A STEAM SHOVEL HALF BURIED BY A SLIDE 



Many miles of railroad track and steam shovels by the dozen have been destroyed by 

 slides in the cut. Often, however, the slide has bodily raised the bottom of the cut, leaving 

 steam shovels standing on their tracks, hardly out of alignment, but 15 feet or more above 

 the place where they should normally be. 



years of actual work and at a total cost 

 of about 50 million dollars. 



One of the wonderful things about the 

 building of the canal was how, in the 

 face of all the unforeseen difficulties that 

 the slide problem involved, Colonel Goe- 

 thals and Colonel Gaillard were able to 

 drive down unit cost as the mercury in 

 the difficulty thermometer sped upward. 

 In 1908 it was estimated that the cost of 

 removing a yard of spoil would be around 

 98 cents for the whole cut. 



For the fiscal year ,1909 they ham- 

 mered this cost down to 78^3 cents; the 

 next year they lowered it to 73^8 cents; 

 in 191 1, although the slide problem be- 

 came much more acute, they forced it 

 still lower — to 63^ cents. 



But they were not satisfied even then ; 

 1912 saw the slides more troublesome 

 than ever, and in spite of this they forced 



the unit cost down to 54^8 cents. Than 

 this, there is no prouder showing in the 

 history of business economy or of engi- 

 neering. 



Even in 19 13, with the slides requiring 

 nearly half of all the work and imposing 

 unprecedented difficulties upon the engi- 

 neers, they managed to hold down the 

 yardage cost to 59 cents. And that is 

 why they were able to save 20 cents on 

 every one of the 107 million cubic yards 

 taken out of the Central Division up to 

 July 1, 191 3 — enough in the aggregate to 

 finance the removal of all the slides, with 

 a handsome little nest-egg left over. 



DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF SLIDES 



The slides with which the canal engi- 

 neers have had to deal in solving the 

 problems of Culebra Cut are of four 

 classes. The most troublesome of these 



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