South Russian grain- 

 regions could then be conveyed directly from 

 Odessa to Dantzic, and shipped by way of the 

 North Sea. The estimated cost of such a 

 water-way is $100,000,000. 



In France, Freycinet, when Minister of Pub- 

 lic Works, instituted inquiries which led to the 

 conclusion that in that country the business of 

 transportation could be done by water-routes 

 at from one third to two fifths the cost of rail- 



