Milizia gives the following interesting account of the removal of the
immense mass of granite, which forms the pedestal or base of the
equestrian statue of Peter the Great, from the bogs of the Neva to St.
Petersburg, a distance of about fourteen miles. He also cites it as an
instance of extraordinary ingenuity and skill in mechanics. It is,
however, a much easier task to move a ponderous mass of rough, unhewn
rock, than a brittle obelisk, an hundred feet or so in length, requiring
the greatest care to preserve it from injury. It is also worthy of
mention, that in widening streets in New York, it is no uncommon thing
to see a three-story brick house set back ten or fifteen feet, and even
moved across the street, and raised an extra story into the bargain--the
story being added to the _bottom_ instead of the _top_ of the building.
Thus the large free stone and brick school-house in the First Ward, an
edifice of four lofty stories, 50 by 70 feet, and basement walls 2½ feet
thick, has been raised six feet, to make it correspond with the new
grade in the lower part of Greenwich-street. It is also no uncommon
thing to see a ship of a thousand tons, with her cargo on board, raised
out of the water at the Hydraulic Dock, to stop a leak, or make some
unexpected but necessary repairs.
"In 1769, the Count Marino Carburi, of Cephalonia, moved a mass of
granite, weighing three million pounds, to St. Petersburg, to serve as a
base for the equestrian statue of Peter the Great, to be erected in the
square of that city, after the design of M. Falconet, who discarded the
common mode of placing an equestrian statue on a pedestal, where,
properly speaking, it never could be; and suggested a rock, on which the
hero was to have the appearance of galloping, but suddenly be arrested
at the sight of an enormous serpent, which, with other obstacles, he
overcomes for the happiness of the Muscovites. None but a Catherine II.,
who so gloriously accomplished all the great ideas of that hero, could
have brought to perfection this extraordinary one of the artist. An
immense mass was accidentally found buried 15 feet in a bog, four miles
and a half from the river Neva and fourteen from St. Petersburg. It was
also casually that Carburi was at the city to undertake the removal of
it. Nature alone sometimes forms a mechanic, as she does a sovereign, a
general, a painter, a philosopher. The expense of this removal was only
70,000 rubles and the materials left after the operation were worth
two-thirds of that sum. The obstacles surmounted do honor to the human
understanding. The rock was 37 feet long, 22 high, and 21 broad, in the
form of a parallelopipedon. It was cleft by a blast, the middle part
taken away, and in the cavity was constructed a forge for the wants of
the journey. Carburi did not use cylindrical rollers for his
undertaking, these causing an attrition sufficient to break the
strongest cables. Instead of rollers he used balls composed of brass,
tin, and calamina, which rolled with their burden under a species of
boat 180 feet long, and 66 wide. This extraordinary spectacle was
witnessed by the whole court, and by Prince Henry of Prussia, a branch
from the great Frederick. Two drums at the top sounded the march; forty
stone-cutters were continually at work on the mass during the journey,
to give it the proposed form--a singularly ingenious idea. The forge was
always at work: a number of other men were also in attendance to keep
the balls at proper distances, of which there were thirty, of the
diameter of five inches. The mountain was moved by four windlasses, and
sometimes by two; each required thirty-two men: it was raised and
lowered by screws, to remove the balls and put them on the other side.
When the road was even, the machine moved 60 feet in the hour. The
mechanic, although continually ill from the dampness of the air, was
still indefatigable in regulating the arrangements; and in six weeks the
whole arrived at the river. It was embarked, and safely landed. Carburi
then placed the mass in the square of St. Peter's, to the honor of
Peter, Falconet, Carburi, and of Catherine, who may always, from her
actions, be classed among illustrious men. It is to be observed, that in
this operation the moss and straw that was placed underneath the rock,
became by compression so compact, that it almost equalled in hardness
the ball of a musket. Similar mechanical operations of the ancients have
been wonderfully exaggerated by their poets."