THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



179 



The Drainage Journal Department 



MEXICO'S CANAL. 



SANITATION, HEALTH AND COMMERCIAL PROSPERITY 



AT ONCE ACCOMPLISHED BY THE GREAT DITCH 



THAT SERVES MANY PURPOSES. 



This stupendous piece of engineering is entitled to 

 take the first rank in the solution of modern sanitary 

 problems. We have as a result the capital city of the 

 republic rendered safe from future inundations, the 

 ground water of the valley kept at a desirable level, the 

 sanitary condition of the City of Mexico comparable to 

 that of any other on the continent. Journal of the 

 American Medical Association. 



Thus do great engineers and leading scientific pub- 

 lications unite in declaring the great drainage canal of 

 Mexico, just completed, to be one of the most wonderful 

 achievements of the century. It has wrested the City 

 of Mexico from the grasp of disease; fortified it against 

 the, heretofore, ever pending danger of being wiped 

 from existence by threatening floods; made the erstwhile 

 barren lands around to blossom with gardens and fruit 



MAIN CANAL UP STREAM. 32ND MILE. 



farms ; beautified the City of Mexico and made her cap- 

 able of competing for commercial supremacy with the 

 leading cities of the continent. Such is the good work 

 a great engineer can do when he is honest and consci- 

 entious. And what this engineer of Mexico has accom- 

 plished with the monetary allowance and facilities at 

 hand ought to put Chicago and Boston to shame when 

 they compare the results. The entire cost of the work, 

 -which began in 1886, has been only $16,000,000. The 

 Sanitary and Ship Canal of Chicago has cost more 

 than twice that amount and will have cost $100,000,000 

 before it is completed. Boston's sewage compares not 

 more favorably in cost and results. 



The present elaborate scheme for the proper sew- 

 age of the city and drainage of the valley of Mexico 

 was inaugurated by President Diaz in 1879. The 

 Journal of the American Medical Association in a very 

 comprehensive report on this canal, says : 



"The works are composed of three principal parts, 

 a canal, a tunnel and discharge cutting. The canal 



starts on the eastern side of the city and continues 

 on that side of the Guadalupean range, between it and 

 Lake Texcoco. The canal has a total length of nearly 

 thirty miles. It has a uniform grade of two feet per 

 thousand. The depth of the canal below the surface of 



MAIN CANAL, UP STREAW FROM SANTA CLARA BRIDGE. 



the starting point is sixteen feet and at the commence- 

 ment of the tunnel, sixty-five feet. The sides have a 

 slope of forty-five degrees and the width at the bottom 

 is sixteen feet for the first sixteen miles and twenty feet 

 for the rest of the canal. The first sixteen miles may 

 be considered as a prolongation of the sewer since it 

 chiefly receives the sewage. The rest of the canal has 

 communication wtih Lake Texcoco, and is intended to 

 govern its waters, as it is the lowest in the whole val- 

 ley and can receive the waters from all parts for which 



MOUTH OF CANAL FROM LAKE TEXCOCO. 



reason the canal is designed to carry the largest volume 

 that could pass through the tunnel, 616 cubic feet per 

 second. The canal is crossed by four aqueducts and 

 thirteen bridges, four of which are steel for railway 



