DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14563#0100
72
EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT.
grading being done by band, and the timber and stone
carried on the backs of camels or of men. But the most
wonderful part of this great work is at the head of the
Delta — the bridge by which it is to cross the Nile, which
here divides into two great branches. This work was begun
many years ago for quite another purpose — as a barrage
or dam, to facilitate the irrigation of the surrounding country
during the low stage of the river, and to hold back the
water for the same purpose when the river is high. The
barrage is already completed over the Damietta branch, and
that over the Rosetta branch is nearly so ; the former con-
sists of sixteen arches, each thirty feet broad by about sixty
in height, and a central arch nearly a hundred feet in width;
the latter has twenty-four arches of thirty feet, and a similar
central arch. The main arches are to be kept always open,
but the lateral ones are to be closed when the wafer is
needed to feed the canals for the surrounding region. The
railroad is to cross by the Damietta bridge, and to be
carried up the east bank of -the river to Cairo. This work
is built very substantially of hewn stone, and is ornamented
with slender brick turrets in the minaret style, whose tops
and angles are of stone. This style of architecture would
be very pretty for factories and other public buildings in the
United States. Indeed, some church-steeple committees
would find a minaret a prettier model than a tadpole.
The abutments of this bridge are works of amazing
solidity ; yet it may be doubted whether in an alluvial soil,
with no foundation of rock, they can endure the pressure
of a swift and mighty river, forever shifting its current and
undermining its banks. The general appearance of the
barrage reminds one of the High Bridge at Harlem, though
this is a more substantial and a more elegant work than
that. The current of the Nile here runs with' great swift-
ness, fully equal to that of the Piscataqua at Portsmouth,
EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT.
grading being done by band, and the timber and stone
carried on the backs of camels or of men. But the most
wonderful part of this great work is at the head of the
Delta — the bridge by which it is to cross the Nile, which
here divides into two great branches. This work was begun
many years ago for quite another purpose — as a barrage
or dam, to facilitate the irrigation of the surrounding country
during the low stage of the river, and to hold back the
water for the same purpose when the river is high. The
barrage is already completed over the Damietta branch, and
that over the Rosetta branch is nearly so ; the former con-
sists of sixteen arches, each thirty feet broad by about sixty
in height, and a central arch nearly a hundred feet in width;
the latter has twenty-four arches of thirty feet, and a similar
central arch. The main arches are to be kept always open,
but the lateral ones are to be closed when the wafer is
needed to feed the canals for the surrounding region. The
railroad is to cross by the Damietta bridge, and to be
carried up the east bank of -the river to Cairo. This work
is built very substantially of hewn stone, and is ornamented
with slender brick turrets in the minaret style, whose tops
and angles are of stone. This style of architecture would
be very pretty for factories and other public buildings in the
United States. Indeed, some church-steeple committees
would find a minaret a prettier model than a tadpole.
The abutments of this bridge are works of amazing
solidity ; yet it may be doubted whether in an alluvial soil,
with no foundation of rock, they can endure the pressure
of a swift and mighty river, forever shifting its current and
undermining its banks. The general appearance of the
barrage reminds one of the High Bridge at Harlem, though
this is a more substantial and a more elegant work than
that. The current of the Nile here runs with' great swift-
ness, fully equal to that of the Piscataqua at Portsmouth,