Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY. the promise is held out that it will eventually reduce the journey from England to Australia to some twenty-two days. As a commercial undertaking it is proving eminently successful; and when, if ever, honesty in public adminis- tration is developed as a Russian virtue, the system must become a national asset of in- calculable value. Mid and Eastern Siberia, as well as the Ural district, are known to be among the most richly mineralized regions of the world, thick seams of coal and deposits of gold, both alluvial and quartzite, lying ready to the miner’s pick. The agricultural outlook has already been touched on. To aid and supplement the railways in the task 95 of gathering the lavish gifts of nature, there is already in existence a magnificent network of waterways, both natural and artificial, soon to be greatly improved by the con- struction of further canals, some of which, as already projected, will be works of the first magnitude. Without doubt, engineering as applied to ways of communication has a mighty future before it in Siberia and its physical complement, European Russia ; and just as this vast expanse forms the major part of the greatest land mass of the world, so doubtless will it eventually become the scene of the grandest, in their different forms, of the achievements of the constructive engineer. A TRESTLE BRIDGE IN THE “ TAIGA ” OR FOREST COUNTRY.