“The canal will be informally opened, Colonel, in September, 1913?” I asked.
“I expect to put the first ship through then; and if one can go, any number can. The range-lights, buoys, and other aids to navigation will all be placed and in working order. Less than ten per cent. either of the total excavation or of the concrete-laying in the locks remains to be done. At the present rate of speed, both will be finished, and all the gates and machinery for the east locks installed by September, 1912.”
The locks of the Panama Canal are in two sets, side by side, like the two tracks of a railroad, so that ships can cross in both directions simultaneously. As at this point the Pacific lies almost due south of the Atlantic,—which is why it was called by the Spaniards the South Sea,—the east locks are those on the left, or South American, side of one going from the Caribbean to the Gulf of Panama.
“When will everything be finished and ready for the formal opening?” I asked.
“I cannot say for certain. If the steelwork and towing-locomotives are delivered when promised, the west gates will be finished by the end of 1914. To operate those on the Pacific side, a transmission-line must be built from the spillway power-plant at Gatun to Miraflores. In the meanwhile one set of gates can be operated by local power-houses. Eventually the power generated by the surplus water running through the spillway of the Gatun Dam will generate enough electricity to run all the lock machinery, the Panama Railroad, and the machine-shops at Balboa, besides illuminating the lighthouses, the employees’ quarters, and the search-lights of the coast defenses.”
“Will the coast defenses be ready for use as soon as the canal?” I asked.
“Yes, if Congress appropriates the money to bring down the guns. We’ll have the emplacements built, and everything else ready for them. Of course a strong garrison should be maintained here. The strength of the details guarding the different locks is a matter to be determined by the General Staff. There is no danger of a lock’s being disabled by a solitary spy with a bomb. All the essential machinery is in duplicate or triplicate.”
“Then the popular idea of the Gatun Dam’s being blown up by one man with a suitcaseful of dynamite is—”
“Absurd. The only way that an enemy could let the water out of Gatun Lake would be to blow up the gates of the spillway, and that would require a large number of men, with plenty of time and explosives.”
“Now that the Canal Bill has passed, Colonel, you can begin to organize the operating-force?”