Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-07-10

generally known as the pet scheme, al
though there have been many in the
last century. These include ship rail
ways to carry bodily loaded vessels
through the Cordilleras a tunnel which
would admit the passage of a vessel of
any size; schemes for sea-level ca
nails. Of the first of these plans the
route across Mexico by Tehauntepec is
an example; of the second, a route be-
low Panama (the recently revived Da-
rien route; of the third. Nicaragua,
particularly and the last, Panama
A Sea-leVel canal was De Lesseps'
original idea for the Panama canal;
but it has given way to one of locks,
the difference in the height of tides on
the two coasts making a level canal
impossible
The summit level of the Panama
railway is 287 feet above sea level, and
the route from Porto Bello or Chagres
to old or new Panama has been an es-
tablished line of communication since
1853, nearly coeval with the first set
Element in America. In 1S43 a survey
was made by the French engineer, M.
Garella, and George M. Totten, chief
engineer of the Panama railroad. sub
sequently made an estimate for a ca
nal with locks, to cost from $50 900 900
to $15, 900 600, according to the sum
NIT level adopted.
In 1879 Count Ferdinand de Lessons
appealed to the several nations to send
delegates TO proposed congress to
meet in Paris to decide upon a route
and the plan for a canal between the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Twenty
four countries were represented at the
congress. which met May Is Of that
year. The congress decided that a ca
nal with constant level was desir-
able and that this canal should be bv
way of Limon bay to Panama
Soon afterward the Universal Inter
oceanic Canal company was organized
under the French law for building the
canal under a concession previously
granted to Lieut. N. B. Wyse by the
ID
him to Count de Lesseps.
The total length of the canal as pro
1ected is 1900 miles, the heaviest cut
tlng-that in the Culebra-is $50 feet,
The route in general follows that of
the Panama railroad. On the Atlantic
side the greatest obstacle is the
Chagres river. 1t was originally in
tended to dam back this river and car
ry its floods to the sea by an artificial
channel. but the great cost and doubt
ful practicahility of the plan led to it's
abandonment The total amount of
material to be excavated in the canal
proper is 43,000,000 cubic yards. and.
with the lateral cuts for the Chagres
river, not including those required for
the Chagres dam at Gamboa, is 49,
100000 cubic yards, or total of $780,
100000 cubic yards.
The original estimated cost made by
the Panama canal congress was $780,
0o0,000. At the close of the year 1888
the amount expended was $500, COO 900.
with not more than one-third OF the
work completed. 1t was found impos-
s1ble to raise any more money, except
by lottery loan, and work ceased on
the isthmus in 1889. A commission
sent out by the French government re-
ported that it would cost $342 900 900
to complete the canal, which was then
placed in the hands of a receiver, who
in 1890 estimated that it would REQUIRE
$6O0,000,O00 to complete the work at
sea level. Including the $40 600 600
asked by the canal company for its
concessions, it is now estimated the
cost of completion will be $1s4, 233,S 5S,
which is $3.50, 704 less than the esti-
mate by the Nicaragua canal.
In order to save some of the $780,
100000 De Lesseps' company spent,
and to retain the valuable concessions
granted it, the receivers of the old or
ganlzed new company. The stock
was purchased by the directors of the
original company, who hoped by furth-
er subscription to save part of their
original investments. Thirteen millions
of dollars was all, however, they were
willing to invest, and this only II DAYS
before the expiration of the original
concession. An extension of the time
limit for completion to 1910 was Sc
cured.
The new company did not waste the
S15,000,OOO in mere show on soft
ground, but, in contrast to it's prede-
cessors, made every dollar tell in the
hope of retrieving lost confidence. or
falling to secure further Investments
as it did, to make the partly built ca.
nal more valuable when the CLAYTON
Bulwer treaty should be abrogated and
the United States should enter the
field as possible purchaser.
The Clayton-Bulwer treaty "reIative
to the establishment of a communica
ton by ship canal between the Allan
tic and the Pacific oceans" signed ir
1850, was, it will be remembered the
cause of some terrible suggestions il
congress. 1t was long, tedious tasI
to get Great Britain to substitute tn,
HayPauncefote treaty for that decla
ration by the governments of the Unit
ed States and Great Britain tina
neither one nor the other will ever oh
tain or maintain for itself any exclu
sive control over the said ship canal.
War was several times suggested las
year, but President Roosevelt's frs
message bore the tidings: 81 am gla
to be able to announce to you that on
nnUntiQf1nnC &c