Col, a defile.

What other great engineering work can you mention?

The Suez Canal, a ship canal running across the Isthmus of Suez, and connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.  The canal is 100 miles in length, and through it an uninterrupted communication is established whereby large sailing vessels and steamers may pass from sea to sea, and thus avoid the long and dangerous voyage around the Cape of Good Hope.

To whom is the world indebted for this canal?

This great work owes its inception and completion to the enterprise and indomitable energy of Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was born at Versailles, France, on the 19th November, 1805.  In January, 1856, he obtained a charter from the Egyptian Government for a company to construct the canal, and began work in 1859.  Though beset by many difficulties, the persistent energy of De Lesseps fought its way to success, and in 1869 he had the satisfaction of seeing the waters of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea mingle in the Bitter Lakes.  He has since been engaged in many engineering projects, the latest being a canal across the Isthmus of Panama to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

     Inception, beginning.

     Indomitable, not to be subdued.

     Persistent, inclined to hold firm.

What is a Suspension Bridge?

A bridge supported by wires, ropes, or chains, which usually pass over high piers or columns at each end, and are secured in the ground below.

Name some of the largest bridges of this kind.

That at Niagara, those over the Allegheny at Pittsburg and the Ohio at Cincinnati, and the great East River bridge, which connects New York and Brooklyn.

Who planned these bridges?

John A. Roebling, who was born at Mulhausen, Prussia, June 12, 1806.  In 1831 he emigrated to this country, and to his genius we are indebted for the bridges above named.  The reports, plans, and specifications of the East River bridge were completed, and the work begun, when Roebling was severely injured in the foot while directing his work.  Lockjaw succeeding amputation, he died in Brooklyn, July 22, 1869.

To what great Civil Engineer has the West given birth?

James B. Eads.  Born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, May 28, 1820, he began life as a clerk on a Mississippi river steam-boat.  In 1842 he entered a firm engaged in recovering sunken property, and with such success that he retired with a fortune in 1857.  During the civil war he devised a plan for the defence of the Western waters, and constructed several iron gun-boats with many novel features of his own invention.  He has since acquired reputation as projecting and constructing engineer of the Illinois and St. Louis bridge, and by building jetties at the South Pass of the Mississippi, by which the depth of the river is increased, and it is made more navigable.  These jetties are projecting dikes of brush, fascines, and stone.