THE IyOCK GATES 



Photo" and copyright by Edith H. Tracy 



The lock gates are a most interesting feature of the canal. There are 46 of them, each 

 having two leaves, and their total weight amounts to 58,000 tons. They vary in size from 

 47 to 82 feet in height and it takes no less than six million rivets to put them together. Some 

 idea of their enormous size can be gained by comparing the men working on them with the 

 gates themselves. 



was destroyed to blast a channel through 

 this slide. A ditch, however, was finally 

 made across it, through which that part 

 of the canal between Cucaracha and 

 Pedro Miguel was filled with water. This 

 allowed dredges to be towed from the 

 Pacific end of the canal to assist those 

 already brought from the Atlantic side 

 in completing the channel excavations. 



The Cucaracha slide has broken back 

 to the crest of the hill behind Gold Hill, 

 a half a mile or more from the prism. 

 Since the slide is now broken back to the 

 crest of the hill, and since the face of 

 the hill away from the canal is being 

 artificially removed, a fairly close calcu- 

 lation can now be made as to the number 

 of cubic yards of material that can slide 

 into the canal from that source and the 

 approximate time that it will take to re- 

 move it. 



A large part of the material composing 

 this slide is clay, and it is hoped that it 

 can be removed by pipe-line dredges. By 

 placing a relay pump in the pipe-line, 

 material can be forced over the banks of 

 the canal. The pipe-line dredge is very 

 efficient in digging and transporting ma- 

 terial away from the site, providing the 

 distance or lift is not too great. Material 

 can be so transported from a half to 

 three-quarters of a mile with great ease. 



One of the dredges getting ready to at- 

 tack the Cucaracha slide from the south 

 is shown in the picture on page 148. This 

 dredge came from the Pacific side, and 

 across the slide can be seen the smoke- 

 stack of the dredge that came from the 

 Atlantic through the Gatun locks. It is 

 hoped that within two or three months a 

 channel can be made of sufficient width 

 and depth for the passage of ships. How- 



165 



