The New York Herald Newspaper, March 26, 1875, Page 3

GARIBALDI. The Veteran Fighter as an Industrial Leader. ———— | THREE GREAT PEACEFUL PROJECTS | Old Tiber To Be Deepened and Straightened. The Campagna Romana To Be Irrigated and Drained. ‘BOME TO HAVE A NEW PORT AND HARBOR The Italian Patriot to the Herald. ‘He Sketches His Plans Briefly, and Asks the Sympathy of Americans as Well as Italians, AN HOUR AT VILLA CASALINI. How the Liberator Lives and Talks. GARIBALDI TO’ THE HERALD. Vira CasaLint, Fvontr pr Porto Pio, Roma. Vames Gonpon Bennett, Esq., Proprietario della New Yonx Hznarp:.-— Sento con piacere che il giornale, il cui editore, venuto dopo lunghe indagini sulle traccie del Dr. Livingstone, gli reco’ gli ultimi soccorrie conforti, si propone ora di cooperare con tutti i suoi sforzi al buon’ andamento della nostra impresa tendente a migliorare le ondizioni igieni chedi Roma e della Campa- gna Romana, assicurando ad esse la tanto desiderata prosperita. ® CERIO CHE IL POPOLO AMERICANO, che seppe compiere le portentose dighe del Mississippi e tracciare i] canale navigabile pel NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1875.-TRIPLE SHEET. quale le acque del Lago Michigan si ricongiun- sero a quelle del fiume Lllinois, s’interessera in progetti che esigeranno i massimi sforzi delis scienza idraulica. Quest: progetti, in brevi parole, si riducono @i seguenti:— lo, Deviazione del Tevere verso la sua sinistra girandolo.attorno a Roma dal ponte Milvio fino ad oltre due miglia al sud della Citta, seorso il qual tratto si farebbe rintrare nel vecchio alveo, 20. Costruzione di un porto commerciale e militare, capace delle pit grandi navi presso le foci del Tevere a Fiumicino. Questo porto andrebbe scavato entro terra e sarebbe utile altresi come harbor of refuge, Dall’ argine sinistro Fiumicino partirA un molo di circa due chilometrilungo’-ed un second molo dall’ argine distro circa d’un chilometro che formeranno l’entrata del porto @canale. . LE PICCOLE NAVI SALIREBBERO dal porto al Tevere o viceversa per mezzo dello stetto fiume sino a Ripngrande. Il miglioramento agronomico ed igienico della Campagna di Roma, ela deviazione di.una parte delle acque dell’ Anicne per irrigare le bonificate campagne saranno proggetti da eseguirsi piu turdi. L'ATIUAZIONE DI TALL PROGGETTI, i quali ho brevemente accennato, dipende dal verdetti che gli uomini dell’ arte dopo maturi studi daranno e dai loro calcoli finanziari. Non appena si prenderd qualche determinazione mi fard un dovere di tener- vene informato. Conto su voi per tener desta l’attenzione degli Amoricani e dogli Italiani residentiin America sopra argomenti di cosi vitale in- teresse per Roma, per I'Italia e, diciamolo pure, pel mondo tutto, che guarda a Roma tome alla ciilla della fratellanza dei Popoli. G. GARIBALDI. Manca, 4, 1875. LA ROMA DELL’ AVVENIRE. In a private letter to our correspondent, en-* closing the above, the General sends the fol- lowing characteristic message: — Dite ai concittadini, ch’ io vado sempre superbo d’esser uno dei loro; e che qua- lunque cosa si faccia da cotesti generosi del nuovo mondo @ dai nostri Italiani la rosi- Genti, meritork sempre la gratitudine di tutti, poichd la Roma dell’ avvenire dove esser la tulla della fratellanza dei popoli. Vi saluti e sono vostro, G. GARIBALDI TRE TRANSLATION, j MaccareSe THE CAMPAGNA ROM Map Showing thé Proposed Improvements of the Tiber and to Restore the Campagna to Agriculture. NOMENTO Mentana © Mte.Rotondo ® Crustomenid Ponte Moll < B Bridge 8 m9 ShiDockimetre/) Ns wPohius Ge Ya 4 SS Poff Trajan Nou.Prop§aed Port o, in projects which will necessitate the utmost efforts of hydraulic science. These projects may be briefly stated as follows: — First—The diversion of the Tiber on the left, starting from Ponte Milvio (Ponte Molle), winding it round Rome, and bringing it back into its old bed a couple of miles or so south of the city. Second—The construction of a commercial and military port, capable of receiving the largest vessels, near the mouth of the Tiber, at Fiumicino, This port, which will be con- structed inland, will also be useful as a har- bor of refuge. [At one time the plan was to reopen the an- cient port of Trajan, but now the General appears to have adopted a port, or docks, nearer Fiumicino, facing the sea.] From the left branch of the Tiber branch, at Fiumicino, will be thrown out a breakwater Vita Casatrnt, Ovrstpz tHE Porto Pio, Roma. To Jamzs Gonpon Bennett, Esq., Proprietor of the New York Huraty;— Ihear with pleasure that the paper whoso editor, after long researches, came upon the | traces of Dr. Livingstono and conveyed to | him the latest aseistance and consolation, now | proposes to co-operate by all the meaus in its | power in the carrying out of our enterprise | tending to ameliorate the sanitary condition | of Rome and the Campagna, thereby insuring | their much-to-be-desived prosperity, | NATURALLY THE AMENICAN PROPLE, @ho have cunstrucied the gigantic dikes of | the Mississippi and excavated the navigable canal which leads the waters of Lake Micki- @an into the Dlinois, must interest themselves of about two kilometres in length, and a sec- ond, of about cne kilometre, from the oppo- site bank, which will form the entrance to the port and canal of Fiumicino, SMALL CRAFT WILL GO from the port up the Tiber, and vice versa, by the Fiamivino channel, as far as Ripa- grande, The agricultural and sanitary ame- lioration of the Roman Campagna and a de- viation of a part of the waters of the Aniene, to irrigate the land when drained, are plans to be executed later. THE REALIZATION OF THESE PROJECTS, to which Ihave so briefly referred, will depend | upon the verdict given by scientific mon after mature studies and on their flaancial caleula- tions. As soon as some ronolution shall be come to I shall feel it a duty to keep you informed. I count upon you to keep alive the interest of the Americans and of the Italians resident in America on questions of such vital interest for Rome, for Italy, and we may also say for the entire world, which regards Rome as the cradle of the brotherhood of the peoples. G. GARIBALDL Mancn 4, 1875. THE ROME OF THE FUTURE. Tell your fellow citizens that I am proud to be one of them, and whatever may be done by the generous people of the New World and by our Italians residing there will always merit the gratitude of all, because the Rome of the future ought to be the cradle of the brother- hood of the peoples, Isalute you, and am yours, G. GARIBALDL THE IMPROVEMENTS DESCRIBED. Rome, March 8, 1875., Having had an opportunity of conversing with General Garibaldi apd some of the engineers who fre assisting him, 1 am enabled to give you a pretty clear account of the several projects now entertained in Rome for the forming of a new port of Rome, the regulation of the Tiver and the irri- gation of the Roman Campagna, FINANCIAL AND NATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS, The schemes, or projects, are of such vast ex- tent and need tor their execution such a vast amount of capital that Italy may consider herself very fortunate in possessing General Garibaldt at the present moment, because the worid Is in. clined to support the oid revolutionist and look into his plans with aympathy at least, and then mive assistance if e@veryining be feasible and promising of good returns, Without the latter, indeed, neither General Garibaldi por Victor Emmunuei nor His Hoiiness the Pope could procure Englisn and otuer foreign money for carrying out ‘he immense projects, Some of the plaus entertained explained to by General Garivaidi are good, and well deserve the Garnedt support of capitalists, The new port of i f°) 5 TO TP Fosse Albane Lavrentina ANA. Adrigh Vill <2 TWoKlhy” EfevattonotCanai-\Y eto Mewes it} abpve~thé Level of the-Sea Reme is @ very necessary and will be a paying un- dertaking. The rectification of the bed of the ‘Tiber 1s likewise very necessary, but evidently a task for Rome herself to periorm; because when the bed of the river is regulated it wiil only have deptn enough for vessels of small burden. The ir- rigation of the Campagna is a duty that Italy should pertorm by making a loan for the purpose, and enacting remedial laws, Of all these projects 1 will speak more in detall in my later letters, PLANS OF GENERAL GARIBALDI, Isend you with this letter a map of Rome and the Campagna, on whichI have sketched, under the eye of Garibaldi nimself, the general idea of thee plans. And for the present this sketch must suffice, because we are only in the era of new projects, and fresh saggestions come up and are entertaiued every day. Oaly one project may be considered as definitely fixed upon, and that ig the one relating to the new port and harbor ior the city of Rome, Therefore, I will speak about this first ofall, ‘The present port aad harbor tor Rome is Civita Vecchia, distant more than two hours by rattroad from the city. is used for naval and mercantile shipping. The proposed new port is but half an hour's distance by railroad irom the Eternal city, and will afford accommodation in a perfectly sheltered iniand port ordock system to vessels of the greatest dimen- sions and whence smaller vessels can pursue their course directly up the Tiber (even now) to Rome. It Will be filled with sea water, subject to the eod and flow of the tide, and will be protected from the sands of the Tiber, which destroyea the similar works made by Claudius and Trajan in the first century of the Uuristian era, THE HARBOR OF FIUMICINO. We see on our map that the Tiber has two out. lets to tne sea; the wider bat shallower one through the marshes to the south of the Isola Sacra; the other at Fiumicino, This channel, at present navigable jor small craft, isto be made ceep enouch for the largest vessels up as far as Port Trajan, or about thirty-two or thirty-three feet, and twice that depth atthe mouth, where there will be a vast preakwater erected, exte: ing about a mile into the sea, Thus the entrance to expensive task, but itis tho most necessary, ana Will enable ships to enter the harbor with perfect saicty, To prevent the Fiumicino channel aod the breakWater becoming silted it bas been ae cided to okelude the Waters of the Tiber irom it It bas a large | cirenlar harbor, artificially made by Trajan, and | j Ancus Martius as the port of Rome, 640 B, the harbor of Fiumicino will be a very | altogether. The Tiber brings down every year immense quantities of deposit, 80 much, indeed, | that at its mouth eight or nine feet are annually won from the sea. So, just above Port Trajan, where the river divides into two branches, a sys- tem of locks will be built, causing the sandy flood of the Tiber to be carried away to the southern outlet. port or docks cannot be choked up, ‘was the case with the ports of Trajan and Claudius, whose | history we may glance at. THE ANCIENT PORT OF OSTIA. But before describing these ports we may refer for a moment to the scheme of @ channel for the Tiber to the sea, This 1s proposed in order to carry the waters of the river more directly to the Mediterranean, to dry up the immense delta at present @ccupled from Ustia to the sea, and to drain the surrounding marshes, This channel would Ancient city of Ostia, which had been the port of Rome from the earliest period, and hadonce a | rich population of 80,000 souls, It stood about hali a mile lower down the river than the littie melancholy village of modern Ostia, with its pop- ulation of scarcely & hundred inhabitants. The celebrated ancient city of Ostia was founded by for many centuries was the port of embarkation of the several important expeditions to the dis- tant provinces of the Roman world, The expe- ditions of Scipio Alticanus to Spain and Claudius to Britain started from Ostia. The ‘Tiber at that time emptied itself into tne sea by a Single mouth; but the great quantity of deposit which its flood brougnt down from the plains soon began to affect the channel to such a degree that in the time of Claudius @ new channel ana port had to be erected (the channel of Fiumicino and the port bearing the Emperor’s name), and at the time of Strabo the port of Ostia was almost en- tirely choked up. The ancient city was finally destroyed by the Saracens in the flitn century and | was ne’ rebuils. Excavations have been made on ite site at Various times, and peautiful soulp- tures, important buildings and temples brought | to light, and these labors are still belug carried on in@dilatory kind of mauner. Toe new channel proposed by Garibaldi would cut turougn tue site of the ancient city, and it is thought that many Valuable works ol art would be brought to ligos in the process o/ cutting the channel, THE PORTS OF CLAUDIVE AND TRAIAN, The port of Ostia was destroyed, therefore, Ly Thus the Fiumicino channel and the new | cut through the site of the | the deposits of the Tiber. It became necessary te form another port and to procure for the waters of the Tiver a more rapid fall by diminisbing the length of its course toward the sea. Permit mé to quote an excellent authority on this subject:— “An interesting Inscription was discovered at Porto, Whict has ttrown muci light on the con- struction of the ancient port. It states that, in | consequence of the mundations with which Rome had been threatened by the difficuity of the water ot Tiber reaching the sea, the Emperor Claudins had cut new channels from the then ex- isting branch ito the port, im A, D. 46. The fol. lowing !s a copy of this curious recora :— Dee ee eee LeEE te LEEE EOLA ELE EE REEL RODELEL ODD DELETE R Th CLAY DIV, z GERMANIOVS. Pi VL COs, DESI DVCTIS A. VIB MISSISQVE IN. MARK. V EKIOVLO, LIBERAVIT, DELPOLE LE LELELELEAELOLELELELELELEDELELEDELE DEDEDE NODES “A part of the extensive area of the port of Trajan is now reduced to a marshy state, although preserving its bexagonal form, surrounaed on every side by ruing of butidings which formed the | Warehouses, the emporium of the maritime com merce of Rome in the second and third centuries, represented on the medals of that Emperor. PROJECTED BY AUGUSTUS. “The works at Porto were not executed until the reign of Claudius, in the middie of the frst century, ‘The Portus Claudii appears to have beem | the first undertaken, and consistea of a vast harbor opening directly on the sea, and to the northwest encircled by two pliers, wita a tpird msulated one, or breakwater, to protect the en trance, surmounted by a lighthouse. In the course of time this port also began to be choked up, in consequence of which that which we now see was commenced by Trajan, and completed about the year 103 after Christ. THE CIRCUIT OF THE CLAUDIAN PORT may stiil be traced in the meadows to the nort® of the hexagonal dock of Trajan, ‘Tne second ob» Ject, to afford an increased fall to the Tiber, was effected by cutting @ canal, by which its waters reached the sea in @ direct instead of by the sinuous line of the old channel, and it ts to the latter great work that the above inscription par- ticularly refers. A second canal was subsequently added, by which the basin of Trajan communi-+ cated with the Tiber, and by which the vessels arriving in it were enabled to proceed.to Kome without unloading and to carry their cargoes to the capital without re-entering the sea. The silting up of the Port of Claudius and the increas- ing wants of imperial Rome, so mach dependent on its maritime commerce tor supplies of food, | rendered @ new harbor necessary, and, as has been already stated, this was undere taken and compieted vy Trajan, It commu nicated with the port of Claudius on the | northwest side, and was surrounded with ware- houses. Its circuit, which 1s still neariy entire, measured 2,490 yards; the greatest depth of the water in it now scarcely reacues ten feet, Anew canal from tne Tiber, opening into the hexagonal basin of Trajan, Was at the same time excavated, and forms the modern north branch of the river, or the Fiumicino, which extends (rom beyond Porto to the sea, apd is now the only navigable one.” Since the flourishing time of the port of Trajan the sea has receded six or seven miles, | Fiumicino, which derives its name from the emaler river on which it stands, is of recent orl- gin. in 1773 the castle at the western extremity of the village was on the borders of the sea, but in 1858 1t was distant 319 yards from it. The entrance to the river 1s narrow, and there is seldom above ten feet of water on tue bar. THE NEW HARBOR AND PORT OB DOCKS, From this brief review of the Fiumicino and the ports of Trajan and Claudius, we are em abled to see What is proposed now in the Garibaldian project—that is, to deepen the Fiumk cino channel, to reopen the port or docks of Tra jan, and, if necessary, the port of Claudius con- nected with tt, and to connect the port or docks by raliroad with Ponte Galera, which is tapped by the Civita Vecchia railroad to Rome, and also to protect the Fiumicino channel from the sands of the Tiber by means of iecks through which the smaller vessels can proceed directly to Rome, TBE MAIN POINT OF THE PROJECT. These are the main points of the scheme fof erecting the new harbor and port or docks for the city of Rome, Thus Rome will be brought withim half an hour's railroad journey from its port, where the largest ships that plough the Mediterranean can find entrance and ef cient shelter. nis part of the project is feasible, it wili repay the cost of execution, and | 1t appears to me that capitalists may invest in it witn the greatest confidence. Unfortunately the whole coust 18 very unhealthy. At Fiumicino, during the summer and autumn, the goverament omicers do not sleep here but are obliged to ree move to Rome durimg the night. But the draining of the marshes aruund Port Trajan (which Prince Torlona has promised to do) and the deepening of the Fiumicino channel will doubtless produce very important and beneficial climatic changes is the entire district. THE REGULATION OF THE TIBER will be, if carried out, @ much more costly unden. taking. To explain this part of the project we mus commence the study of our map above Rome. The Tiber, as we see, 18 @ tortuous and unruly stream, preferring to make its course aq winding and troublesome as possible before it deigns to enter the great mother ocean. The fow of its waters Is, consequently, at certain seasons of great rainfall and at the melting of the snowe in the mountains, greatly interrupted, and then they overflow not only the city of Rome itself but vast regions of the Campagna. And the banks (even the bed in places) of the river being hignes then the surrounding country, swamps—stagnant, | fever-breeding swamps—are created and th¢ | healt of Rome and ihe Campagna thereby | affected. ‘he plan is, therefore, to rectify the | river by cutting off its great angles and to aeepen | the bed so as to produce a greater veiocity of the | current, to make embankments where necessary | and thus enable the waters to reach the sea with: | out dificulty and without first overflowing tne | land on either side. We cannot say at present | with any degree of certainty what course the reo | tiflcation will take. This will depend entirely | upon which of the two | PROJECTED CANALS AROUND ROME itself wil! be adopted. At present two projects are under consideration, the western and the east ern cut, oF canal, both of which will be immensely didicult of execution, The firat project is te deviate the course of the Tiber, avout two mules above Rome, into the bed of the little river Ania, | adapting the bed of that stream for a larger fow of Water as far as Ponte Mammolo, five miles to the northeast of Rome, on the road to Tivoli, | thence around the city, along the valley of the Marrang, to meet the Tiber again between tne Ostian Gate and the Basilica of St. Paui’s without. Asecond planis to be effected on t! of the Tiber by a cut from Ponte Molit north of Rome, back of the Vatican, through the Valle dell’ interno, all around the Monte delle Piche, to rejoin the river near La Magliana, Garibaldi ‘8 in tavor of the former plan, in the execution of which portions of the site of ancient Rome would be cut tarough, and possibly important discoveries would be made, In the latter plan the cuttings would be from 200 to 800 feet in many places, #o it is hardly probable that serious consideration will be given to the project. True, Julius Owsar, or some other Cassar, entertained this very plan of diverting the Tiber from Rome at Ponte Molle in @ direct cut acrost the Campagna tothe sea, But the Romans oj Julius’ day were capable of accomplishing greates | tasks than are the Italians of modern times, whe bave neither the slaves, the perseverance nor the | funds of their r foreiathers, The easte: | deviation will not be an easy task; great aititades have to be cut through, but it is possivle that we shall have important archwological discoveries af | the reward, THE TIBRR IN ROME ITSELF. By one of these deviations, then, a portion a | the waters of the Tiber would be carried to the sea, and the two channels would be sufficient t | prevent the recurrence of those terriole inanda | tions that so frequently visit great portions of the | Eternal City, it is not intended either to regu: | late or to dry up the presens coarse of the Tiver through the eity, pat simply to reduce ite Width, | tO GmbAGE and beauty ite whole excent With Qeere concer