THE 1*KESENT ASPECTS OF THE PANAMA CANAL." 



By William 11. Burr. 



Inasmuch as it is scarcely nine months since the present Isthmian 

 Canal Commission was created, and as the first month and a half of 

 that time was nearly wholly occupied in its first visit to the Isthmus 

 for the purj)ose of inspecting; the work about to be acquired by the 

 United States, any view of the Panama Canal project at this early 

 date must be a consideration of what has been transmitted from the 

 New Panama Canal Company to the United States Government, 

 rather than a review of plans adopted or of methods of construction 

 for the great work undertaken. Indeed, it must be borne in mind 

 that the title of the Panama Canal property was actually transferred 

 to the United States Government only on May 4, 1904, so that the 

 Commission has been in control of the canal property but seven 

 months at this writing. 



The full report of the former Isthmian Canal Commission of its 

 work performed " with a view to determining the most practicable 

 and feasible route for " a ship canal across the American Isthmus is a 

 complete compendium, not only of all data existing at that time re- 

 garding the canal property, but also a comprehensive statement of the 

 plans and estimates of that Commission regarding the type of canal 

 recommended by it. The conditions under which the canal is to be 

 built and the character of the ocean traffic to be accommodated have 

 changed so radically within the period elapsed since the old Panama 

 Canal Company went into bankruptcy that the work before the pres- 

 ent Isthmian Canal Commission must necessarily be largely inde- 

 pendent of anything hitherto contemplated, and its plans must be de- 

 veloped and completed for practically an entirely ncAv project. This 

 is a necessary procedure for a number of important reasons. Among 

 others, during the past three years, even, material developments in 

 the size and motive power of steamships have been made and those 

 developments are in active progress at the present time. Steamships 

 over 700 feet long have been built, and there are already serious state- 



1 Reprinted, by permission, from The Engineering Magazine, New York, Jan- 

 uary, 1905. 



SM 1004 17 '^'•^'^ 



