PUZZLE IN PANAMA — BOWMAN 427 



sity for dams and diversion channels to control jfloods in intersected 

 streams and for temporary locks to maintain traffic through the canal 

 during the construction period will add greatly to the expense. If deep 

 dredging is feasible, construction difficulties and costs will be greatly 

 lessened, but even if the alternative of building temporary conversion 

 locks, as required for stage lowering of Gatun Lake, is necessary, no 

 insurmountable troubles are involved. As a matter of fact, the cleep- 

 clredging and stage-lowering plans are not mutually exclusive initially. 

 It would be possible to start with either one and then shift to the other 

 after the first 2 or 3 years of preliminary work, without appreciable 

 loss of time or money. 



Finally a sea-level canal undoubtedly offers the greatest assurance 

 of security and minimum interruption in wartime, since damage from 

 bomb hits could be repaired by dredges in a matter of days as con- 

 trasted with the many months that a lock canal would be out of service 

 if its water supply should be lost. The sea-level canal also promises 

 no real navigation hazards because of tidal currents. Cost is the 

 principal question upon which a recommendation favoring conversion 

 of the present canal to sea level is believed to rest. 



Insofar as improving the present lock canal is concerned the Pacific 

 Terminal Lake Plan is the one to be weighed and compared. Building 

 the new, enlarged two-lift locks recjuired, and dispersing them as much 

 as necessary for safety, makes this by no means a low-cost solution. 

 Here, too, relative cost and security will control the decision. 



In summary, the choice of the investigators must rest between sup- 

 plementing the present canal with another removed a safe distance 

 from it or converting the present canal to sea level. After that the 

 choice shifts to Congress and the American people. If they want a 

 safe canal badly enough to invest what it costs — 1 billion, 2 billion, 

 perhaps 3 billion dollars — they can have it. If security comes too 

 high, and they will settle for increased capacity, any one of the schemes 

 mentioned earlier in this article for improving the present canal, in- 

 cluding completion of the Third Locks Project, will suffice. Upon 

 such a decision rests finally the solution to the puzzle in Panama — 

 and incidentally the silencing or the resurrection of the ghost of a 

 sea-level canal. 



CONSULTANTS ON THE WOEK 



In addition to the staff of the investigation, numerous consultants 

 have been engaged on the work, as mentioned earlier in this article. 

 Most important of these, of course, are the members of the consulting 

 board, which consists of Rear Adm. John J. Manning (C. E, C. USN) 

 Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks; Brig. Gen. Hans Kramer 

 (C. E. Retired) ; Prof. Boris A. Bakhmeteff, Columbia University; 



