THE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL 419 



mended the acquisition bv the United States of the rights and prop- 

 erties of the New Panama Canal Company. This recommendation was 

 the direct result of an offer of the canal company to sell all its rights 

 and properties for the sum of $-1:0,000,000. The actual transfer of the 

 canal properties to the United States took jdace on May 1, 1904. 



The great engineering question before the commission, above 

 named, related to the type of canal. Should the canal be built at sea- 

 level or should it cross the backbone of the isthmus at the elevation 

 suggested by the investigating commission of 1899-1901, and appar- 

 ently contemplated by the Spooner act, with a summit level at 85 feet, 

 or should it be a lock canal with some other elevation of its summit 

 section? This question and tlie administration's course in setting 

 aside the recommendation of a majority of the board of consulting 

 engineers and adojjting the plan of a lock-canal Avith a summit at the 

 elevation suggested by the commission of 1899 and advocated by the 

 minority members of the board of engineers are still fruitful of dis- 

 cussion. 



A review of the proceedings leading to the solution, and a presenta- 

 tion of some of the physical features of the problem, as disclosed by 

 the proceedings, may prove an aid to a better understanding of the 

 present situation. 



Eelating to the kind of canal to be constructed the law provides: 



The President shall then, through the Isthmian Canal Commission . . . 

 cause to be excavated, constructed and completed, litilizing to that end, as far 

 as practicable, the work heretofore done by the New Panama Canal Company, 

 of France, and its predecessor company, a ship canal from the Caribbean Sea 

 to the Pacific Ocean. Such canal shall be of sufficient capacity and depth as 

 shall afford convenient passage for vessels of the largest tonnage and greatest 

 draft now in use, and such as may reasonably be anticipated, and shall be 

 supplied with all necessary locks and other appliances to meet the necessities 

 of vessels passing through the same from ocean to ocean. . . . 



It was recognized by the commission of 1904 that under the Spooner 

 act as quoted, a departure, to some extent at least, from the project 

 which the earlier commission had outlined as a basis for comparative 

 cost estimates was authorized and proper. It was incumbent upon the 

 commission to determine whether a canal with summit level at 80 or 

 60 or 30 feet wonld not, all things considered, be better than the canal 

 with summit level at 85 feet. It was therefore necessary to regard the 

 entire question of type of canal an open one to be solved by the selection 

 of that t^'pe and that summit elevation which would best fulfill all 

 requirements. It was realized that this question required careful con- 

 sideration from every standpoint, particularly in relation to its service- 

 ability, to time required for construction, to first cost and to the cost 

 of operation and maintenance with due regard to the importance of 

 early completion, and reliability of service after completion. 



In entering npon a preliminary discussion of these matters the lack 



