Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-26
THE PANAMA CANAL.
The Work This Immense Artificial
Waterway is Steadily Advancing.


FIom the New Orleans Picayrne.
There is not the slightest doubt that the
Panama canal will be an accomplished fact
within ten years. said Alfred Ahrlins, civil
engineer, Of Stockholm, Sweden, who is
stopping at the Cosmopolitan, to the Pic
ayune representative last night.
Mr.. Ahrling spent three years as one of
the civil engineers of the great project and
only recently severed his connection with
the new Panama Canal Company, which is
now prosecuting the work. he says, with a
force of about two thousand men.
THE work is being now advanced with
great adrotness and remarkable economy
and system" said he to the Picayune man.
And l am free to say that if the first
company had husbanded its S.,n,tsED, 900
which it expended on this project the Pam
anna canal would be very, very near COM
pietion today. There was a great deal Of
waste, as the world knows pretty general
ly, in this first management. 2nJ the evil
denceS OF this waste are, in fact. to be seen
even unto today. NJ. Hutin is now the di-
rector general, and NJ Mauge the manager
in-chief. Their administration thus far re-
fleets greatest credit upon their ability and
Judgment. With the means at hand which
are comparatively slender, they are ac-
comprising wonders. They have spent
about IS 600, 600 up to date and if the funds
hold out little longer there is no doubt
that the work Will be successfully brought
to a close, and it cannot be possible that
the funds for the enterprise shall not Ee
forthcoming
The work is now being concentrated
upon the mountain ridge between Empera-
dor and Merofioures, stretch of which
Culebra is the center and about the highest
point TO be cut through. The hills along
here rise to a height &C some six hundred
feet, and about two hundred feet have been
shaved off this altitude. They are of
sandstone nature. and blasting is done TO
advantage The entire stretch yet to be
cut through is about nineteen miles, for the
canal on the Atlantic side has been COM
pleted to Bohlia, and on the Pacific to
MerofloureS
THE water-level plan, which was that
first figured on, has been abandoned and
the canal will have, according TO later and
better-advised engineers, TO be divided by
seven locks, stationed at intervals. This is
done for the reason that the difference in
the tide of the Atlantic ard the Pacific is
something in the neighborhood of twenty
two feet. The tide on the Pacific coast rises
to twenty-four feet, while that on the At
lantic rises 70 only two, and it would con-
sequently result that, if the water-levci
plan vert adopted, there would at one limo
be an ungovernabie flood pouring in from
the Panama entrance on the Pacific side.
and at another an ebb which would leave
the ships high and dry on the land.
There has consequently been devised
series Of locks. Two are placed at the At
lanuc and Pacific outlets, and there are five
of them in the intervening space. To Bob
lo. on the Atlantic side, the canal is filled
with water from the gulf. and 10 Nero
floures, on the Pacific side the canal is
filled with the water of the Pacific ocean.
The lock is opened at Panama when the
tide is coming in, and allowed to fill the
canal. and when it begins to ebb it is closed
down, allowing the water to remain inside.
The same thing is to be done on the Allan
tic side. The intermediate sections. which
are held in the embrace of the locks are
supplied by the water of the Rio Grande
and Chagres rivers.
There will be sufficient water when these
works are completed for the heaviest ship
in existence or ever to be made, as science
calculates. The depth of the canal will be
fifty feet.
1T is hardly possible that the intelligence
and capital of the world are going to allow
this huge enterprise, which means so much
to the commerce of all nations, to lag for
the lack of funds. 1t is too nearly COM
pleted, and there is possibility of its COM
pletion in the too immediate future. If the
work is continued under such direction as
that 1t at present enjoys, the time is not
far distant from its completion