THE PANAMA CANAL 



153 



material instead of the no million cubic 

 yards the majority members of the board 

 of consulting engineers fixed. 



But suppose such a prospect would not 

 have staggered the American people into 

 a refusal to go further with a sea-level 

 canal, what would we have had when it 

 should be completed? A tortuous chan- 

 nel, with a tidal lock at the Pacific end in 

 greater danger of destruction than those 

 at Gatun ; a masonry dam at Gamboa 

 nearly twice as high as Gatun Dam and 

 a much fairer mark for the dread man 

 in the flying machine ; a canal in which 

 not one of the recently built big ships 

 could be handled, making it out of date 

 before its completion. 



When the American people come to 

 celebrate the opening of the present 

 canal, they owe a hymn of thanksgiving 

 to that happy fate that led them — yes, 

 led them against their will — to build a 

 lock canal at Panama. To have pursued 

 the course the majority of us — for I am 

 one of that majority — wanted the United 

 States to pursue would have involved us 

 in one of the most calamitous undertak- 

 ings in all history. 



The meaning of the slides cannot be 

 misunderstood or misinterpreted. They 

 mean that Nature would have interposed 

 such tremendous obstacles in the way of 

 a sea-level cut through Culebra Mountain 

 that even the might and power and 

 wealth of the giant of the household of 



nations would have arrayed themselves 

 against her in vain had that nation deter- 

 mined upon the wedding of the oceans 

 by the commingling of their waters at 

 Panama. 



In conclusion, I wish to call attention 

 to a story that seems to find acceptance 

 in some quarters. It is to the effect that 

 shipping and insurance circles stand in 

 dread of slides in the future in the canal. 



There are two reasons why there is not 

 the slightest ground for that dread, even 

 if there should be for the story. In the 

 first place, the canal is not going to be 

 pronounced a finished waterway until 

 every yard of debris that can come in has 

 arrived and has been removed. In the 

 second place, the United States govern- 

 ment has pledged its solemn word, 

 through definite legislation, to indemnify 

 any ship-owner for delays or damages 

 caused by the canal or its operatives. 

 And Uncle Sam makes the process of re- 

 covery easy and prompt in its action. 



When the shipping of the world passes 

 through the great waterway, some time 

 this year, it will behold the most wonder- 

 ful shipway that ever has opened its 

 gates to the nations of the earth. And 

 there will be read in the majestic pro- 

 portions of the present Culebra Cut the 

 reason why a sea-level canal was not 

 built, and why it could not be built within 

 the toiling and money-spending power of 

 the United States. 



THE PANAMA CANAL* 



By Lieut. Colonel William L. Sibert, U. S. Army 



Engineer in Charge oe the Atlantic Division 



For a map of the Panama Canal, sec "Bird's-eye View of the Panama Canal," 

 9 by 18 inches, in National Geographic Magazine, February, 1912, and also 

 "Map of Central America, etc." 12 by 19 inches, in the February, 1913, number. 



THE Panama Canal, as all know, 

 is being built by the President of 

 the United States through a com- 

 mission of seven members, the chairman 

 and chief engineer of which is Col. 

 George W. Goethals, of the Corps of 

 Engineers, United States Army. As a 

 member of the commission and as divi- 



sion engineer of the Atlantic Division, I 

 have had charge of the construction of 

 the Gatun locks, the Gatun Dam, the 

 breakwaters in Colon Harbor, and the 

 excavation of the channel between the 

 Gatun locks and the Atlantic Ocean. 



If there are any people who yet hold 

 the idea that the waters of the Atlantic 



*An address to the National Geographic Society, November 29, 1913 



