450 



The Andes and the Amazons. 



will be 3800 feet long. Besides boring the flinty rock, 

 and making enormous bridges, cuts, and fills, the work- 

 men (of whom 8000 have been engaged at one time) 

 have had to contend against land-slides, falling bowlders, 

 sorroche (or the difficulty of breathing at high altitudes), 

 the extremes of climate, pestilential diseases, as fevers and 

 verrugas, and accidents by falling from the rocks and in 

 blasting. About 7000 have died or been killed in the 

 construction of the road thus far. The bridges and cross- 

 ings number about thirty. All are of iron or stone. 

 Some are of French and English manufacture; but the 

 best are American. Of these, the Verrugas Bridge is the 



Ven-n^'iis Bridge, Oroya Railway. 



most remarkable structure of its kind in the world. It 

 spans a chasm 580 feet wide, and rests on three piers. 

 The base of the middle pier is 50 feet square, and its 

 height is 252 feet. The deflection is only five eighths of 

 an inch. It was made at Phoenixville, Pa., of hollow 

 wrought -iron columns, and cost in N"ew York $63,000. 

 This triumph of American ingenuity is the great attrac- 

 tion in Peru, and is the wonder and praise of all visitors. 

 The maximum grade of this road is four per cent.; the 



