BAGHDAD RAILWAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1916, Page 3

BAGHDAD RAILWAY.

MOST WONDERFUL TUNNELS IN THE WORLD. Undoubtedly the most important event in railway construction in Turkey to date (says the United States Consulgeneral at Constantinople in a report to Washington) is the recent completion of the large tunnel (lf>,o2Sft long) on the Baghdad railroad, piercing the Amanita Mountains on the border between Asia .Minor and Syria. With the completion of this tunnel, the most serious difficulties connected with the construction of the Baghdad railroad have been overcome, and the work of connecting up many of the isolated stretches of track may be expected to be completed with reasonable rapidity. In spite of delays occasioned by the war, this most important undertaking in railroad construction in Turkey has passed the problematical stage, and is now certain to become an accomplished fact in the near future. Leaving Mamoure, the last station on the Baghdad railway, in the Cilieian plain, the line begins, at the foot of the Amaims Mountains, to ascend, at a very steep grade, the slopes of these mountains, which are intercepted by ravines, crossed by means of eight steel bridges and seven small tunnels, latter having a total length of Gttiiii feet. Thus it arrives at Baghtche station, situated at an altitude of 1754 feet, near the entrance of tho great tunnel. Before reaching the mouth of the tunnel the line runs through two smaller tunnels and over a small bridge. For about 8000 feet it ascends to 240 feet above the level of the entrance, and . then begins to descend, and emerges (it the other end 197 feet above the level of the entrance. Between this point and tslahie station, which is still building, there are four more tunnels, having a combined length of .ir>fl() feet. Hie total length of the tunnels it has been necessary to construct in crossing -this chain of mountains is, therefore, a little more than 20,250 feet. The great tunnel, with its lengtli of more than three miles, is by far the longest in Turkey. It is only exceecd in length by the great tunnels in tho Alps and elsewhere. Still, the technical difficulties which had to be overcome in piercing through have been just as great as those encountered in the Alps. In fact, for several hundred yards the engineers encountered a rock of practical!) pure quartz, which was so hard that it was necessary to have recourse to bomig machines of special construction.