TEE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL 429 



Greater capacity for traffic than afforded by the narrow waterway proposed 

 by the board. 



Greater safety for ships and less danger of interruption to traffic by reason 

 of the wider and deeper channels which the lock canal makes possible at 

 small cost. 



Quicker passage across the Isthmus for large ships or a large traffic. 



Materially less time required for construction. 



Materially less cost. 



The project recommended by the minority, which is the project as 

 now being carried out (except for an enlargement of the locks, a change 

 of lock locations, and the abandonment of the proposed dams on both 

 sides of Sosa Hill at the Pacific end of the canal), includes a dam at 

 Gatun, but none at Bohio, and no dam at Gamboa. The locks were to 

 be 95 feet wide, 900 feet lojig, and the depth of water was to be 40 

 feet. The summit level was fixed at 85 feet. 



Under the minority plan there were to be at the Pacific end of the 

 canal duplicate locks of one lift of 31 feet each, and twin locks in flights 

 of two at Sosa Hill. 



The time required to construct the lock canal was estimated by the 

 minority at about six years less than would be required for a sea-level 

 canal, and the cost of the canal is estimated by them at $139,705,000. 

 They say in their report : 



The greater cost of the proposed sea-level canal — upward of $100,000,000 

 more than that of the lock canal herein advocated — is not a trifling sum even 

 for the resources of the United States. If such an outlay is incurred a greatly 

 superior waterway should be obtained or the expenditure will be unwise and the 

 result discreditable. 



The minority then present their views at length, calling attention 

 to the small risk of injury to a well-equipped canal lock; to the equal 

 facility of protecting the canal against injury in time of war, no matter 

 what its type ; to the greater liability of delay and injury to shipping in 

 traversing artificial channels at considerable speed than in moving 

 slowly under perfect control through locks; to the greater speed at 

 which the open water above the locks can be navigated; to the reduced 

 time that will be required in the passage through the canal with locks; 

 to the greater amount of traffic that would at the outset be provided for; 

 to the provisions that can be made to prevent accidents at the locks ; to 

 the extraordinary dimensions proposed for the earth dams at Gatun 

 and at Sosa Hill; to the fact that time required to make Culebra cut 

 and to construct the locks is about the same. They estimate that six 

 years less time will be required to build the lock canal than to build a 

 sea-level canal. 



At the time, January 10, 1906, the board of consulting engineers 

 submitted their majority and minority reports to the Isthmian Canal 

 Commission, the membership of the commission was as follows: T. P. 

 Shouts, chairman; C. E. Magoon, governor of the Canal Zone; Rear 



