THE PANAMA CANAL 



155 



Lepinay, a French engineer, who, in an 

 exhaustive paper on the subject, pre- 

 pared for the Congress of Engineers in 

 Paris in 1879, advocated the construc- 

 tion of a lock canal with a dam at Gatun 

 in lieu of a sea-level canal. The reasons 

 which he advanced at that time were to 

 the effect that such a canal could be 

 built for less money, in less time, and 

 with less sacrifice of life. 



THE PRINCIPAL FEATURES OP THE CANAL 



The canal which is now building con- 

 sists of a sea-level entrance channel 

 from the sea through Limon Bay to 

 Gatun, about seven miles long, 500 feet 

 bottom width, and 41 feet deep at mean 

 tide. At Gatun the 85-foot lake level is 

 obtained by a dam across the valley. 

 The lake is confined on the Pacific side 

 by a dam between the hills at Pedro 

 Miguel, 32 miles away. The lake thus 

 formed will have an area of 164 square 

 miles and a channel depth of not less 

 than 45 feet at normal stage. 



At Gatun ships will pass from the sea 

 to the lake level, and vice versa, by three 

 locks in flight. On the Pacific side there 

 will be one lift of 30 feet at Pedro 

 Miguel to a small lake held at 55 feet 

 above sea level by dams at Miraflores, 

 where two lifts overcome the difference 

 of level to the sea. The channel between 

 the locks on the Pacific side will be 500 

 feet wide at the bottom and 45 feet deep, 

 and below the Miraflores locks the sea- 

 level section, about eight miles in length, 

 will be 500 feet wide at the bottom and 

 45 feet deep at mean tide. Through the 

 lake the bottom widths are not less than 

 1,000 feet for about 16 miles, 800 feet 

 for about four miles, 500 feet for about 

 three miles, and through the continental 

 divide, from Bas Obispo to Pedro 

 Miguel, a distance of about nine miles, 

 the bottom width is 300 feet. 



The total length of the canal from 

 deep water in the Caribbean, 41 -foot 

 depth at mean tide, to deep water in the 

 Pacific, 45-foot depth at mean tide, is 

 practically 50 miles, 15 miles of which 

 are at sea level. The variation in tide 

 on the Atlantic side is 2.5 feet as a 



maximum, and on the Pacific it is 21. 1 

 feet as a maximum. 



Provisions are made to amply protect 

 the entrances of the canal. During the 

 winter months occasional storms occur 

 on the Atlantic side, of such violence 

 that vessels cannot lie with safety in 

 Colon Harbor, and during the progress 

 of such storms entrance and egress from 

 the canal would be unspfe. To over- 

 come this condition, a breakwater will 

 extend out about two miles from Toro 

 Point in a northeasterly direction, which 

 will not only protect the entrance, but 

 will provide a safe harbor. Whether 

 protection on the east side will be ulti- 

 mately necessary is still an open ques- 

 tion. 



The Pacific entrance requires no pro- 

 tection from storms, but the set of the 

 silt-bearing current from the east is at 

 right angles to the channel and the silt- 

 ing made constant dredging necessary. 

 To prevent this shoaling a dike is being 

 constructed from the mainland at Balboa 

 to Naos Island, a distance of about four 

 miles ; the benefits derived from it are 

 already very marked. 



The projected lakes will submerge the 

 tracks of the Panama Railroad for the 

 greater part of its length, and as this 

 road is necessary for construction pur- 

 poses, and ultimately for the operation 

 and maintenance of the canal, it is being 

 reconstructed throughout, with the ex- 

 ception of a few miles at either end. It 

 was originally intended to pass the new 

 railroad through Culebra Cut on a berm, 

 10 feet above the water surface, to be 

 left for this purpose during the excava- 

 tion of the channel through the cut, but 

 the slides and the absolute necessity for 

 keeping open railroad communication 

 between the two ends of the line neces- 

 sitated a change in the location, and a 

 new line to the east of the cut has been 

 selected. 



In order to hold its concession the 

 French company continued work on the 

 canal up to the time that the United 

 States assumed control, and after the 

 transfer of rights and property was for- 

 mally made the excavation was carried 



