MOVING A MOUNTAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 June 1922, Page 7

MOVING A MOUNTAIN

ENGINEER’S TRIUMPH.

The old saying that with faith it is possible to remove mountains is being proved true in America to-day, the mountain in this case being one o rock Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, which from its lovely is known as the Paradise ttty of South America, although it already has nearlv a million and a, quarter inhabitants ,La for still further expanse. But a mountain 10 _ Tho Morro do Castello, that overlool s the wonderful Bay of Rio and covers an area at its base equal to a small town, forms an absolute bar to the extension of the city in that direction. The sides are far too steep to be built on, and, after much consideration, the authorities decided that the only, possible hope for the city was to. remove the mountain and build on its siteThe Brazilians, however, had no enough faith to that they could move the obstacle. Not so tho engineers of the United States, who have already performed so many wonderful feats. They examined the obstructing eminence, and decided that it could be shifted out of the way so as to allow the city to grow. An American firm of contractois undertook to. do the work for £2,500,000. Already tho great task has begun. Devices and the finest machinery known to modern engineering science are to be utilised. Hard rock is to be blown away with blasting powder. But, as most of the mountain is composed of comparatively soft and loose earth, the chief means used in its removal will be hydraulic pressure. In other words, most of the mountain will be washed away. Tn such a gigantic task one of the main problems that has to be faced is where the removed matter shall be dumped. This has been solved, however, in a way satisfactory to Rio de Janeiro, for not only will the mountain be removed from the spot whes it is a nuisance, but the material of which it is composed will be deposited at a certain part of the shore where the bay curves round, so as to extend the area of that shore, and thus add a little more land to the city and the country. A crescent-shaped breakwater will protect the newly dumped area. Three pumps driven by gasoline will draw water from the bay at the rate of 7000 gallons a minute each, and by directing this at high pressure on the hill the material will be washed away to the place desired. The work will go on continuously for the whotu 24 hours of each day and for the 365 days of the year, so that the water used will be over 30,000,000 gallons a day, or a total for'the year of nearly 11,040 million gallons. When the bulk ot the mountain has been removed by this hydraulic means, steam shovels ; and automatic dump-cars will finish I levelling the site. The land thus I made available for the spread of tie j city will be laid out in beautiful, treelined avenues, and 70 large blocks of modern buildings will be erected. The 5 additional stretch of shore will be i made into a park. It is a great task, ( but tho American engineers and their 3000 workmen will carry it to a conI elusion. How astonished the old PorL . tuguese builders of the original settle- - mont of Rio would be could they see * the modern city with one of its princi- " Pal geographical landmarks removed.-