The Panama Canal 



449 



to complete it at that time, as well as to 

 procure revenue for continuing the dig- 

 ging down to the sea level, the company 

 might be forced to the lock system of 

 construction. This would surely be ac- 

 complished in the end. Before the time 

 limit was up the entire plans of the canal 

 had been changed to the lock system, 

 but as the money was then practically all 

 gone and no more could be obtained', the 

 company was forced into bankruptcy. 

 This took place in February, 1889, but 

 a short time after I left the Isthmus. 



THE EARLY PLANS 



The plan that was first adopted by the 

 old Panama Canal Company, was for a 

 sea-level canal having a depth of 29.5 

 feet, and bottom width of 72 feet, with a 

 total length of about 47 miles. Natu- 

 rally, the estimates for constructional 

 work on the canal at this time were very 

 crude, being based on insufficient data 

 regarding the physical conditions of the 

 country as well as on insufficient sur- 

 veys. As at first planned, the canal 

 passes through low ground from Colon 

 on the north, by a direct line for a dis- 

 tance of 6 miles to Gatun, where it inter- 

 sects the valley of the Chagres River, 

 passes up that valley a distance of 21 

 miles to Obispo, where it follows the val- 

 ley of a small tributary, cuts through 

 the continental divide at Culebra, and 

 thence descends by the valley of the Rio 

 Grande to the Bay of Panama. 



As it was necessary to provide easy 

 curves everywhere in the canal, a point 

 was selected for crossing the divide 

 somewhat higher than that of the low- 

 est pass. The maximum height on the 

 center line in the Culebra Cut was 333 

 feet above the sea. The greatest prob- 

 lem the company had to solve was the 

 controK:f the floods of the Chagres, which 

 at times rose to enormous proportions. 

 Various schemes were proposed to meet 

 this difficulty, the most prominent being 

 the construction of a dam at Gamboa to 

 impound the waters of the upper river, 



and the excavation of two independent 

 channels, one on either side of the main 

 canal, to carry off the surplus waters to 

 the sea. 



The cost of the canal as estimated by 

 de Iyesseps in 1880 was $127,600,000, 

 and the time required for its completion 

 was 8 years. 



As has been stated, in 1887 his com- 

 pany was forced to admit that it was im- 

 practical to build a sea-level canal in the 

 time and with the money available, and 

 a tentative scheme for opening the canal 

 in order to precure revenue was adopted 

 which contemplated the use of locks. 

 This being a temporary expedient, the 

 summit level was to be supplied with 

 water from the Chagres River by pumps; 

 but, with the funds exhausted, even this 

 became a hopeless task, the company was 

 forced into bankruptcy, and in May, 

 1889, work on the canal ceased alto- 

 gether. 



DISAPPEARANCE OF THE SECURITIES 



After much difficulty in arranging the 

 concessions, a new company was organ- 

 ized on the 20th of October, 1894, with 

 a capital stock of 650,000 shares of 100 

 francs each. Thus, after deducting 50, - 

 000 shares given as full-paid stock to the 

 Colombian government, in compliance 

 with the terms of the extension of the 

 concession, the cash capital of the com- 

 pany was only 60,000,000 francs, or 

 $11,640,000, a sum which allowed only 

 for some provisional operations then con- 

 templated. It is hardly necessary to go 

 into the scandals connected with the 

 failure of the old company, as they do 

 not affect the problem. The old com- 

 pany and the liquidator had raised by 

 the sale of stock and bonds the sum of 

 $246,706,431.68, while the securities 

 issued to raise this sum had a face value 

 °f $435>559>33 2 - 8 °- The number of 

 persons holding them is estimated at 

 over 200,000. There had been pur- 

 chased and transported to the Isthmus 

 an enormous quantity of machinery and 



