ANCIENT AND MODERN ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE. 551 



by sheet lead, upon which was laid earth sufficiently thick to nourish large trees. 

 The gardens were filled with the blooming plants and shrubs which were admired 

 by Queen Amytis in her native Media. The different terraces and groves con- 

 tained fountains, parterres, seats and banqueting rooms; in fact all the splendor 

 and magnificence of eastern art seem to have been lavished upon these gardens 

 by King Nebuchadnezzar in order that his Median bride should be happy in her 

 new home. Pen cannot picture the grandeur of the conception or the perfection 

 of the execution of these gardens, which have been and are the wonder of all ages. 

 The greatest hanging structure now in existence is the Brooklyn suspension 

 bridge, costing $15,000,000, The whole length is 3 475 feet, and it connects 

 New York and Brooklyn by a clear span of 1,595 feet. It is 135 feet above low- 

 water mark and 85 feet broad, it has also two platforms, one above the other. 

 The piers are stone masonry, hollow and sunk below the surface by means of 

 caissons. As the details of this work are formidable it is sufficient to say that it 

 is the greatest engineering feat known. John Roebling was the engineer. 



One of the mysteries handed down to us is the manner in which the ancients 

 manipulated these immense stones. Take the obelisk of Luxor, which stands 

 sentinel over the Place de la Concord, in Paris, seventy-three feet in length. 

 Long-continued manual labor could quarry it, but by what means it was con- 

 veyed to Luxor is still hypothetical ; and the stones of the Pyramids, not one of 

 which is less than thirty feet long by five thick, how could they be hoisted up 

 478 feet, or rather, how were they, and by what means were these great blocks of 

 granite transported from the quarry at Syene to the delta of the Nile, a land jour- 

 ney of six hundred or a voyage of seven hundred miles ? Egyptologists have 

 surmised many ways by which the Pyramids were built, but none of them seem 

 satisfactory. No representations of derricks or hoisting machines have been 

 bequeathed to us. Some writers say that the stones were raised by machines 

 from step to step, others tell us that skids were used, still others that the external 

 covering was laid from the top to bottom. The great Pyramid Cheops 

 covers at base about 550,000 square feet and rears itself 478 feet. The first step 

 is nearly four feet eight inches high, the top one one foot eight inches. Mathe- 

 matics were known in that day, as its angle was perfect at all sides 51° 50', 

 also each stone was accurately fitted to another. Notwithstanding the difficulty 

 in finishing granite the stones of this royal tomb were finely polished. Chrono- 

 logists differ as to the date of the reign of Cheops, the latest date given being 

 2123 B. C. Herodotus says that he "was informed by the priests of Memphis 

 that the great Pyramid was built by Cheops, that 100,000 men were twenty years 

 in building it, and that the body of the king was placed in a room in the bottom of 

 the Pyramid." No king ever had a mausoleum so beautifully magnificent; 

 beautiful in its simplicity, magnificent in its proportions. The Pyramid of Aph- 

 ren is 684 feet square and 456 feet high. The Pyramid of Mycerinius is 330 feet 

 at base and 174 feet high. There were many other pyramids built, but to all of 

 them we can only say "the eternal pyramids — the mystery of the past — the 

 enigma of the present — and the enduring for the future ages of this world." 



