Embankment

“ The cross-section of an embankment depends on the soil, on the extent of damage which results if a breach occurs, on the funds available, and on the value of the land which the embankment has to occupy. ”

“ A civil engineer with whom we got into conversation here, and who we gleaned was employed on the Fen drainage, expressed his unstinted admiration for the old Roman embankment that still follows the contour of a goodly portion of the Lincolnshire coast, and was designed and constructed as a bulwark against the encroachments of the sea, a purpose it has admirably served. This embankment, he told us, was in the main as strong and serviceable, in spite of ages of neglect, as when first raised all those long and eventful centuries ago ”

“ This hastens the construction and cheapens the first cost of the road, thus allowing the owners to begin operations and to earn money while the final embankment awaits some convenient time for its construction. The method of constructing embankments by filling in trestles is often resorted to in order to carry the roadbed across morasses of swampy ground.
It often happens that the problem of carrying an embankment across a morass is one of the most difficult which falls to the lot of the railway engineer. ”

“ On measuring the main part of the work it was found to be a true circle 3 ch. 5 links in diameter. The ground was cleared some 14 or 15 years ago, and has been cultivated since that time, consequently the height of the embankment has been much reduced. Previous to cultivation the embankment was fully three feet high above the natural surface of the ground. Inside of the embankment was a ditch two feet deep, making a perpendicular height of about 5 feet from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the bank. ”

“ If the specifications provided that the earth for embankment should be borrowed equally from both sides, and then a continuous ditch should be required to be made on one side of the embankment, it would necessitate a greater haul, and would be more expensive. In consequence of the ditch, a greater amount of earth would have to be taken from the side on which the ditch is made. One cannot work to such an advantage in a narrow ditch as in a broad borrow-pit. ”

“ It is seldom economical to make an embankment more than 70 to 90 feet in height, except for short lengths, and where deep cuttings cannot be avoided, and it becomes a question of tipping spoil banks or main embankments, or the foundations for a viaduct are known to be of a treacherous and doubtful character. ”

“ Therefore, an embankment is more to be feared than a cutting in such earth. Making benchings in the rock below the drift to resist movement of an embankment will most probably be impracticable, and the soil may be in such a delicate condition that a shock or very little additional weight may make it slip, and when once it has moved, its 145stability may not be permanently restored. ”

“ If the settlement is uniform, the easiest way is to simply raise an embankment; the rate of sinking varies considerably, averaging, say, from 2 to 5 feet per annum, and depending upon the amount of brine extracted and the percolation of water, &c. It is obvious that embankments upon such land require constant attention to prevent serious slips. ”

“ It is obvious the care that is bestowed upon a reservoir embankment, such as the damping, punning, rolling, mixing of the material, and raising it in layers, is not necessary in a railway or ordinary embankment; however, certain precautions should be observed and may be effected at a small cost, and it is well to remember that errors of construction will cause undue strain upon particular parts. ”

“ In embankments one of the chief precautions is to obviate any flow of water upon or at a few feet beneath the land upon which an embankment has to be deposited, as it will disturb the feet of the slopes and the base, reduce the adhesion to and the friction of the tipped earth upon the ground and form a sliding surface. ”

“ Fascines should be laid over the whole base of an embankment and extend some little distance upon each side, beyond the toe of the slope, and be made stronger according to the load they have to support, which, of course, increases towards the centre of an embankment, where it is greatest, in order to prevent their breaking apart and becoming detached. ”

“ In an embankment erected for such a purpose the top width is more severely strained, consequent upon the greater exposure, than in a reservoir embankment, and the height must be sufficient to prevent water passing over it. ”

“ In countries where land is of little value, contractor’s plant expensive, not to be obtained in the district, and carriage costly, embankments in most cases can be more cheaply and quickly deposited from side cutting than cutting, the excavation from the latter being run to spoil instead of tipped by waggons into the embankment, therefore, their erection by such means becomes imperative for reasons of economy. ”

“ There are often many miles of such embankment (or levees, as they are termed in America,) under a young engineer’s charge, and very anxious work it is, as he has to guard a long line from the attack of an insidious foe, often with a very imperfect garrison. Such embankments as these are always constructed of earth, and when consolidated by time and covered with grass, a very thin earthen bank will successfully resist until it is absolutely overtopped, while new earthwork of twice and three times the sectional area will be soaked through and breached114 readily. ”

“ One of the worst cases that may have to be treated in embankments is in clay or marl soils, when the central portion has been first tipped in a wet state in the winter months, and after an interval the embankment completed to its required width in a frozen condition, or nearly so, or one in which the earth becomes frozen when deposited. ”

“ No leakage or marked weeping of such an embankment should be disregarded, as unless arrested it will gradually deteriorate the earth until the equilibrium becomes so affected that the embankment fails. ”

“ As the streets that lead from the Strand to the Embankment are very narrow, it is better not to walk down them arm-in-arm. ”

“ Now let us see what amount of capital should be invested before the whole project of our reclamation work could be completed. In order to reclaim this 45047 square miles of land two hundred miles of embankments have to be built. Part of these projected embankments will be along the shore line, a greater part will be in midstream, and a small part in deep channel. Those along the shore line need not be bothered with except that the concave surface must be protected with stone or concrete work. ”

“ It was very seldom that this wallet of the judge's contained so large a sum of money as on that night, for salt was dear in the wilderness. It required eight hundred gallons of the weak salt water and many cords of fire-wood, and the work of many men for many days, to make a single bushel of the precious article. It was still scarce and hard to get thereabouts at five dollars a bushel, so that a large sum was needed to pay for an entire cargo. Drops of perspiration stood on the judge's forehead as he counted out the bank-notes, the gold, and the cut money. ”

“ Upon the bank are some timidly adventuring their hesitating feet before they plunge into the element; some bind their hair, preparing; others, having bathed, unbind, and the long tresses stream over the fair shoulders: blithely thus they pass the time, and defy the hot old sun upon the river’s bank. ”

“ Is it to be the pet bank system of 1836, which, besides being rejected by all parties, is an impossibility in itself? Is it to be the lawless condition of the public moneys, as gentlemen denounced it, which prevailed from October, 1833, when the deposits were removed from the Bank of the United States, till June, 1836, when the State bank deposit system was adopted; and during all which time we could hear of nothing but the union of the purse and the sword, and the danger to our liberties from the concentration of all power in the hands of one man? ”

“ Another form of desirable legislation in the interest of the farmer consists in the abandonment of our unscientific bond secured bank-note circulation for a scientific system, and in the rendering of our deposit currency more elastic. The more the farmer resorts to bank credit as a means of financing his current business the more will he suffer from the seasonal inelasticity of our bank-note and deposit currency. ”

“ The aggregate amount of private indebtedness had by this time become enormous, and the pressure for payment was serious and disquieting. ... The people must have relief; and what relief could be so certain or so speedy as more banks and more money? More banks therefore continued to be organized, and the paper current flowed out among the people in increasing volume. ... At the beginning of 1839 the bank commissioners estimated that there were a million dollars of bills of insolvent banks in the hands of individuals and unavailable. ”

“ The banks, indeed, may go into liquidation, but their notes are still current. The maternal bank may be mouldering in the earth; but these its children are moving about, performing the work of circulation. Why? The credit of the nation is behind them; and everybody knows, when he takes one of them, that he is safe. Therefore, I ask, how can the proposed requirement be carried into execution? how can you bring back these runaways, when once in circulation on their perpetual travels?
There is but one way, and that is by the return to specie payments. ”

“ As to the expense incurred in embanking it, and the value of the land when embanked, generally speaking, we shall seldom err if we take as a rule that the land should be worth double the cost of embanking. When we have an estuary to deal with from which we may expect to reclaim several thousand acres of land, it resolves itself into a serious question both of time and money as to the best mode of accomplishing it. ”

“ All deposits made with bankers may be divided into two classes, namely, those in which the bank becomes bailee of the depositor, the title to the thing deposited remaining with the latter; and that other kind of deposit of money peculiar to banking business, in which the depositor, for his own convenience, parts with the title to his money, and loans it to the banker, and the latter, in consideration of the loan of the money, and the right to use it for his own profit, agrees to refund the same amount, or any part thereof, on demand. ”

“ After the movement of revulsion began, the notes issued by the southwestern banks on discounts were remitted north and east by way of payment. [11] The accumulation of them there becomes a feature of the situation which we meet with in its consequences again and again.
In the New York Legislature it was proposed, in April, that the State should lend to the banks $3.5 millions five per cent. bonds, the issue of which had been authorized to pay for canals. The banks were to sell them in England and pay the State in such installments as were required for the canal expenditures. ”

“ The bank also receives jewelry, plate, diamonds, and other not bulky valuables on deposit for safe keeping, the owner being required to make only a nominal loan of one dollar upon them, in order to bring it into the books of the institution. It also takes on deposit, in trust, from the courts, all moneys in dispute, and the proceeds of unsettled estates, and receives one or two per cent, per annum for ensuring its safety. It is contemplated also to found a savings-bank feature of the institution, and by putting the money at interest, aid the depositors to increase their funds without risk. ”

“ Originally the business of banking consisted only in receiving deposits, such as bullion, plate, and the like, for safe-keeping until the depositor should see fit to draw it out for use, but the business, in the progress of events, was extended, and bankers assumed to discount bills and notes and to loan money upon mortgage, pawn, or other security, and at a still later period to issue notes of their own intended as a circulating currency and a medium of exchange instead of gold and silver. ”

“ You would not believe how greatly the quality of banker, united with the august title of creditor, changes the debtor's position. For instance, when a bill has been passed through the bank (please note that expression) , and transferred from the money market in Paris to the financial world of Angouleme, if that bill is protested, then the bankers in Angouleme must draw up a detailed account of the expenses of protest and return; 'tis a duty which they owe to themselves. ”

“ The use of the banks belong also to the public by the laws of nations, as the use of the river itself does. Therefore, every one is free to moor his vessel to the bank, to fasten his cables to the trees growing on it, to deposit the cargo of his vessel in those places in like manner as every one is free to navigate the river itself. ”

“ The chief cause of the increase of money has been the increase in gold mining. Bank notes have only slightly more than kept pace with other money in circulation. (2) The chief causes of the relative increase in bank deposits seem to have been those which have extended banking especially in the South. The recent banking laws, encouraging the establishment of small banks, may have had some part in this extension. (3) The chief cause of the increase of velocity of circulation, especially of bank deposits, seems to have been the concentration of population in cities. ”