To give a comparison by the use of figures of the remarkable progress made, I will say that about six months ago I took up the report of the Canal Commission and I found that in the previous month the amount of debris excavated for that one month exceeded 4,000,000 of cubic yards, this tremendous output being a complete answer to the criticisms of the opponents of canal construction.
In order to give a mental picture of the type of canal, let us take an imaginary trip through the canal proper. It will be forty-two miles from shore to shore. In addition to this there will be an excavation out in Limon bay on the eastern side, and in Panama bay on the western side, of about four miles on either side, in order to reach deep water.
Supposing that we are sailing down through Limon bay, which is a small bay at the bottom of the Caribbean sea, on one of our American battleships. We first enter the canal which leads from the bay up into the shore toward Gatun dam, and this section of the canal will be 500 feet wide and 40 feet deep at low water level. This channel penetrates through the mud banks and land about four miles, when it encounters Gatun dam. Gatun dam must be surmounted through the agency of locks, which have been previously described.
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.
The Future of the Canal
When the Panama Canal is completed the commerce and trade of the world will be revolutionized. San Francisco will be brought nearly 9000 miles closer to New York than it is today and European ports nearly 6000 miles closer. It is estimated by statisticians skilled in transportation and in carrier service, that the cost of transporting the great mass of bulky products from the Pacific Coast to Eastern seaboards of the United States and to European points will be reduced nearly two-thirds. In other words, freights that now cost approximately $1.00 per 100 pounds over the transcontinental railroads from Pacific Coast ports to Eastern markets, may be carried through the canal for about 33 1/3 cents.