Hitherto the bridging operations had been of no great importance. The river Tajand, at the 434th mile, had been spanned by a wooden viaduct of 348 feet water-way; and the Murghāb, at Merv, by a similar structure with an opening of 197 feet. Charjūy is 664 miles from the Caspian, and stands on the left bank of the Oxus, or Amū Daryā, incomparably the mightiest river in Central Asia, and worthy to rank with the Ganges and the Nile. At Charjūy it is a mile and a quarter wide, and in all characteristics it resembles the Mississippi and the rivers of the Gangetic Delta. All have the same wide fringe of sand on either side, covered in portions with fertilising silt, the same islands clad with long reeds and juniper, the same tendency to shift their banks. At present the Amū Daryā’s main channel has swung to the eastern bank, and its dull red stream surges with a perilous velocity. The cost of a steel viaduct at so vast a distance from the manufacturing centres was not to be faced, and nothing remained but to attempt a wooden structure. Happily for the Russian engineers, a stratum of tenacious clay underlies the sandy bed at no great depth, and afforded a secure resting-place for the timber piles. These numbered 3330, and were all brought from Russia by rail. The first was driven into the river bed in June 1887, and so intense was the energy of the working staff that on the 18th January 1888, little more than six months after its commencement, the Amū Daryā was opened for traffic.[645] In spite of its fragile construction, this work must rank with the greatest feats of modern engineering. The vast distances from which every portion of the material was brought, the rapidity and treacherous nature of the stream, and the unforeseen difficulties grappled with at every step, conspire to render the Amū Daryā bridge a conspicuous triumph of skill and energy over the blind forces of nature. The Englishman cannot view this grand work, dwindling to a mere point as its interminable length spans the broad river, without a feeling of respect for the men who carried it into execution. We have shown the world that nothing is impossible to modern science, and we can best appreciate the noble qualities evinced by General Annenkoff and the devoted band which toiled to execute his grandiose conceptions.