PANAMA CANAL 



tali-t- built the Panama Railroad, from Colon 

 (l | )( \-pin\vall) to Panama, and in 1881 



, nch company, headed by De Lesseps. the 

 1 builder of the Suez Canal, eom- 

 to dig the ship passage. This company 



inued until dissolved by bankruptcy eight 

 n later, when a second company was or- 

 ganized. In all, the French company excavated 

 nearly a third as much ground as the Americans 

 took out later, but less than half of their work 



elpful to the enter] 



When the United States decided to buy the 

 rights of the French company for forty million 

 dollars, the government of Colombia refused to 

 ratify the 'necessary treaty. As a result the 

 >tate of Panama, with the help of the United 

 States, secured its independence, and for ten 

 million dollars made a perpetual lease of a strip 

 of land ten miles wide along the Canal route, 

 retaining only the cities of Panama and Colon. 

 This strip is known as the Canal Zone. Be- 

 ~ide> that initial sum, the United States pays 

 Panama $250.000 a year for its Canal privileges. 



i- unsatisfact ory attempts to dig the Canal 

 under private contract, the work was put in the 

 hands of the army. With Colonel (now Major- 

 General) George W. Goethals in charge, the 

 task was virtually completed in 1914, the first 

 .-hip passing through the canal on August 3. 

 General Goethals then resigned, but tempo- 

 rarily resumed his position when the slides of 

 1915 interrupted traffic. 



The total cost of the work exceeded the $375,- 

 000,000 originally set aside for it. This amount 

 includes the $50,000.000 paid to the French 

 company and to Panama. The number of la- 

 borers employed in 1912 and 1913, the highest 

 it any one time, was over 40,000, of whom 

 about three-fourths were West Indian negroes. 

 Sanitary Triumphs. When the Americans 

 went to Panama they found it ''one of the hot- 

 test, wettest and most feverish regions in exist- 

 ence." By the time the Canal was completed 

 the Zone had a better record for health than 

 many North American cities. This change was 

 due to the untiring efforts of the sanitary de- 

 partment, under Major-General Gorgas, who 

 had previously performed a similar service for 

 Havana. During the early stages of their task 

 the sanitary engineers cut down each year five 

 -quare miles of 'brush, drained one-third of a 

 square mile of swamp, cut ten square miles of 

 grass, maintained 550 miles of ditches, emptied 

 1.300,000 cans of garbage and fumigated 11,- 

 000,000 cubic feet of residential space, all to 

 -tamp out the mosquito. It was the greatest 



PANAMA-PACIFIC EXPOSITION 



light against the pe>t that has been \\ajied in 

 the history of mankind. 



Tolls. Ships passing through the (..'anal must 

 pay $1.25 for each so-called >nt tun of their 

 cargo, but the charge is made according to 

 space, and by careful loading a boat may carry 

 two or three tons for this sum. In 1912 the 



TONNAGE OP A YEAR 



The kinds and proportionate amounts of prod- 

 in is carried through the Canal in a \t-ar an 

 sho-.vn in the chart. Figures are percent;-. 

 28.5 Nitrates 1.8 Railroad material 



8.6 Refined petroleum 1.6 Iron ore 

 8.0 Coal 1.3 Canned goods 



4.0 Sugar 1.2 Barley 



2.8 Lumber 1.1 Copper 



2.7 Iron and steel .90 Wire fencing 



2.3 Crude oil 35.3 Miscellaneous 



United States Congress ruled that American 

 vessels in the coastwise trade should be ex- 

 empted from tolls, but other nations claimed 

 this provision to be contrary to treaty, and tin- 

 next Congress, in 1913, repealed the law. at 

 President Wilson's request. 



The United States government ha> defended 

 the Canal by the best engineering works it is 

 possible to build and by the erection of great 

 guns which are capable of destructive effect at 

 a distance of sixteen miles. C.II.H. 



PANAMA-PACIFIC-INTERNATIONAL EX- 

 POSITION, an exposition held in San Fran- 

 cisco in 1915 to celebrate the completion of the 

 Panama Canal. It was authorized by Congress 

 early in 1911. The site chosen lay along the 

 south water front of San Francisco Bay. ju>i 

 within the encircling arm of the Golden Gate. 

 The grounds, 635 acres in extent, sloped to- 

 wards the bay and were surrounded by an am- 

 phitheater of hills. To the north they looked 

 out across the bay to the hills and mountains 

 beyond. To the west was the Presidio, a United 



