6.—The Elbe and Trave Canal, connecting the North Sea and Baltic, opened in 1900.
7.—The Welland Canal, connecting Lake Erie with Lake Ontario.
8 and 9.—The two canals, United States and Canadian, respectively, connecting Lake Superior with Lake Huron.
The Suez Canal naturally suggests itself for comparison, though it falls far short in volume of traffic of either of the two canals at Sault Ste. Marie, between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. It is ninety miles long, or just about twice the length of the Panama, and about two-thirds of its length is dredged through shallow lakes. It is 31 feet deep as against Panama’s 45, with a surface width of 420 feet, while the Panama Canal is from 300 to 1000 feet. The Suez Canal cost slightly under $100,000,000 and pays dividends at the rate of 12 per cent. Lord Beaconsfield, who bought control of it for England in face of fierce opposition and was savagely denounced for wild-cat financiering, secured for the Empire not merely its strongest bond, but a highly profitable investment as well. The tolls now charged are about $2 a ton according to the United States net measurement.
TRACKS ASCENDING FROM LOWER TO UPPER LOCK
Doors giving access to service tunnels are shown at either side of the central ascent
Of the other canals enumerated some, like the Manchester and the Elbe and Trave Canals, are of purely local importance, while others, like the Kaiser Wilhelm (better known as the Kiel) Canal, are mainly for naval and military purposes. In volume of traffic the first of all canals in the world is the American canal at the “Soo”, with the Canadian canal paralleling it a fair second. The volume of traffic passing through these waterways during the eight or nine months they are free from ice is incredible. In 1911 it approximated 40,000,000 tons and exceeded in volume Suez and all the other ship canals heretofore enumerated together. To the facilities for water carriage afforded by this and the neighboring Canadian canal is due much of the rapid growth and development of the country about the western end of Lake Superior. What countries will profit in the same way by the work at Panama? The Pacific coast, both of North and South America. Perhaps South America even more than our own land, for its present state admits of such development.
One problem opened by the Panama Canal which seldom suggests itself to the merely casual mind is the one involved in keeping it clear of the infectious and epidemic diseases for which Asiatic and tropical ports have a sinister reputation. The opening of the Suez Canal was followed by new danger from plague, cholera and yellow fever in Mediterranean countries. A like situation may arise at Panama. It is proposed, though I think not yet officially, to have passing vessels from infected ports inspected at the entrance to the Canal. If infection exists the ship can be fumigated during the passage through the Canal, which will take from ten to twelve hours, while the subsequent voyage to her home port, whether on our Atlantic coast or in Europe, will make any subsequent delay in quarantine needless. The plague is the disease most dreaded in civilized communities, which it only enters by being brought by ship from some Asiatic port in which it is prevalent. Its germs can be carried by rats as well as by human beings, and for this reason in some ports vessels from suspected ports are not allowed to come up to a dock lest the rodents slip ashore carrying the pestilence. Sometimes in such ports you will see a vessel’s hawsers obstructed by large metal disks, past which no rat may slip if he tries the tight-rope route to the shore. The new contracts for wharves, docks and piers at all our Zone ports prescribe that they shall be rat-proof. Indeed the rodents are very much under the ban in Panama, and the annual slaughter by the Sanitary Department exceeds 12,000.
Photo by Brown Bros.