The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-02-11
lA(i|IiamQ y MnAnllItu
THE PANAMA CANAL.
The Work Of This Immense Artificial
Waterway is steadily Advancing.
127 Wyoming Avenue,

The Work Of This Immense Artificial
Waterway steadily Advancing.
From the New orleans Picayune.
There is not the slightest doubt that
the Panama canal will be an accom-
plished fact within ten years." said AL
fred Ahrling. civil engineer, of Stock
holm, Sweden, who is stopping at the
Cosmopolitan, to the Picayune repre-
sentative last night.
Mr. Ahrling spent three years as one
of the civil engineers of the great pro-
ject and only recently severed his con-
nection 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 adroitness and remarkable
economy and system" said he to the
Picayune man. And l am free to say
that if the first company had husband
ed it's $500. 900 600 which it expended on
this project the Panama canal would
he very, very near completion today
There was great deal of waste, as the
world knows pretty generally, in this
first management, and the evidences
of this waste are, in fact, to be seen
even unto today. NJ. Hutn is now the
director general. and NJ Mauge the
manager-in-chief. Their adminstra-
tion thus far reflects greatest credit
upon their ability and Judgment. With
the means at hand, which are COM
paratively slender, they are accomplish
ing wonders. They have spent about
S5,000,000 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 enter
prise shall not be forthcoming.
THE work is row being concentrated
upon the mountain ridge between En-
perador and Merofioures, a stretch of
which Culebra is the center and about
the highest point to be cut through.
The hills along here rise to a height of
some six hundred feet, and about two
hundred feet have been shaved off this
altitude. They are of sandstone ma
ture and blasting is done to advant-
age. The entire stretch yet to be cut
through is about nineteen miles, for
the canal on the Atlantic side has been
completed to Bohlia, and on the Pacific
to Merohoures.
THE Water-level plan, which was
that first figured on, has been aban-
ing to later and better-advised engin-
GERS. to be divided by seven locks. sta
toned at intervals. This is done for
the reason that the difference in the
tide of the Atlantic and the Pacific is
something in the neighborhood of twen-
ty-two feet. The tide on the Pacific
coast rises to twenty-four feet, while
that on the Atlantic rises to only two,
and it would consequently result that
If the Water-eleVel plan We're adopted,
there would at one time be an ungoV-
ernable flood pouring in from the Pan
anna 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
a series of locks. Two are placed at
the Atlantic and Pacific outlets, and
there are five of them in the interVen.
ing space. To Bohlo, on the Atlantic
side, the canal is filled with water from
the gulf, and to Merohoures. 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 Atlantic 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 wher
these works are completed for the heav.
lest 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 intel
ligence and capital of the world arr
going to allow this huge enterprise
which means so much to the cOmmerc,
of all nations, to lag for the lack o
funds. 1t is too nearly completed, anc
there is a possibility Of its completion
in the too immediate future. If tn,
work is continued under such direction
as that it at present enjoys. the tim,
is not far distant from its completion.