The New Inland Sea 



43 



as originally planned by the engineers. 

 It was planned to dig a channel from the 

 river above these headgates large enough 

 and deep enough to divert the water with- 

 out very much obstruction and carry it 

 to the Alamo River below its junction 

 with the Colorado. This would leave 

 the new channel dry and permit a dam 

 to be built there and levees along the 

 river to close the disastrous break. This 

 work, however, required a very large 

 amount of excavation, estimated to cost 

 nearly a million dollars. The headgates 

 were built, but no sufficient machinery 

 was available for the excavation, and the 

 construction of a mammoth dredge was 

 undertaken at Yuma. This dredge, 

 mounted upon an enormous pontoon, was 

 to have a capacity of lifting about six 

 tons of material at once, and is now 

 finished and at work. 



Realizing the large amount of time 

 that would be required for this excava- 

 tion, and in the face of the heavy cost of 

 repeatedly moving its tracks onto higher 

 and rockier ground along the Salton Sea, 

 the company concluded to make a pre- 

 liminary attempt to dam the new channel 

 by constructing a by-pass around the 

 proposed dam site, through which the 

 water could flow as the dam raised it 

 higher and higher. Wooden headgates 

 were built in the by-pass, and in August 

 the construction of the dam was com- 

 menced. 



DESPERATi; ATTEMPTS TO REGAIN CONTROL 



At this period the situation looked 

 very gloomy ; every condition was un- 

 favorable ; the river, instead of coming 

 down to its normal low water, was dis- 

 charging nearly twice as much water as it 

 ordinarily does at that time of year. The 

 large amount of construction in progress 

 in the Southwest made it extremely diffi- 

 cult to obtain and keep laborers in the 

 hot climate and primitive surroundings 

 of a construction camp. The great heat 

 also made ir extremely difficult to employ 

 animals to advantage in excavation or 

 transportation of material. The heavy 

 demands made upon rolling stock made 



it very difficult and expensive for the 

 railroad company to transport materials 

 for this construction ; but, in spite of all 

 these difficulties, the officials, with com- 

 mendable energy, poured money and men 

 into the breach with an unstinted hand, 

 with the determination to make this 

 effort successful. It was recognized that 

 the work was daily becoming more diffi- 

 cult; the channel was cutting deeper and 

 deeper, and if the river were not con- 

 trolled during the present low-water sea- 

 son it probably never could be, as another 

 high-water season would cut the channel 

 so deep that, without rock foundation or 

 any means of holding a large structure, 

 it would be impossible, or at least enor- 

 mously expensive, to accomplish the work 

 the following or any subsequent year. 

 A railroad was built from the main line 

 to the proposed dam site and continued 

 across the river on piling; a large camp 

 was constructed and laborers assembled; 

 huge pile-drivers and dredges were, 

 brought to the ground, and piles were 

 driven at intervals across the channel 

 where it was proposed to build the dam. 

 At points about 500 feet apart in the 

 river and along the located line of the 

 trestle, two bulkheads were built, one 

 composed mostly of rock and brush on 

 the south side, and the other almost en- 

 tirely of fascines, on the north side. A 

 mat 100 feet long, up and down stream, 

 was placed on the bottom between these 

 abutments, the piles of the trestle pin- 

 ning the mat to the bottom. Over part 

 of this mat a second mat was placed. 



Immediately after the construction of 

 the railway across the river the opera- 

 tion of building the remaining 500 feet 

 of dam between the two abutments was 

 begun. Steam shovels loaded 40-yard 

 automatic dump cars at quarries four 

 miles away, and train-loads of these cars 

 were run out on the trestle and dumped 

 into the river upon the mat. Gradually 

 the river rose, until on October 10 the 

 difference in elevation of the water above 

 and below the dam was six feet, and 

 practically the whole river was flowing 

 through the gates. 



