CHAPTER XIV.

THE WATERWAYS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. “Th’ expanded waters gather on the plain, They float the fields, and overtop the grain.” —_Ovid._ The great waterway of Austria is the Danube, which rises in the Black Forest, at an elevation of about 3600 feet above the sea, and drains an area of 316,000 square miles, its total length being 1750 miles. Three hundred tributaries, or more, feed this noble river, the seven more important streams having a length of 2900 miles, and draining about one-half of the whole extent of the Danube Basin. At Ulm, 130 miles from its source, the Danube becomes navigable for flat-bottomed boats. In its lower reaches it is traversed by an almost innumerable fleet of steamers and barges, which are the main means of communication between this part of Europe and the Black Sea. _Danube Regulation Works._—The improvement of the channel of the Danube, near Vienna, is one of the most important river engineering works of modern times. A new channel, 10 miles in length, has brought the river 1½ mile nearer to the city, and at a ground depth of 10 to 12 feet below ordinary low-water level, at a cost of 3,250,000_l._ The principal object of the scheme was to protect Vienna from floods, but it has also considerably assisted navigation. Around Vienna the ground is generally flat, and the Danube, with various branches, was, in times of flood, accustomed to inundate the country for many miles round about, doing a great deal of damage both to the city and its suburbs. In order to remedy this condition of things, a commission was appointed which proposed to collect all the branches of the Danube into one channel. The plan attached hereto shows the character of the undertaking. The new channel is nearly 9½ miles in length. It starts from Nussdorf at the foot of the well-known hill called the Kahlenberg, and passes through the flat lands of the Prater, or great public park of Vienna, with a slight curve towards the city, in order that the navigable channel, holding generally to the outside of the curve, should be nearest Vienna, and as close to it as possible, thereby facilitating the shipping on the quays. [Illustration: PLAN OF DANUBE IMPROVEMENT WORKS.] [Illustration: DANUBE IMPROVEMENT WORKS.] _The Locks of Nussdorf._—To prevent winter accumulations of ice from entering the new canal, and to divert floods, locks were constructed at Nussdorf, which are indicated in the drawings herewith. The side walls are founded on cylinders sunk down to the gravel to a depth of 31 feet below zero, and the tops of the abutment of the lock are 15 feet 6 inches above the same level. The distance between the side walls is 155 feet 10 inches. The entrance to the lock is closed by a caisson, the lock being closed only in winter. The invert of the lock is of béton, set in Portland cement, 4 feet 1½ inch thick, the foundation being of piles, as shown on the plan. The level of this invert is 12 feet 9 inches below zero; below that part of the invert, at the entrance to the lock, the floor is made of heavy stonework laid at the same level. The foundations of the barrage at Nussdorf consist of iron caissons, that on the right bank being rectangular in form, and 81 feet long by 18 feet 7 inches wide, while the wall on the left bank is 99 feet long, by the same width as the other, with an enlargement on the side towards the canal for the lock gates. Joining the old bed of the Danube at the Bridge of Stadlau, and following its course as far as the island of Wiedenhaufen, through which it passes, the channel line enters the river again opposite the village of Albern. On the left side of the river a protecting dyke was erected in order to guard against flooding the great plains of Marchfeld. The new channel is 933 feet wide, 8·3 to 11·4 feet in depth, and has a mean slope of 1 in 2272, the speed of the current varying according to the state of the river. The side slope has an inclination of 2 to 1, and is riveted throughout in stone 9¾ inch thick, with a banquette on the top 39 inches wide. The ground on the right bank has been raised so as to reach the same height as the dyke on the left, thus protecting the country round about from inundation. The above works cost over two millions sterling. The quay walls, locks, and other operations were described in a monograph published in 1878 by M. Hersent, one of the contractors, and reprinted in _Engineering_, from which the foregoing particulars have been mainly reproduced. The total amount of earthwork was 23,575,928 cubic yards, divided as follows:— Excavators 4,775,334 Dredgers 9,491,254 Barrows 9,309,340 RÉSUMÉ OF WORKS EXECUTED FOR THE DANUBE REGULATIONS. ──────────────────────────┬───────────────────┬──────────────────── Nature of the Work. │ First Section. │ Second Section. ──────────────────────────┼───────────────────┼──────────────────── Earthwork │1,886,300 cub. yds.│ 6,204,900 cub. yds. Ordinary dredging │ 895,300 ” │10,722,400 ” Destruction of old works, │ │ masonry, fascines, │ │ piling, &c. │ 247,600 ” │ 30,900 ” Drawing piles │ 8267 │ 1350 Removing scaffolding │ 63,495 ft. │ .. Revetments │ 166,100 cub. yds.│ 244,200 cub. yds. Protection for slopes │ 44,100 sq. yds. │ 147,100 sq. yds. Masonry of quays, &c. │ 284,000 cub. yds.│ 64,200 cub. yds. Foundations by │ │ compressed air │ 3600 ” │ .. Piles driven 31 ft. long │ 3519 │ 16,481 Sheet piling 21 ft 9 in. │ 1838 │ 13,577 Fascine work │ .. │ 68,300 cub. yds. Blasting cartridges │ 650 ft. │ 42,607 ft. ├───────────────────┼──────────────────── │ Third Section. │ Total. ├───────────────────┼──────────────────── Earthwork │1,218,000 cub. yds.│ 9,309,200 cub. yds. Ordinary dredging │2,295,800 ” │13,913,500 ” Destruction of old works, │ │ masonry, fascines, │ │ piling, &c. │ 74,600 ” │ 353,100 ” Drawing piles │ .. │ 9617 Removing scaffolding │ .. │ 63,495 ft. Revetments │ 130,500 cub. yds.│ 540,800 cub. yds. Protection for slopes │ 131,000 sq. yds. │ 322,800 sq. yds. Masonry of quays, &c. │ .. │ 92,600 cub. ” Foundations by │ │ compressed air │ .. │ 3600 ” Piles driven 31 ft. long │ .. │ 20,000 Sheet piling 21 ft 9 in. │ .. │ 15,415 Fascine work │ 26,600 cub. yds.│ 94,900 cub. yds. Blasting cartridges │ 10,068 ft. │ 53,325 ft. ──────────────────────────┴───────────────────┴──────────────────── The average work done by each excavator was 1538 cubic yards per day over the five years ending 1874, the maximum being 1951 and the minimum 613 cubic yards. The excavators were of the same type as those employed on the Belgian Ship Canal works, illustrated elsewhere in this work, and are known by M. Condreux’s name. It is proposed to connect the Danube with the North Sea by a new canal, 273 kilometres in length, which is referred to at p. 130. This canal, if constructed, will, like the Prussian canal system generally, be 21 metres in width, 2 metres deep, and have locks 8·60 metres wide and 55 metres long. These will admit barges carrying 600 tons. The other principal rivers of Austria-Hungary include the Pregel, the Elbing, the Vistula, and the Oder, inclined to the Baltic; the Elbe, the Saale, the Moldau, the Weser, the Ems, the Main, the Neckar, inclined to the North Sea; and the Pruth, the Theiss, the Temes, the Inn, and the Iser, inclined, like the Danube, to the Black Sea. About a dozen waterways, mostly small, are also inclined to the Adriatic. In Hungary, there are two canals of importance—the first being the Bega, which joins Temesvar with the Theiss at Tetal, a little above its junction with the Danube, and has a total length of 75 miles; while the other is the Franz Josef Canal, extending for a distance of 69 miles, from the Danube at Battina by Zombor, to the Theiss near Foldvar. The great waterway of Hungary is, however, the Lower Danube, which is navigated by the Imperial and Royal Danube Steam Navigation Company. About 800 barges are employed for this purpose, the greater number having a carrying power of 250 tons. The improvements that have been made on this stream, under the Commission appointed for that purpose, between 1860 and 1883 have tended to increase the trade from 680,000 gross tons in 1859 to 1,530,000 tons in 1883, and to lower the charges on shipping from an average of 20_s._ per ton for lighterage before the deepening of the Sulina mouth to less than 2_s._ per ton register at the present time. Sir Charles Hartley claims that the Danube improvement works had, up to 1884, effected a saving of over 20 millions sterling.[109] FOOTNOTES: [109] ‘Inland Navigations in Europe,’ p. 155.