File:The gate of the Pacific (1863) (14576498730).jpg

Identifier: gateofpacific00pimb (find matches)
Title: The gate of the Pacific
Year: 1863 (1860s)
Authors: Pim, Bedford, 1826-1886
Subjects:
Publisher: London : L. Reeve & co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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d to be nil, or nearly so, and consequently every-thing, especially labour, had to be imported. Despiteall these obstacles, the undertaking was commenced,and, under the able superintendence of Colonel G. M.Totten, one of the boldest and grandest enterprises ofmodern times successfully completed. The total length of the road is 47 miles 3020 feet;it runs on the right or easterly bank of the Chagres,as far as Barbacoas, where it crosses the river by a bridge625 feet in length, 18 feet in breadth, and 40 feet abovethe mean level of the river, This bridge is of wroughtiron, and is exactly midway between Aspinwall and Pa- * In all muddy places, down to the verge of the ocean, are impene-trable thickets, formed of mangroves, chiefly rhizophoras and avicennias,which exhale pntrid miasmata. . . . Myriads of mosquitoes and sandfliesfill the air, while huge alligators sun themselves on the slimy soil. . . .To destroy these dreaded swamps is almost impossible.—SeemannsVoyage of II.M.S. Herald.
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LxJ O ^ < THE HALFWAY BRIDGE. 201 nama; and it is not a little singular that the bridgethrown across the Nile between Alexandria and Cairois also exactly halfway; in other words, both the greatisthmus transits of the world are intersected at half theirlength by a large river. The Barbacoas bridge is of sixspans, built of boiler iron, with a top and bottom chordtwo feet in breadth and one inch in thickness, joinedby a web of boiler iron nine feet in height at the centre,and seven at the ends. The rails are laid on ironfloor-girders, three feet apart, and the whole structureis supported by five piers and two abutments twenty-six feet wide and eight feet in thickness, increasingin the proportion of an inch to the foot down to theirfoundations, which are constructed of piles and con-crete. The highest point of the line is 37f miles from theAtlantic, and is 263 feet above the mean level of thatocean. The maximum grade on the Atlantic slope isone in ninety; on the Pacific descent it is r

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