Operation of the Locks
Our vessel then sails into the first, or the lower, of the locks. The steel doors are closed and locked, and water from the chamber above is let down by means of pipes and valves which discharge underneath the vessel. This water flowing into the lower chamber, raises our vessel 28½ feet to the level of the second lock. Our ship sails into the second lock, the doors are closed behind and locked, the water let down from above, and again our vessel is raised 28½ feet. And so the process is repeated the third time, until our ship sails out upon the lake which is formed by the impounding of the waters of Gatun dam.
This lake, when filled to its capacity, will be thirty-three miles long between extreme points, and eight miles wide at the widest part. The course of a vessel from this lake will be twenty-three miles to a place called Bas Obispo. This is the point at which the canal begins to run through the hill called Culebra, and therefore the cut is called the Culebra cut, and is nine miles long. The canal through this portion of its course will be 250 feet wide at the bottom, and the sides of the canal will slope so gradually that at the highest point of Culebra hill, which is 325 feet above sea level, the width will be about one-half mile.
Our vessel passes through this nine-mile course to Pedro Miguel. At Pedro Miguel there will be a pair of locks 1000 feet long, 110 feet wide, and with a drop or lifting area of 35 feet, instead of 28 feet. Through this lock our vessel will be lowered to a small lake formed by the damming of two small streams in the vicinity of the City of Panama. This lake will be a couple of miles across, and on the farther point, called Miraflores, two pairs of locks will lower our vessel to the level of the Pacific Ocean. From the Miraflores locks a channel will be constructed out into Panama bay—500 feet wide and 40 feet deep at low tide, the same as on the Caribbean side.
The engineering features of the Panama Canal are not intricate, and not in any sense difficult from an engineering standpoint, save for the great magnitude. It is the size of the enterprise that has appalled, and discouraged the canal’s construction, and not the technical difficulties of the work required.