THE PANAMA CANAL 



157 



bor, stir up the soft bottom of Limon 

 Bay and create currents, with the result 

 that there is a large amount of silting in 

 the channel through the bay. For two 

 years in succession this silting amounted 

 to more than two million cubic yards of 

 material. 



In order to remedy this condition, and 

 for other reasons, it has been decided to 

 construct an east breakwater also. Its 

 end will be opposite the end of the west 

 breakwater, leaving an opening of 2,000 

 feet. When this breakwater is completed, 

 the silting in the channel will cease and 

 all difficulties of transfers from one boat 

 to another in the harbor will be elimi- 

 nated. The west breakwater should be 

 completed in the summer of 19 14, and 

 the work on the east breakwater has just 

 commenced. 



HOW THE BREAKWATERS ARE BUIET 



The method of building the break- 

 waters is as follows : 



A trestle, suitable for a double-track 

 railroad, was driven from the shore, ex- 

 tending for two miles out to sea. The 

 rock forming the bottom of the break- 

 water was run out on cars and dumped 

 or plowed off until the fill was made 

 alongside the trestle to an elevation of 

 15 feet below sea-level (compare page 

 152). Between that level and 10 feet 

 above sea-level the breakwater was built 

 of hard trap rock, obtained from Porto 

 Bello, the stone ranging in weight from 

 1,500 pounds to 15 tons. 



The stone for the armor of the break- 

 water, as well as all crushed stone for the 

 Gatun locks, came from this seacoast 

 town of Porto Bello, situated some 20 

 miles northeast of Colon. 



This place has given all kinds of trou- 

 ble. The first year we attempted to crush 

 stone for the Gatun locks, we had at 

 Porto Bello a rainfall amounting to 237 

 inches — 3 inches less than 20 feet ; 9 feet 

 of rainfall in two months ; 58 inches in 

 one month. 



Everything happened at Porto Bello 

 that could happen. Slides that no engi- 

 neer would dream of occurring did occur. 

 On an average 300,000 cubic yards of 

 crushed stone every day were necessary 

 for the concrete at Gatun. We had a 

 young officer of engineers there, Captain 



Stickle, who was doing the best he could, 

 but we were pushing him anyway; so, 

 after he had been urged and urged and 

 then urged again to do more, one day he 

 sent a wireless, "Fifty-eight inches of 

 rain this month. Anything over fifty 

 inches considered an act of God." 



the French canae would have been 

 useless NOW 



A little to the north of the Gatun locks 

 the American and French canals inter- 

 sect, and the picture on page 158 shows 

 the relative sizes of the two. Had the 

 French canal been completed it would 

 now be out of date, for its locks would 

 not be of a size sufficient to pass the 

 boats that would now offer. 



In the French project the sea-level 

 part of the canal on the Atlantic side ex- 

 tended about 10 miles farther up the 

 Chagres Valley than the American proj- 

 ect. The water supply would have been 

 materially less than in the American plan 

 and would not have been sufficient for 

 the substitution of locks of the size now 

 built, and those now adopted are none too 

 large to meet the requirements of Con- 

 gress that the Panama Canal should be 

 built of such size as reasonably to meet 

 the demands of the future as to the size 

 of ships.* 



The canal is at sea-level from the At- 

 lantic to Gatun ; it then goes up a flight 

 of three steps to Gatun Lake and con- 

 tinues at that level for 32 miles. Then 

 down one step at Pedro Miguel to Mira- 

 flores Lake, which is 55 feet above sea- 

 level; thence through the Miraflores 

 locks, and the canal from there to the 

 Pacific is at sea-level again. 



The proudest day that Gatun has yet 

 had was on the 26th day of September, 

 191 3, when the little tugboat Gatun was 

 lifted from sea-level to the surface of 

 Gatun Lake, and was the first boat to 

 pass through any lock of the Panama 

 Canal (see page 162). 



*The full length of each lock compartment 

 is 1,000 feet. The largest ship in the world, 

 the Vaterland, of the Hamburg- American Line, 

 which is not yet completed, has a length of 950 

 feet. While it is unlikely that the huge liners 

 used in the transatlantic passenger service will 

 often be required to pass through the canal, 

 still the locks are big enough to accommodate 

 the largest ship in the world. 



