The French Canal
Various canal projects in the meanwhile have been cherished, though the building of the Panama Railroad, 1850-1855, had a deterrent effect on the enterprise; but in May, 1876, the Government of Colombia made a concession for the work to a French Company and operations soon followed. After surveys by Lieutenant Wyse a sea-level canal from Limon Bay to Panama by the pass at Culebra (meaning snake) was decided upon. January 10, 1881, Ferdinand de Lesseps, promoter of the Suez Canal, made the ceremonial beginning at the Pacific entrance, and January 20, 1882, the first excavation was begun near the continental divide where, in the section called the Culebra Cut, work has proceeded ever since except from 1888 to 1891. The French were badly handicapped by disease, Colombian interference, incomplete plans, and insufficient funds, and were injured at home by rumors of sickness, extravagance, etc. In 1887 the sea-level plan was transformed to a lock-level, and February 4, 1889, the company went into the hands of a receiver. Several persons were convicted of fraud including Ferdinand de Lesseps, who, eighty-six years of age, was probably in entire ignorance of the business details. He died soon after.
In 1894 energetic work was recommenced by the new company which continued operations until the Americans took possession, May 4, 1904. $225,000,000 had been spent upon the work for which the United States paid $40,000,000. Recently it was estimated to have been worth $42,799,826. The advantages of the Americans over the French in having political control of the region, modern sanitary methods, better means of excavating, and unlimited money should be considered; and due credit and admiration should be awarded by all to de Lesseps and the Frenchmen who did so much, according to the verdict of praise rendered by our own engineers.
Panama Canal. In June, 1904, Chief Engineer Wallace, Col. W. C. Gorgas, and others sailed to the Isthmus to pursue the great work which had been transferred to the United States, May 4, by the French. Digging in the Culebra Cut was continued, but the chief labor for two years and a half was to remedy the unsanitary conditions, to provide accommodations for the employees, to perfect the organization, to reconstruct and double-track the railroad, and to improve the terminal facilities: necessary preparations for the colossal task. The sanitation of Colon and Panama included repaving, sewerage systems, and fresh water supply, as a part of the war against yellow and malarial fever. A proportionate sum spent on sanitation in the United States would be $12,000,000,000 a year, one-third of the entire amount devoted to all government expenses. Since January, 1907, the work has progressed rapidly, so that the canal is expected to be completed and in operation some time before the date of its formal inauguration January 1, 1915.
In spite of being hampered in many ways, much valuable work was accomplished by Chief Engineer John F. Wallace, who resigned after one year, and by his successor, John F. Stevens. He serving until 1907 is said by Col. Goethals to have laid out the transportation scheme in a manner which could not have been equaled by any army engineer. The engineering skill and the great administrative ability of Col. George W. Goethals, Chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, Chief Engineer, President of the Railroad, Governor of the Zone, etc., are so well known and already so highly honored as to need no encomiums here. A benevolent despot, able, wise, just, and honest, it is indeed a pleasure in this day and generation to find one as to whose virtues all are agreed, whose undying fame is as yet free from the malice of petty jealousy.
The length of the Canal, from deep water on one side to the same on the other, that is, from the Toro Point breakwater on the Atlantic side to Naos Island on the Pacific side, is about 50 miles,—40 miles from shore to shore. From the Atlantic entrance, by a channel 41 feet deep with a bottom width of 500 feet, it is seven miles to Gatun, two-thirds of which is in Limon Bay, the rest apparently along a fairly broad river. At Gatun, as everybody knows, are the locks, a double series of three, by means of which the ships will be raised 85 feet to the level of Gatun Lake. This, with an area of 164 square miles, is without doubt the largest artificial sheet of water in the world. The lake naturally has a widely varying depth and a highly irregular shape, with large and small arms, promontories, and islands; but vessels may sail at full speed along a channel from 500 to 1000 feet in width for a distance of 24 miles until at Bas Obispo the Culebra Cut is entered. This, about nine miles long, has a bottom width, except on the curves, of 300 feet only, making a slower rate of speed necessary. At Pedro Miguel the ship will be lowered by one lock to a smaller lake covering 1200 acres, 30 feet below. A mile and a half beyond, at Miraflores, the ship, by means of two locks, will return to sea level, thence sailing on, 8½ miles more, out into the Pacific.
The sail from ocean to ocean will to all be of intense interest, though more highly appreciated by those who visited the region before it was submerged, watched the great shovels cutting away the range of hills which forms the continental divide, and saw the locks in process of formation.
The great Gatun dam seems a wonderful creation, though the only remarkable feature is its size. It should be borne in mind that the extensive surface of the lake among the hills does not cause any greater pressure upon the wall of the dam than if it covered but a single acre; the depth of the water being the determining factor, not the extent of surface. The dam is nearly a mile and a half long at the top; half a mile wide at the bottom, 400 feet at the water surface, and 100 at its crest, designed to be 105 feet above sea level and 20 feet above the normal level of the lake: a very wide margin of safety. Of the entire length of the dam only 500 feet, a small fraction, one-fifteenth, of the whole, will be exposed to the maximum water head, 87 feet. The thickness of the dam is greater than was deemed necessary by engineers, with the result that there is no seepage: but it was thought best to satisfy over-apprehensive Congressmen by the employment of excessive caution. The interior of the dam is an impermeable mixture of sand and clay obtained by dredging above and below, placed between two parallel ridges of rock and ordinary material obtained from the steam-shovel excavations. The upstream slope of slight grade is thoroughly riprapped ten feet below and ten above the mean water level. The 21 million cubic yards of material composing the dam, which covers 400 acres, is sufficient to build a wall three feet high and thick nearly halfway around the world.
The Gatun Lake will receive all the waters of the Chagres basin of 1320 square miles and will contain at its ordinary level 206 billion cubic feet of water. An outlet, an obvious necessity, is provided in the spillway, a cut through a hill of rock nearly in the center of the dam, southwest of the locks. This opening, lined with concrete, is 1200 feet long and 285 feet wide, with the bottom, at the upper end ten feet above sea level, sloping down.
Until the construction of the dam was well advanced the water from the Chagres and its tributaries flowed out through this opening. Then it was closed at the upper or lake end by a dam of concrete 808 feet long in the form of an arc of a circle, its crest 69 feet above the sea. Upon this, 13 concrete piers rise to a height of 115.5 feet, with steel gates by which the water level of the lake will be regulated.
The immense double locks deserve more than a cursory glance. Similar in construction and dimensions, each has a usable length of 1000 feet and a width of 110 feet. The chambers have floors and walls of concrete with mitering gates at each end. The walls, perpendicular on the inside, are 45 to 50 feet thick near the bottom, but the outer walls narrow from a point 24 feet above the floor to a thickness of 8 feet at the top. The middle wall separating the double locks is 60 feet thick and 81 high, with both faces vertical; but in the upper part it is not solid. A tunnel in the wall has three divisions, the lowest for drainage, the middle for electric wires to operate the gate and valve machinery, the highest as a passage way for the operators. An enormous amount of concrete has been employed for the locks, four million or more cubic yards, with as many barrels of cement, enough to make a sidewalk 9 feet wide and 6 inches thick more than twice around the world.
Matching the walls are immense steel gates, 7 feet thick, 65 feet wide, and from 47 to 82 feet high, with a weight of from 390 to 730 tons each. At the entrance to the locks are double gates, also at the lower end of the upper lock in each flight, in case of ramming by a ship accidentally breaking through the fender chain; for there are 24 chains in addition to the gates, to prevent the gates being rammed by a ship under its own steam or having escaped from the towing locomotive. The chains will be lowered into a groove to allow the ships to pass.
Ships will not be permitted to enter the locks under their own steam, but will be towed through by electric locomotives, usually four to each vessel, two ahead and two astern, the latter to keep the vessel in the middle, and in the right place. The gates and valves are also operated by electricity, with power obtained through water turbines from the head created by Gatun Lake. The locks will be filled and emptied by a system of culverts, one of which, about the size of the Hudson River tunnels of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 18 feet in diameter, extends along the side and middle walls, with smaller branches under the floor of the locks. The water enters and leaves by holes in the floor. The culverts are so arranged as to economize water by passing it from one twin lock to the other. To save both time and water each lock chamber has a single gate near the middle dividing it into two parts, only one of which will be used for vessels less than 600 feet long. To fill and empty a lock will require about 15 minutes: to pass through the three at Gatun, about an hour and a half, and as much more to go down the locks on the Pacific side. The entire passage through the Canal will occupy 10 or 12 hours according to the speed of the ship, in the narrower parts all being obliged to go slowly. While it is hoped that the first steamer will pass through the Canal in December, 1913, if not earlier, there is no expectation of its being open for general traffic before the summer of 1914.
Colon. Passengers arriving on a Panama Railroad Steamship at Christobal, practically a part of Colon, may find waiting on the dock a special train to carry them across the Isthmus. The tourist, en route to a Pacific port, with his heavy baggage checked through, may let that go on to Balboa, the place of embarkation on the other side, and himself remain with hand luggage to look about Colon. Tourists on other steamers land at a Colon dock, from which it is a five minutes’ walk to the railway station. Men and boys are about, to assist with hand baggage. All that is checked through should be transported to Balboa without personal care; but the cautious traveler will have an eye upon it to see that it goes to the station here, and aboard the proper steamer on the Pacific side.
Hotels. Washington, E. P. Rooms $3.00 per day and up, December 1 to June 1. June to December $2.00. Meals $1.00 each or à la carte. Imperial Hotel, Park Hotel.
Carriage Fare, 10 cents for one, 20 cents for two, 25 cents for three, 30 cents for four. By the hour 75 cents for one, $1.00 for two, and so on.
Regular trains for Panama (June, 1913) at 5:10 and 10:30 a.m., and 4:25 p.m.; time two and one-half hours. Inquire as to special sight-seeing trains.
Landing early in the morning one may have sufficient time to look about Colon and Christobal before taking the afternoon train for Panama. Those planning a longer stay, to enjoy some of the excursions available, will drive at once to the new Washington Hotel on Colon Beach, near the site of the old house of that name, which, giving way to its stately successor, now stands in the rear of Christ Church and there fulfills its original purpose to supply lodging for the railway employees. The new hotel, built of hollow tiles and re-enforced concrete in a modification of the Spanish Mission style, is quite up to date with baths, electric lights, lounging rooms, etc., broad verandas on the side towards the sea, and a pretty garden between the house and sea wall. A swimming pool has been constructed near by, 100x125 feet, from 3 to 9 feet deep, open on the sea side, where a baffle wall protects it from rough water. In 1903 I looked at the water with longing eyes, but the numerous sharks deter most persons from venturing into the ocean. The hotel with some rooms with bath, and others without, accommodates 175 persons. Like the Tivoli it has no bar, and since April 24, 1913, there are no saloons in the Zone outside of the cities, Colon and Panama, which except for sanitary regulations are under Panamanian control. The hotel enjoys a breeze all the year around and is said to be as cool as Bar Harbor in July, and no warmer in winter; but it did not seem that way to me when I spent a few days in Colon in 1903, the excessive humidity rendering the heat oppressive.
In the center of the garden in front of the hotel is a rather ugly monument, a red granite shaft on a triangular base, bearing busts of John L. Stephens, Henry Chauncey, and of William H. Aspinwall, after whom Americans called the town for some years. To these three men, in December, 1848, a concession was granted by Colombia to build a railroad across the isthmus. The discovery of gold in California made it possible to raise money for the enterprise. Work began in 1850, and the first train crossed the continent January 28, 1855. The passenger and the freight trade have been both heavy and expensive, so that from 1852 to the present time annual dividends of from 3 to 61 per cent have been paid. Most of the traffic to California and Oregon was diverted on the completion in 1869 of the transcontinental railway, but good dividends continued. In 1881 the French Canal Company bought most of the shares, as the road was an obvious necessity to their work; it therefore came into possession of the United States Government, May 4, 1904, when the purchase of the French rights, work, and equipment was consummated.
The city of Colon, which the Colombian Government very properly insisted upon calling after Columbus, is on the Island of Manzanillo (formerly separated by a narrow strait from the main land), a coral reef with a mangrove swamp at the back. Here in 1850 some shanties and stores were built by the pioneers of the railroad. The village grew and prospered in spite of the swampy location, which was improved by the deposits of rock and earth made by the French on the part now known as Christobal for the homes of the employees. In 1904 there were 10,000 people in the town, 9000 living in shanties on stilts in the terrible section back of Front street. Now in Christobal-Colon there are 20,000 people, and the place is drained and healthful.
Just east of the Washington Hotel is the gray stone building, modified Gothic, of Christ Episcopal Church, dedicated in 1865. Built by contributions from the Panama Railroad Company and various missionary societies, it was at first American, after 1883 Anglican, and in 1907 again American Episcopal. Whites and blacks here worship together, with a majority of negroes.
Half a mile farther on is the fine Colon hospital with 525 beds, of course a Commission affair. Built right over the water on piles a few feet high, one is almost tempted to be sick to be housed in so attractive a place. Beyond is the quarantine station where persons coming from plague or fever ports are detained six or seven days.
The numerous negroes from Jamaica and Martinique will interest many, their dwellings on the back streets, the drainage ditch, and Front street lined with stores, where curios of a sort could formerly be purchased better than in Panama,—bags or caps of cocoanut skins, heads carved from cocoanuts, and carved gourds, large and small, the latter used as drinking cups.
In Christobal are dwellings of the Canal employees; a large building occupied by the Commissary Department contains a cold storage plant, a bakery, and a laundry, which serve all the employees of the canal, the railroad, and the U. S. Government on the Isthmus:—these with their families numbering at times 60,000. Also there is a Commission Hotel with meals at 30 cents for employees, 50 cents for transients, providing better fare than can be procured in most parts of the United States for the price to employees; and a Y. M. C. A. building which supplies a reading room, opportunity for games and for social diversions including dances, lectures, and other entertainments. There are five other similar structures along the line.
At the end of the Point are two houses constructed for Ferdinand de Lesseps and his son, now moved closer together and devoted to offices of the Commissary and Health Departments. Beyond is the statue of the great Discoverer: the monument, cast at Turin, a replica of one in Lima, presented by Empress Eugénie to the Republic of Colombia to be erected at Colon. Columbus, of noble countenance, is represented in attitude of explanation to an Indian maiden personifying America, whose face expresses wonder and alarm.
Porto Bello. With time to spare an excursion may be made to the beautiful harbor of Porto Bello, 18 miles northeast of Colon, where the Commission has been operating, in a great rock quarry, one of the largest stone crushers in the world. Millions of cubic yards of rock have been taken from here, a smaller size for the concrete of the Gatun locks and spillway, a larger size for the Colon breakwater. Porto Bello and Nombre de Dios were the two safe harbors found by the Spaniards on this coast. The former has been a Spanish town since 1597. With a fine location the town is considered unhealthy, having an extraordinary amount of rain, 237 inches in 1909. A tug leaves Christobal wharf every morning returning at night. One has two hours or more to view the American settlement of 1000 people at the stone quarries and to cross the bay to the old village to see the finest ruins on the Isthmus: an old customs house, old bridges, the remains of Fort San Jerome, and the old plaza. There is a population of over 2000, with a church and stores.
Some miles beyond Porto Bello begins the large section of country inhabited by the San Blas Indians, who have been smart and sensible enough to keep the white man out of their territory, thus preserving their independence to the present day. They come to Colon to trade, but seldom allow a stranger to remain over night in their territory.
San Lorenzo Fort. Another excursion of interest is to San Lorenzo Fort, at the mouth of the Chagres River, either by sea in a motor boat, or better, in a canoe down the river from Gatun, a sail of ten miles, during which one has a glimpse of the real tropical jungle; the sea route affords a better view of the old fort. The remains are very complete, an outer wall, and a castle to be entered by a drawbridge. There are strong rooms, galleries for prison cells, manacles, etc., seeing which the tourist is apt to be more contented with his own lot. At the foot of the hill is the little village of Chagres.
In front of Christobal a construction of five piers is being made enclosing ten docks capable of berthing ships 1000 feet long, these being the Atlantic terminal docks for the canal. Across the bay is Toro Point. From this headland a breakwater has been constructed to protect the canal entrance and Limon Bay from the violent northers which occasionally visit this coast. It will also reduce the amount of silt to be washed into the dredged canal. From Toro Point the breakwater extends northeast for a distance of over two miles. The bottom width varies with the depth of the water; at the top it is 15 feet wide and 10 feet above mean sea level. A double-track trestle was first constructed, from which carloads of rock were dumped into the sea. The cost is about $5,500,000. It has recently been decided to construct an additional though smaller breakwater on the Colon side, extending west, some distance north of Christobal Point. Fortifications for the defense of the canal are being raised, both at Toro Point and on the east side at Margarita Island, one mile north of Manzanillo.
CHAPTER IV
COLON TO PANAMA—PANAMA CITY
Four daily trains in about 2 hours at 3.00, 6.00 and 10.40 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. Special train for sight-seers, round trip fare $4.00, from Colon at 8 a.m., with barge service on lake, $1.50 extra.
Guides for tourist parties to inspect Canal, $7.50 per day, on application to Railway Ticket Agents, Colon or Panama.
While the sail through the great canal will be an extraordinary delight, the railroad ride will also afford much pleasure. On leaving Colon the line passes various docks, the Government printing plant, the marine shop and dry dock at Mount Hope, and the main storehouse of supplies for canal and railroad. On the east side of the railroad, opposite the warehouse, is Mount Hope Cemetery, where many French and others are buried, on a knoll which for a time was called Monkey Hill on account of the many monkeys there. These creatures are found in the woods all over the Isthmus. Stone piers which may be seen on the east beyond Mindi were erected by the French for a viaduct with the design of relocating the railroad. This, obviously necessary for the Americans, has been accomplished at a cost of nearly $9,000,000. In the swamp lands along here much papyrus is growing.
New Gatun. From Colon to Gatun a distance of 7 miles the track rises 95 feet. New Gatun, on the hill, is a village but a few years old, the site of the ancient town now being covered by the dam. In 1904 Gatun was a busy place on the Chagres River, where sometimes 100 dugouts loaded with bananas would tie at the bank, and seven or eight car loads a week would be shipped. In former days the railroad followed up the Chagres Valley, but now it is obliged to turn east to make a detour around the lake. It is desirable to alight here to examine the locks and if possible the spillway. Along the edge of the lock walls may be seen the cog rail for the towing locomotives, and farther back the return track without center cog. Tall concrete columns along the top of the walls are the standards for electric lights to illuminate the locks. Tall towers, apparently light houses, are range lights on the center lines of the straight stretches of the canal, so that a vessel lining up with the tower would know it was on the center line of the canal. From the building on Gatun hill containing the office of the Division Engineer may be had the best view of the canal obtainable from any one point. Northward are the waters of Limon Bay; and the masts of shipping at Colon harbor are visible. Close at hand are the locks and dam and a broad stretch of the lake.
Leaving Gatun the new road turns east along Gatun ridge, then south with pretty glimpses of the jungle, crossing the Gatun Valley to Monte Lirio. From this point it skirts the east shore of the lake to Bas Obispo at the beginning of the Culebra Cut. Several immense embankments were necessary to cross the Gatun Valley section above the surface of the lake, and others were made for dumping the spoil from Culebra Cut near its north end. Half a mile beyond Monte Lirio the railroad crosses the Gatun River by a steel girder bridge 318 feet long, built in three spans, one of which may be lifted to permit access by boat to the upper arm of the lake. Another steel girder bridge, one-quarter of a mile long, crosses the Chagres River at Gamboa, with the channel span a 200-foot truss, the other fourteen, plate girder spans, each 80 feet long. From this bridge, at the north end of which a new town-site has been laid out, a glimpse of the northern end of Culebra Cut may be had. It was originally expected to carry the road through the Cut, 10 feet above the water level, but the slides making this impracticable, the relocation has been made by cutting through a ridge of solid rock and working around east of Gold Hill, passing Culebra at a distance of 2 miles. Then the track runs down the Pedro Miguel Valley to Pedro Miguel Station, where it is within 300 feet of the locks. The highest elevation of the track is 270 feet above the sea about opposite Las Cascadas. The Continental Divide is crossed 240 feet above the sea in about the same line as Culebra.
Journeying by the new road from Gatun, the old traveler or resident will miss some familiar names, the bearers of which, if not concealed under water, are now remote and vanishing. Lion and Tiger Hills were small hamlets, but Bohio was quite a place, where the French had a machine shop. It was once considered as a possible site for the locks and dam. Frijoles (beans) and Tabernilla have been places of some importance and Gorgona of more, because here were the American machine shops, now removed to Balboa. The place with the peculiar name Matachin, which everybody remembered, will not be covered over with water, but like others farther on will relapse into a small hamlet. The prevalent notion that this name was derived from matar, to kill, and Chino, and was applied on account of the wholesale deaths of Chinese is incorrect. It is the Spanish word meaning a dance by grotesque figures.
Bas Obispo beyond Gamboa is one of the old places still visible, at the north end of the Culebra Cut. Near by, December 12, 1908, occurred the greatest accident in the construction of the Canal when 44,000 pounds of 45 per cent dynamite which had been packed into fifty-three holes were set off by the explosion of one, as the last hole was being tamped. As the hour was 11.10 many men were passing home to lunch. The hillside, falling into the Cut, as had been planned for a later hour, buried several men, and others were struck by flying rock. In all twenty-six were killed and a dozen permanently maimed. Near Bas Obispo is Camp Elliott, where a battalion of marines has long been stationed.
Empire. Las Cascadas, where once a stream tumbled down a precipice 40 feet towards the Chagres, formerly came next, then Empire, one of the largest of the Canal villages. Here the French began excavations in the Cut, as previously mentioned, January 20, 1882, before a large assemblage of officials of the Canal Company and of Panama. The work was blessed by the Bishop and the too common champagne celebrated the occasion.
Culebra was the real capital of the Zone after John F. Stevens in 1906 moved his quarters there from Ancon. Here has been the home and office of Col. Goethals, the head of everything, and of other prominent officials. In 1908 Culebra had a population of 5516, but is now much smaller. The side of the hill towards the Cut has been gradually slipping away, taking a part of the village, but so slowly that the houses were first removed to the rear slopes.
The average depth of the Cut through its nine miles of length is 120 feet. The heaviest point is near Culebra village between Gold Hill on the east side and Contractors’ Hill on the west, where the depth averages 375 feet. The summit of Gold Hill is 660 feet above the sea, of Contractors’ Hill, 410 feet. Beyond Gold Hill is the troublesome Cucuracha slide, though the largest is the one at the Culebra village on the west. One slide here involved 1,550,000 cubic yards. At this point the Cut is about 2000 feet across. The dwellings of the employees here, as at Christobal and all along the line, look very pretty and comfortable with their screened verandas. Market facilities have been good with prices generally lower than at home for meat and other things brought in cold storage from the States. The climate is not objectionable to the majority, and many will be grieved, when, the Canal being finished and only a select few remaining for its service, they shall be obliged to return home again. Some, no doubt, being now weaned from excessive affection for one particular spot, will go on to other parts of Spanish America. There, intelligent men of the right spirit, who have saved a portion of their earnings, will find agreeable opportunities for work and for investments of various kinds.
Beyond Pedro Miguel is the Miraflores Lake and the two Miraflores locks by which the ships reach sea level again. After passing through a concrete lined tunnel 736 feet long, Ancon Hill, overlooking the Pacific entrance to the Canal, is straight ahead. One more station, Corozal, headquarters of the Pacific Division, and the city of Panama is reached.