3-021-555 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Isthmus of Suez Maritime Canal: transverse section of the canal at its full width, 1869. 'It will be observed...that the slope at the surface of the water is flat (5 to 1), and provision is now being made for protecting this slope with rough stone pitching, trimming the upper slopes, and otherwise treating it as a finished work. This may be safely done, because that section is so arranged that the canal may be widened at any subsequent period without disturbing any of the work already done'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.