Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/488

 Speaking of tariff barriers recalls the fact that the sections for the ends of the tube were made in different—places those for the Canada end in Hamilton, and for the United States end in Detroit—so as to avoid the payment of duty.

To Joseph Hobson, a native Canadian, is due, more than to any other man, the successful completion of this great work. He was its architect, designer, and builder, and though his proposals did not, at the outset, meet with much encouragement from engineers, the result fully justifies the confidence reposed in him by Sir Henry Tyler, President of the Grand Trunk; Sir Joseph Hickson, its former general manager; and Mr. Seargeant, Sir Joseph's successor, all of whom ably seconded Mr. Hobson. It is a fact worthy of note that Mr. Hobson received all his professional



training on the continent of America, never having been farther east than the city of Quebec. He is a member of the Institutes of Civil Engineers of England, America, and Canada, and has established his right to rank among the first engineers of the world.

The successful completion of the St. Clair Tunnel will doubtless be followed by the construction of many similar works. In 1872, when the Great Western Railway of Canada—now a part of the Grand Trunk—was an independent line, tests were made for a tunnel under the Detroit River, and a drainage tunnel excavated for some distance. Quicksand was met, and, the shield and iron tube not having been adopted for tunnel work, it had to be abandoned. The project has been revived, and if, on fuller investigation, the conditions are found favorable and the work carried out,