196 Transactions of the American Institute. 



America. While tlie most eminent engineers were building railways 

 to be ojDerated bjliorses and stationary engines, Stephenson produced 

 the Rocket locomotive, and while the world was ridiculing Morse, 

 the leaders of the Presidential Convention at Baltimore were con- 

 versing with the candidates in Washington; through the telegraphic 

 wires. Among the great j)rojects of the age are those for building 

 canals, railways, bridges, tunnels, and steamers. It would be 

 both presumptuous and hazardous so designate which of these 

 projects are practical and which are chimerical, but those of each 

 class which are most feasible I will name in order. In canal work 

 we have a project for one around the falls of IS'iagara; again, an 

 enlarged canal between the interior lakes and the Hudson, suitable 

 for vessels of a 1,000 tons ; the Suez canal (a rebuild of the one made 

 by Necho, 610 B. C.) ; a canal across the Alleganies, between the 

 navigable waters of the Ohio and James rivers ; a canal through the 

 Nicaragua lakes, or across the Isthmus of Panama, and one from 

 lake Huron to Ontario. In railways, we have the Pacific, on the eve 

 of completion ; the Mount Cenis in rapid progress, the one across the 

 South American continent, from Rio Janeiro, begun, and others of 

 magnitude and numbers too numerous to mention. Of bridges, we 

 have those in progress across our great western rivers ; one proposed 

 over the East river at ISTew York, of 1,600 feet clear span ; two over 

 the Hudson, above and below West Point ; another across the Straits 

 of Messina, covering the " Scylla and Charybdis," with clear spans of 

 1,000 meters, or nearly two-thirds of a mile each, and with piers of 

 TOO feet high, half below and half above water ; and finally, the 

 modern " Pons Asinorum," a bridge project across the Straits of 

 Dover, sixteen miles long, in clear spans of two miles, with piers of 

 1,000 feet or more in depth. In tunnels, we have that of Mount 

 Cenis, nine miles, and the Hoosic of five miles in length, both in 

 rapid progress ; one of wrought iron tubes (a sub-aquean bridge) 

 under the Thames, and another under the Chicago river, almost com- 

 l^leted ; tunnels also proposed under the East and Hudson rivers at 

 ]S^ew York, under the Ganges at Calcutta, and under the Straits of 

 Dover. After the annual dinner of the Smeatonian society in Lon- 

 don, two years ago, this subject (the tunnel under the Straits of 

 Dover) was discussed, and the chairman called for my opinion, 

 remarking that my countrymen were noted for projecting (and 

 accomplishing, he added) some of the boldest engineering schemes, 

 and said : " Do you regard the tunneling of the Channel a feasible 



