The wonders of the world

by John Loraine Abbott

TUNNEL IN SHAKSPEARE’S CLIFF.

In the United States there are quite a number of railroad tunnels of great extent. One of these is the Blue Ridge tunnel, in Virginia, the length of which, when completed, will be forty-two hundred and sixty feet, of which more than half is already (1855) finished. The work has been commenced on each side of the mountain, and is progressing at the rate of about fifty feet a month, at which rate of progress it would take about three years to complete it.

But probably the most gigantic work ever proposed in the way of tunneling, is the Hoosic tunnel, on the line of the Troy and Greenfield railroad, by which it is designed to shorten the passage from the former place to Boston. This immense tunnel it is proposed to carry through the solid rock of the mountain for a distance of some four miles, and to make it wide enough for a double track for the railroad; the expense of doing which is variously estimated, at from four million to six million dollars. By the ordinary method of drilling and blasting, it would take so long a time, and require so large an expenditure, that all idea of thus accomplishing the work has long since been given up, if, indeed, it was ever entertained. And the plan is, by immense boring machines, constructed for the purpose, to make grooves round large masses of the rock, and when these latter are broken up by blasting, to remove them piece by piece. Several such machines have been invented and constructed with reference to this very work, and one or two of these have been found successful in practice, though the immense strain caused by the boring is such as to require corresponding strength in the borer. To give the necessary ventilation, and now and then light to the tunnel, both when in the course of construction, and especially when finished and in use, it is proposed at proper intervals to sink dry wells, or openings from the top of the mountain, down to the tunnel itself; so that the constant stream of air entering the mouth of the latter, at either end, may be always and steadily passing up through these chimneys or ventilators, thus carrying off the smoke of the engines, or any impurities of the otherwise stagnant air. The work, when completed, if it ever is, will be a monument of enterprise and perseverance, unrivaled in the history of tunneling in this or any other country of the world.

THE COLOSSUS AT RHODES.

This was a celebrated brazen image of Apollo, of the enormous hight of one hundred and five Grecian, or one hundred and twenty-five English feet, placed at the entrance of one of the harbors of the city of Rhodes, (anciently Rhodus,) which is about twenty miles from the coast of Lycia and Caria, in the Mediterranean sea. The island of Rhodes is about one hundred and twenty miles in circumference, and was early occupied by a colony of Greeks from Crete and Thessaly, who in time became both wealthy and powerful. Their capital city was on the east of the island; it was built in the form of an amphitheater, and had numerous splendid buildings, among which was a temple to Apollo. Having for a time submitted to the power of Alexander the Great, they afterward refused to assist Antigonus in his war with Egypt, when he sent his son Demetrius against them, with an immense fleet and army. They, however, being aided by Ptolemy, king of Egypt, were enabled to repulse his forces and to oblige him to agree to a peace. And he being thus reconciled to them, in admiration of the courage they had displayed, presented to them all the engines he had employed in the attack, by the sale of which, for three hundred talents, they raised the famous colossus, a view of which is given in the cut.

THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES.

This immense statue, as already said, was of brass, and was erected in honor of Apollo, the tutelary god of the island, in acknowledgment of the protection he was supposed to have rendered the Rhodians in their recent conflict. It was the workmanship of Chares, (a pupil of Lysippus, a celebrated sculptor and statuary of Greece,) who, with an assistant, was engaged in the work for more than twelve years. The hight of the statue, as already said, was one hundred and twenty-five feet; its thumb was so large that few people could grasp it; and the fingers were each larger than the bodies of statues of ordinary size. It was hollow, and to counterbalance the weight, and render it steady on its feet, its legs were lined with heavy masonry; and within them, were winding staircases leading to the top of the statue, from which one could easily see Syria, and the ships sailing to Egypt. It is supposed to have stood, with distended legs, on the two moles which formed the entrance of the harbor; but as the city had two harbors, one twenty, and the other fifty feet wide at the entrance, it has been supposed to have been at the narrowest. It bore a light, or lantern, so as to serve as a light-house; but whether on the head, or in one of the hands, as represented in the cut, is not certainly known. The statue was erected B. C. 300, and after having stood about sixty years, was thrown down by an earthquake. After its fall, the Rhodians solicited help from the kings of Macedonia and Egypt, and in other countries, to enable them to restore it; and so great was the commercial importance of Rhodes, that their appeal was promptly met by magnificent gifts; but the oracle at Delphos forbade them again to raise the colossus. The statue then remained in ruins for the space of eight hundred and ninety-four years, when, in the year 672 A. D., it was sold by the Saracens, who were then masters of the island, to a Jewish merchant of Edessa, who loaded nine hundred camels with the metal which had composed it, and which, estimated at eight hundred pounds for each camel-load, would have amounted to seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds’ weight.

The character of Rhodian art was a mixed Græco-Asiatic style, which seems to have delighted in executing gigantic and imposing conceptions; for beside this celebrated colossus, (which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world,) there were three thousand other statues adorning the city; and of these, about one hundred were on such a scale of size and magnificence, that the presence of any one of them would have been thought sufficient to dignify almost any other spot. The architecture of Rhodes was of the most stately character: the plan of the city was by the same architect who built the Piræus at Athens; and all was designed with such symmetry, that Aristides remarks, “It is as if it had been one house.” The streets were wide, and of unbroken length; and the fortifications, strengthened at intervals with lofty towers, did not appear, as in other cities, detached from the buildings which they inclosed, but by their boldness, and decision of outline, hightened the unity and conception of the groups of architecture within. The temples were decorated with paintings, by Protogenes, Zeuxis, and other celebrated artists of the school of Rhodes; and of one of these pictures, it is said, that when taken to Rome, it was the object of universal admiration. The island, after passing through various fortunes, has, for a long time, been part of the Turkish empire.