PANAMA CANAL 



4473 



PANAMA CANAL 



the harvest, ami the .-ame i> true of the new 

 Hudson Bay routt . Tin- way through Van- 

 couver or Prince Rupert and tin- Panama Canal 

 is less expensive than tin- Great Lakes trip, 

 and is available all the twelve months. Some 

 grain is already being earned this way. and M 

 -hipping and elevator -er\ ice on the Pacific 

 ri improve, the volume of >uch shipment- 

 will increase. Other commodities which 



.van! through the Canal are British Colum- 

 ::ub. r ;md salmon. 

 A Trip Through the Canal. A .-i range fact 



it this Canal joining the eastern and v, 

 era oceans is that when you pass through it 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific you finish your 

 jouniey twt nty-five miles east of your starting 

 point. The Isthmus of Panama is thirty miles 

 wide, and the canal e\teiid> -outh and then 

 Ottti total di-tance of 43.84 miles. At 



the Atlantic, or Caribbean end, is the city of 

 Colon (the Spanish word for Columbus), and at 

 the other extreme lies Panama City, the capital 

 of the republic. 



A -hip from New York bound for Pacific 

 ports passes between the breakwaters, then 

 nith seven miles to the fir.-t lock, ad- 

 vancing most of its way through the channel 

 \\hich has been dredged in the shallow waters 

 of Linion Bay. N.xt. four, or perhaps HV 

 powerful electric locomotives, running on tracks 



at the side of the Canal, are attached to tin- 

 boat, and pull it quietly into the lock; as soon 

 U the gate- are dosed the ship begin> to ri- 

 two or three feet a minute. When the third 

 lock has been passed the vessel steams out into 

 .11 Lake, rmh ty-five feet above the level of 

 the Caribbean. Each of the locks can accom- 

 modate a .-hip 1.000 feet long and 110 feet wide. 



.ilid there I- mi boat in the world so large. Tilt 



lock- are built in pairs, so while westbound 

 -Inp- are climbing up the w.it. i -t airway east- 

 bound -hip- may be descending it. 

 For the n, \t tluitv-two miles the bo 



- und> i i'~ own po\\er. winding -outh and 



'lie hill- that edge 'he \alle\ of 



the Ch IL- 'Inn plunging into the b 



boil- of the i-thmu- through the I'amou- Cu- 

 lebia Cm. right mil' - 1 



Ilia tin- ( 'haute- \\a- only a 

 mountain torrent, but IP he tin, , 



nlir lock-, -all. .1 the (,at.m l.ork-. lia- 



been built the Gatun Dam. which holds back 



the Watei-8 Of the mer -o that th. ) 



1 ike of 164 square mile- The section of it 

 through which the -hipa pajM 18 from 50< 



1.000 feet u,,|. 



The Culebra Cut (culebra means snake) is 

 now officially called the Gaillard Cut. in honor 

 of Colonel Gaillard. who directed the work of 

 digging it. The hill at Culebra was the greatest 

 obstacle which the Canal builders faced. It i- 

 formed of soft volcanic material, and excavat- 

 ing in it resembled in some respects digging 

 r. When a hole was made, more rock and 

 dirt would .-lide into it from the side, or be 

 thrust up from below by the weight of the 

 hills, liven after the Canal had been opened 

 the slides continued, and navigation had to be 

 stopped several times prior to April 15. 1916. 

 On the whole, instead of removing 53.000,000 

 cubic yards, as originally estimated, the 

 neers took out 135,000,000, enough to make a 

 sandpile nearly twice as high as the Wool worth 

 Building, the tallest building in the world, and 

 over half a mile broad at its base. Thu- the 

 Cut became three times as wide at the top as 

 had been planned. 



Just beyond Gaillard the ship is lowered 

 through Pedro Miguel Lock into little Mira- 

 flores Lake, and a mile and a half farther n 

 sinks to sea level in the two Miraflores Locks. 

 Eight miles beyond the last lock the open Pa- 



<TU-:I:K.\ x< \v OAELULRD) TT 



Sin-fan- wait i s.-.-|iiiitf through the soil ami 

 gravel at // and C arriiinul.i tt-s tin the sir 

 Hit- layers l flay, ereatintf a line of cleavage. 

 Tin- layers .if ihis accumulation slide down the 

 slope, rising in the Canal at 1 



cilic is reached, after a : tell hours 



from the Caribl. g I. \. 1. h..\\, \ .-r, does 



not mean the level from which the ship origi- 

 nally came, for on the Atlantic -ide t!;. 

 only a few inch.-- of tide, but at the Paeitir end 

 the water rises and fall-, on the a\erag- 



How the Canal Was Built. The que-tion ,:' 



a \\alei\\a\ b.tur.n the I \\ o oceattS was of in- 

 to the 1'mied St. it. - even b. ton the 



he e.il'lx gohl >e. i 



then ua\ to California, but not until 1WJ ua- 



on ,1 I 



\\itl. Neu ( , now Colombia), th. 



ton-Hulu.i Treaty .i is-Vl \\ith (Jn-.-it Hntam. 

 and th- 



to all po-.-il In 1SV> New Vgi \ 



