Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

IRRIGATION WORK IN THE UNITED STATES. 101 power to the Indians for the irrigation of 10,000 acres. Forty miles below the storage dam, the Granite Reef Pam has been completed to turn the flow of the river into canals on either side. This structure is a rubble concrete weir 38 feet high and 1,100 feet in length. All of the old canals in the valley have been 576,000 acres a foot deep. A concrete diver- sion weir in the river at a point eight miles below the Shoshone Dam turns the stream into a tunnel 3| miles in length, through which it passes to a large canal feeding the irrigable lands below. Approximately 150,000 acres of desert will be reclaimed by these works. On the Missouri River, in North Dakota, absorbed by the Government; many have been enlarged and extended. The engineers are now operating here one of the most up-to- date irrigation sys- tems in the world. The total length of the main canals and laterals is more than 276 miles. The esti- mated cost of this project, which will be completed early in CONTROL GATES OF MAIN CANAL, SHOSHONE PROJECT, WYOMING. the Government has a very unique pro- ject utilizing the waters of the Mis- souri River by pump- ing. Owing to this stream constantly changing its channel, no permanent struc- tures could be con- structed in the banks. A pumping plant was set up on a floating barge connected to the shore by flexible pipes. The water is 1910, is $6,500,000—£1,300,000 sterling. LARGE IRRIGATION WORKS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. In addition to the engineering works of the Uncompahgre project in Colorado, and the Salt River project in Arizona, which have been mentioned in some detail, The Shoshone |]iere are many others worthy of description. Among these, the Shoshone Dam, in Northern Wyoming, *takes rank as the highest masonry dam in the world. It blocks an exceedingly narrow chasm in which the Shoshone River flows between cliffs of granite. The canyon walls rise almost perpendicularly 2,000 feet above the stream. The Shoshone Dam will stand 328*4 feet above its foundations. Its length at base is but 65 feet, on top only 200 feet. It creates a storage reservoir covering 10 square miles, and holding enough water to cover pumped into a settling basin, and thence led to the distributing canals. Power is supplied from a power station located near a coal mine, the fuel being mined by the Government. Twelve miles above Yuma a dam of the India weir type has been built across the Colorado River, to divert water into canals on both sides. This structure, which rests on the sandy bed Yuma Dam. of the river, has a total length, of 4,780 feet, is 19 feet high, and has a width up and down stream of 256 feet. Its approximate weight is more than 600,000 tons. Original devices are utilized to take care of the excessive amount of silt which the Colorado carries. A daring piece of engineering in connection with this project is contemplated, by which a large amount of water is to be carried from the California side through a siphon under the Colorado River to supply lands in Arizona. A summation of the work of the Reclama-