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Show ROAD BUILDING IN THE EVERGLADES Tremendous Difficulties Faced in Making Road Through Big Cypress Swamp. PART OF THE DIXIE HIGHWAY Leaa Than Twenty-Five lohabltanta on Million-Dollar Stretch Known aa the Tamiami Trail Opens Up Paradise for Motorists and Hunters. Miami, Fla.- It Is to bo rt-Rrcttetl that (trout and (luritiR projocta of con-structinn con-structinn wlii'ii coniplctt'd cannot toll the atury of tllfllcnltlt's met anil ovor-conip, ovor-conip, Instoad of prt'si'iitliiK tho smontli finished appeuranop too ofton taki'ii as it mtittt-r of cinirsi- bj tin' rasual ol scrvor, witlimit a thotafill us to how It was hroiiKlit ahout. This Is Roin;: to bo tlio case of tlto Taiiibiinl trail, a Krontor part of whlrh Is over tbo I)lxl highway, now being constructed through the Kverglndea of Florida. I he road will extent) from Tampa on the west const to Miami tin the east, and when completed In WIN will represent ;t total outlay In excess of one million dollars. Approximately $"r0.U0) bus been appropriated and wirk Is under way, so that Its ultimate completion la absolutely assured. Large brtttga projects have been provided pro-vided for at the crossing of the Manatee Mana-tee river at Ilrndentown and across Charlotte harbor nt Puntii Oorda. Of the total mlleaite of 270.1), the stretch from I'liiitn (Jorda to Miami, repre-sentlnft repre-sentlnft a mileage of 1SS.!), has been Incorporated In-corporated as a part of the Dixie highway. high-way. This Is the most dlflicult part of the construction, as n greater pnrt of It Is through the Kverglades. Tremendous Difficulties Ahead. With the exception of the completion comple-tion of the bridges nt Hnnlentown antl 1'unta Oonta, ii well-graded road, with a large part of the mileage surfaced, will be provided from Tampn to Marco early In 1IH7. Some additional funds ere needed to surface the road In I.ee I'otinty. The highway from Marco to Miami, n dlatanca of 8.'t miles, will probably require the greater pnrt of fhe year to complete, on nccount of the tremendous difficulties to be overcome In building through Hlg Cypress swamp. An Interesting fact connected with the construction Of this extreme Southern cross-state highway Is that on the entire tlistnnce from Marco to Miami there are less than 2fi Inhabitants, Inhabi-tants, and these are .mostly Seminole Indian. I. ending out of Miami the Tnmlaml trail will extend for 24 miles west without n curve or an angle. The contractors are now olillterntlng traces of the story of months spent In battling against terrific odds In the muck and water of the Kverglades as they go, by sowing grass seed along the embankment Of the highway. Property Prop-erty owners are dotting the roadside with palms ami other tropical trees nnd foliage, so that by the time tourists tour-ists cun travel this great highway across the state, only citnnls. small lakes untl rich fertile fields will he In the foreground, where once existed an Impenetrable Jungle with wager, muck and mud underneath. Some Idea of the "bigness" of the task of building a road through the Kverglades may be obtained from u graphic account of bis itrugglee on Hig Mend, furnished by ('apt. K. B, Harvey, Har-vey, who has the contract for fifi miles ... ... .....II J., .1, ttlmm m 11... (ii in,- ii iir ii, mii roil .iiiris in iiiiu- 10. "There are no rules In the hook," 'iys Captain Harvey, "to fit the proposition propo-sition offered by Pig Bend, It was a case of 'It's up to you, fight It out.' It was scrub mangrove anil grass muck. Think of the leaves on the trees shaking shak-ing antl trembling, anil the whole mass of muck and mini for bundreda of feet In each direction quivering and shaking shak-ing like n mass of Jelly with each vibration vi-bration of the tlredge engine. Then think of putting a 40,MK)-pound engine across. Well, I put It over, but enme out wild, frantic and gray-heuded. It takes every nerve one has nnd enn borrow, with muck ami mud underneath under-neath 12 feet tleep, antl chancing the slightest mlstnke or error of Judgment would make n burled and tangled wreck of 40.000 pounds of steel nnd machinery. Try It, and se what sleepless sleep-less nights are." In unswer to the question of how he he did It, Captain Harvey said that ho tried plank und log Cribbing; but this was too uncertain ami treacherous. Then brush muts wore made ami piled up four foot high, the track laid on thom and the machine forced over the brush mats. "These tnafs," said Captain Cap-tain Harvey, "were often washed down In (lie muck until the truck layers would have to fish to their shoulder In tin- mud to get out the rails und cross ties." For Hunters of Big Game. The tourist who travail this road, us he trill le able to do as far as Marco In 1!H7, Will ii.lss the thrills of the buttle with the Kverglades. The first traveler ma) tee the blown bears, wiltl tuts und other ilenl.eus of the Jungle, which frequently come within 200 yards' of the workmen to satisfy their curiosity as to wlnt new creatures crea-tures have come to disturb their solitude. soli-tude. Asitle from entering to the desires de-sires of the motorist to explore the much talked-of Kverglades. view the wonderful aeenery, ami provide a vast hunting preeerve acoeoelble to hunters Of big game, the counties Involved hail a treiin ndiiiisly big cojuiiutcIuI Idea lo TRYING TO KEEP RIFLES CLEAN rMsMrs" .Pill rwr C aw 'i'r m 1 BT J"TajBBr' lrTaW' LL Vj B BgW ' ' Hbsi sgfgl Itv III the mud of the battlefield it Is no easy matter to keep the ritles clean Those Ktigllsh soldiers are doing their host under the circumstances. view In planning anil carrying through the construction of the Tamiami trail. Lack of drainage us well us Innccessl-bllity Innccessl-bllity makes dormant ami worthless hundreds of thousands of acres In the Kvergliules, which experts clnlm contain con-tain the most fertile soil to be found In the WOrid, The construction of the Tumlaml trnll removes both of these obstacles. The methods employed Ir. excavating for the canal and throwing up the rock marl and other material for the roadbed, antl depositing the un- suitubio material, such n decayed vegetable veg-etable matter and muck, on the other side Is hest described In Captain Harvey's Har-vey's own words : Furnishes Some Variety. "Kvery conceivable kind, character and condition of rontl building Is found in the first ten miles north from Marco. Mar-co. Cypress strands underlaid with bOWldet und bedrock; pine ridges of bowlder und ridges of the hardest of hardpun, sand banks of clay of several different colors, rock ridges outcropping outcrop-ping on the surface; cabbage palmetto land scrub button WOOd I prnirle land Hooded in the rnlny season; flat-woods land, saw-grass land, marsh-grnss land. soft-blue marl ami shell land; ull varieties va-rieties of mangrove land ; swamp land ; title Huts; tide lands one to two feet under water at high title, bog lands, mud holes; muck ponds, crooks, rivers, bayous ami channels, more combinations combina-tions than any spot on earth to give a contractor a ruu for his money. "Hand labor was out of the question ami impracticable, so it became a very serious problem as to how to handle the proposition with the varying conditions con-ditions intermingled, A land dredge machine waa decided upon ami although al-though It Is n long wuys from perfect, it has answered the general purpose fairly wall, it is of steel beam construction, con-struction, weighing some 40.(HM) pounds. It hus it cubic yard dipper. It straddles the canal ami runs on Its own trucks untl by Its own power. The steel rails art! In four foot sections ami pinned at the end with a flexible steel coupling on u 8lncfa thick .'t-liy-M oak cross ties, enabling It to run over uneven ground. The trucks are 28 feet apart. Thus a canal source 21 feet wide und 12 feet deep can be dug If deaired. In this Instance the width i of the cannl In most places depends on the amount of material desired for the road bod. An even depth was cur ricd with an idea of drainage, How Work Is Done. "We began cutting through the swamp, dumping the mass of marl, snnd, etc., to one side. This dump Is leveled down to grutle nnd surfaced by hand with big heavy hoes and shovels. shov-els. Through Williams Island Jungle, which was truly u Jungle in every sense of the wortl, a mass of trees of all kinds nnd sizes; thousands of switches, poles, brush, ferns, ull woven together with bamboo rattan ami other vines. Perhaps several hundred would be chopped off at the ground before the mass would fall, so that It could bo chopped iipurt wit Ii brush uxos. When It Is understood that the clearing clear-ing had to ho done at the contract price of $44 an ncro. It can roatllly be seen that the contractor had to run like the devil for his money. Some stretches could not be cleared for three times the price. "The finished road bod Is 18 feet wide. It Is lVi to 1 slope with (5 Inch crown und I teet borm. The contruct for the Islam! part ami part of the mainland was 24 cents per cubic yard. A contractor bidding at these prices anil under such conditions Is skating on thin lc." In removing the big rock ledges and rock strata wherever encountered explosives ex-plosives are used. As the major portion por-tion of the material to be taken out Is soft, the big bucket on the dredge Is able to do all of the excavating down to heil rock. When the rock bod. as thrown up by the dredge, has stood for BO tlays ami so thoroughly dried anil settled, the contractor'sforees go over It with pick and shovel, leveling down a Utile above gratlo to allow for rolling. roll-ing. The subgrade will be rolled with a roller weighing seven tons or more, and any depressions are brought to an oven surface. After the subgnjilo has been completed u rock surface to the depth of 12 inches a put on and rolled. The rock is then scarified, graded and rolled. Tweiity-four-lnch culverts aro to be placed about every 800 feet In Dade County nt every mile station a I 20-fOOt spur rontl, as u turnout, will be provided. |