738 THE PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE PANAMA CANAL. 



ments from ocean transportation companies regarding the building of 

 ships approaching 800 feet in length. Loaded vessels have entered 

 or left the harbor of New York with a draft of 32 or 33 feet and pos- 

 sibly a little more. For these general reasons the former Commission 

 prescribed a bottom width of 150 feet for the canal and a depth of 

 water of 35 feet. Although it is not probable that the greatest shi])s 

 afloat Avill, immediately after its completion, seek the Panama Canal, 

 it is practically certain that the opening of such a canal will shift 

 some lines of ocean traffic and stimulate others, so that it is a measure 

 of wisdom only to follow the instructions given to the former Com- 

 mission and tacitly at least to the present Commission, to construct a 

 waterway which shall afford accommodation for the largest ships 

 afloat. 



The Panama Canal line will be practically identical with that first 

 adopted by the old Panama Canal Company and subsequently ac- 

 cepted by the new Panama Canal Company. There will certainly be 

 some modifications of details of alignment, but in the main the French 

 location was well considered, and the canal will be built upon -it. 

 There is still an open question as to the advisability of what is known 

 as the Tiger Hill alternative, which was so strongly advocated by 

 the late Mr. George S. Morison, member of the former Connnission. 

 This alternative line was originally surveyed and located by Com- 

 mander Lull, U. S. Navy, in 1875. It covers that portion of the 

 canal location between Gatun, about 6 miles from Colon, and Bohio, 

 about 17 miles from the same point. It is a shorter line than the 

 French location by about 1;^- miles. It also has the advantage of mov- 

 ing the canal line a^Yay from the Chagres River to the foot of the high 

 ground easterly of that river and throughout a portion of its length 

 materially higher than the low marshes along the course of the river. 

 It has two disadvantages: One, that the excavation of the old Panama 

 Canal Company between Gatun and Bohio would be abandoned, 

 necessitating a correspondingly increased amount of new excavation ; 

 and the other, that the canal prism "would be carried for a consider- 

 able distance between Tiger Hill and Bohio within an embankment 

 attaining a height in some places of nearly or quite 20 feet and rest- 

 ing on soft ground. The necessary data for the determination of this 

 and other features of modified alignment have been already largely 

 secured, enabling such questions to be satisfactorily answered in the 

 near future. 



The total length of the Panama Canal between G-fathom curves in 

 the two oceans is 41).0i) miles, of which about 17 miles on the Carib- 

 bean side and 8^ miles on the Pacific side, i. e., practically one-half 

 the length of the canal, is to be excavated through low, marshy 

 ground little above sea level. These two ])ortions of the line consti- 

 tute the Atlantic and Pacific sea levels in the plans of the new Panama 



