Notes on the Panama Canal 



3 6 3 



same territory surrounding the city of 

 Birmingham. He said that when he ac- 

 quired his large interest in this property 

 he did so because of his abiding faith in 

 the development of the South and be- 

 cause of his confidence in the astonishing 

 growth which would take place there 

 upon the opening of the Panama Canal. 



WHY THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS THE 

 LOCK CANAL 



The present Commission believes that 

 the type of canal the people of this coun- 

 try want is the one which will provide 

 adequate and safe passage for the largest 

 vessels on the seas, and which can be 

 constructed in the quickest time and at 

 the least cost. The Commission's recom- 

 mendation, in other words, has been based 

 on the idea that what the people want is 

 the near-by practical rather than the re- 

 mote ideal. It has therefore recom- 

 mended the construction of an 85-foot 

 level lock canal for the reasons that, 

 first, in its judgment, it can be completed 

 for about half the cost and in half the 

 time of the so-called sea-level canal ; sec- 

 ond, because it will be adequate for all the 

 commerce which can reasonably be ex- 

 pected to seek that, route during the next 

 150 years; third, because if the tonnage 

 should increase beyond such expectation, 

 it can be enlarged more cheaply and more 

 quickly than the so-called sea-level canal ; 

 fourth, because, from the operating point 

 of view, large ships can be put through 

 more safely and more quickly than 

 through the sea-level ; fifth, because when 

 the interest on the difference in cost of 

 construction is added to the cost of oper- 

 ating, the saving to the government every 

 year will be $2,340,000. 



The so-called sea-level canal is a deep, 

 narrow, tortuous gorge, which large ships 

 cannot navigate, even according to the 

 estimate of the men who recommend that 

 type of canal, at a greater speed than four 

 miles an hour, and which will contain at 

 times, according to the same authority, a 

 current in one direction of two and six- 

 tenths miles an hour. I venture to say 

 that no large ship, occupying, as large 

 ships will. 40 per cent of the prism 



through which it will pass, can navigate 

 at that speed, with that current, safely, 

 under its own steam. 



The lock canal, on the other hand, as 

 recommended by the minority of the con- 

 sulting board and indorsed by our Com- 

 mission, will have 35 miles of free-lake 

 navigation, so that the difference in time 

 of putting large ships through the locks 

 will be more than offset by their speed 

 through the lake portion of their trip, 

 which is more than two-thirds of the en- 

 tire length of the canal. 



In regard to the capacity, no man can 

 estimate with any degree of accuracy the 

 volume of tonnage which will go through 

 the Panama Canal. The only guide we 

 can have is the traffic of the Suez Canal. 

 Taking the development of the traffic in 

 the Suez during the 35 years of its exist- 

 ence as a basis and continuing the same 

 ratio of increase until the year 2000, the 

 volume of traffic passing through that 

 canal will be in that year, in round num- 

 bers, 42,500,000 tons ; or, estimating that 

 the Panama Canal, if constructed on the 

 plans which this Commission has recom- 

 mended, will be open for traffic in 19 16, 

 and estimating that the volume of traffic 

 passing through it the first year will 

 amount to 5,000,000 tons (which is the 

 best guess that experts have been able to 

 make), and applying the same ratio of 

 increase to that traffic which experience 

 has shown to have developed in the Suez, 

 the volume in the year 2000 will have 

 reached 32,500,000 tons. The estimated 

 capacity of the lock canal, as recom- 

 mended by our Commission, is 50,000,000 

 tons per annum. Unless the develop- 

 ment of the population of the world 

 changes the basis of our estimates, the 

 type of canal we recommend will be ade- 

 quate for all business that may be thrown 

 upon it during the next 150 years. 



By simply raising the sides of our spill- 

 ways and increasing the depth of our 

 locks, we can increase the depth of water 

 in the canal so as to take care of still 

 larger vessels than the 40-foot ships 

 provided for in our present estimate, 

 whereas in a sea-level canal you would 

 have to excavate the whole distance for 

 every foot of increase made in depth. 



