CONQUERING THE ANDES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9420, 16 April 1909, Page 8

CONQUERING THE ANDES.

The railway over the. Andes, for Which ah English .firm ima secured tha contract, will%not be the highest in the world, . That distinction apparenty belongs to one further-north from Mollendo to Oroya. lu 138 miles one passes from sea level to a height of 15,665 feet, and then drops to 12 718 feet. Nowhere in the world is the railway builder faced with snob difficulties as in the Andes. ‘.‘The peaks of the Andes are renowned for their perpendicular precipices,’’ says a writer in t-h 0 ® Work, “and as you look fiom the window of your carriage, clinging limpetlike to the mountain lace, with a sheer drop of 5000 feet below yon cannot resist a momentary shudder. At such places the line_ crawls along a narrow ledge just wide enough to take the train, blasted and out out of the solid rook.” On this route there are sixty-five tunnels, fifty-seven of them being passed through in less than fifty miles. They are known by numbers instead of by names. Between 31 and 32 is seen one of the greatest achievements on this wonderful line—a bridge from one tunnel to another across a chasm 55 feet wide, with cliffs rising sheer on either side. “How the engineers ever secured a foothold for throwing the huge steel girders of the bridge from side to side of the gulf seems beyond comprehension. Suspended from ropes swung out on derricks they slipped and clambered about on the precipitous sides, vainly endeavouring to secure a grip with which to ply their tools, and you are not a whit surprised to learn that more than one intrepid worker went to his doom imthe torrent below.” These 138 miles of railway cost £8,600,000, against £3,000,000 for the Arioa-Lea Paz line.