Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

348 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. TEBUK MOSQUE, THE ONLY ONE BUILT FOR THE LINE. It was constructed by Christian workmen. had to be traversed. All the material, stores, and provisions for the workmen had to be brought over the rails from the seaboard. Construction included the building of some hundreds of viaducts and bridges and the driving of many tunnels. We must remember, too, that the material had all to be ordered from foreign countries— Turkey has no rail factories of her own—and that it was impossible to do what has been done on many long lines — to construct from several points simultaneously. Nor must we overlook the fact that at many points the workers were threatened by hostile tribes, and the engine had to be the mechanical coun- terpart of the “ ship of the desert ” with 1 had to be protected by soldiers, organization put an extra tax on the whose resources of the authorities. regard to its water-carrying capacities. As for the fuel, this is stored at several points on the railway, all kept replenished by special coal trains, which take the mineral aboard at Haifa. The total weight of engine and tender in working order is 89 tons. The carriages are of the American pattern, commodious, comfortable, and In spite of all difficulties the railway was laid well and cheaply. The total cost for the Damascus and Haifa to Medina portion was only £3,000,000, or about £30,000 per mile. The lowness of the figures is due in no small degree to the fact that for once Turkish, greed was subordinated to religious motives, so that well slung on four-wheeled bogies. They are entered at each end by means of a short flight of steps reaching almost to the ground. The railway was mooted by the Sultan in 1900, and completed—as Quick and Creditable Work. far as Medina — in 1908. Co nsidering the immense physical diffi- overcome, this culties to be means the achievement of a remarkable engineering feat. Practically unknown country THE NEBATEAN TOMBS NEAR MEDAIN SALIH STATION, 578 MILES FROM DAMASCUS AND 240 MILES FROM MEDINA.