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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE PANAMA ROUTE FOE A SHIP CANAL. II. 



By Professor WILLIAM H. BURR, 



COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



THE total length of the Panama route from the six-fathom curve at 

 Colon to the same curve in Panama Bay is 49.09 miles. The 

 general direction of the route in passing from Colon to Panama is from 

 northwest to southeast, the latter point being about 22 miles east of the 

 Atlantic terminus. The depression through which the line is laid is 

 one of easy topography except at the continental divide in the Culebra 

 cut. As a consequence there is little heavy work of excavation, as such 

 matters go, except in that cut. A further consequence of such topog- 

 raphy is a comparatively easy alignment, that is one in which the 

 amount of curvature is not high. The smallest radius of curvature is 

 3,281 ft. at the entrance to the inner harbor at the Colon end of the 

 route, and where the width is 800 ft. The radii of the remaining curve 

 range from 6,234 ft. to 19,629 ft. 



The following table gives all the elements of curvature on the route 

 and indicates that it is not excessive : 



Throughout the most of the distance between Colon and Bohio on 

 the easterly side of the canal, the French plan contemplated an ex- 

 cavated channel to receive a portion of the waters of the Chagres as well 

 as the flow of two smaller rivers, the Gatuncillo and the Mindi, so as to 

 conduct them into the bay of Manzanillo, immediately to the east of 

 Colon. That so-called diversion channel was nearly completed. Un- 

 der the plan of the commission it would receive none of the Chagres 

 flow, but it would be available for intercepting the drainage of the high 

 ground easterly of the canal line and the flow of the two small rivers 



