The total amount of earth removed amounted to about four hundred million cubic yards. By working day and night, the machines of M. Borel and Lavelley were able to remove 78,056 to 108,000 cubic meters per month.
Although the completion of the canal now seemed assured, the opposition of the English Government continued up to the last moment. Every effort was made to prejudice the Sultan and the Khédivé against the work, and, by exciting the jealousy of the Sultan, to induce him to arrest the excavations.
After ten years of labor, this great work was completed. Upon the 17th of November, 1869, the opening of the canal was inaugurated in the presence of the Empress Eugenie and the Emperor of Austria, and of princes, embassadors, and men of science from Europe and America.
The Empress, leading the van of the fleet in her steam yacht, l’Aigle, entered the canal amid salvos of artillery. The yards of the ships were manned with sailors, every mast-head was decked with a flag, and the bands played the martial airs of the assembled nations. The transit between the two seas was safely made by the fleet. But the requisite depth had not been attained. Seventeen and a half feet could be carried through the canal. Since then the depth has been increased to twenty-two feet, and ultimately will be twenty-six feet.
The length of the canal is one hundred miles. The established surface-width is about 328 feet, except in difficult cuttings, where it is 190 feet. The least bottom width is 72 feet. The highest ground cut through is at El Gúisr, where it is 85 feet; at Serapeum it is 62 feet; and at Chalouf, near Suez, it is 56 feet.
The excavation of the canal, although of considerable difficulty, was exceeded by the necessity for creating artificial harbors at the extremities. The harbor at Port Said, upon the Mediterranean, has the general form of a triangle, the base resting on the shore and the longer side on the west, protecting the entrance from the moving sand. The longer arm, or mole, is 8,200 feet, extending to the 26 feet curve of sounding. It is proposed to extend this mole 2,300 feet farther. As this harbor is exposed to N. E. winds, an inside basin has been constructed. The area of the outer harbor is equal to 400 acres, and will permit twenty line-of-battle ships to swing freely at anchor.
At the other extremity of the canal, a mole 2,550 feet in length protects the channel, which has been dredged to the depth of 27 feet. The mole at Suez differs from that at Port Said in construction; the latter being formed of concrete blocks of 13 cubic feet, the former of stone quarried from the neighboring mountain.
The organization, equipment, sanitary regulations, and division of labor among twenty thousand men, employed at one time, is full of interest and instruction, but must be omitted in this place.[2]
The following statement of receipts and expenditures, taken from a recent periodical, deserves preservation:
| Shareholders’ capital | $40,000,000 |
| Sale of bonds | 19,999,980 |
| Egyptian convention | 5,948,805 |
| Imperial arbitration | 16,800,000 |
| Rates of exchange | 1,294,260 |
| Various receipts received by the company | 6,288,180 |
| Total capital | $90,331,225 |