Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-07-07

The Panama canal route has been
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
from sea to sea; schemes to cut
through the COrdilleras 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, route be-
low Panama (the recently revived Da-
Tien route of the third. Nicaragua,
particularly, and the last, Panama.
A sea-leveI 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 1843 a survey
was made by the French engineer, M
Garella, and George M. Totem chief
engineer of the Panama railroad, sub
seQuentIy made an estimate for a ca
nal with locks, to cost from $50, 00O, 900
to $115, 000,0 900, according to the sum-
NIT level adopted.
In 1879 Count Ferdinand de Lesseps
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 a constant level was desir-
able and that this canal should be by
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 concession previously
granted to Lieut.. N. B. Wyse by the
government Of Colombia and sold by
uILA W COulC UG I6SSGpS.
The total length of the canal as pro
jected is 1900 miles, the heaviest cut
ting-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 it's floods to the sea by an artificial
channel, but the great cost and doubt
full practicability of the plan led to it's
abandonment. The total amount of
material to be eXcayated in the canal
proper is 143,000,000 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 a total of 150,-
100000 cubic yards
The original estimated cost made by
the Panama canal congress was $780,
100000. At the close of the year 1888
the amount expended was 5000 GOO 600.
with not more than one-third OF the
work completed. 1t was found impos-
sible 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, 600, 900
TO complete the canal, which was then
placed in the hands of a receiver, who
IN 1890 estimated that it would require
$6OO,OOO,O00 to complete the work at
sea level. Including the $40, 600 900
asked by the canal company for it's
concessions, it is now estimated the
cost OF completion will be $184, 253,3 1858,
which is $5,630,704 less than the esti-
mate by the Nicaragua canal
In order to save some of the 5000 :
100000 De Lesseps' company spent.
sand to retain the valuable concessions
granted it, the receivers of the old or
ganized a 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
NAOA'AS14' Ill16
limit for completion to 1910 was Sc
cured.
The new company did not waste the
$13,000000 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,
failing 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
held as possible purchaser.
The Clayton-Bulwer treaty relative
TO the establishment of a communica-
ton by ship canal between the Allan
tic and the Pacific oceans" signed in
1850, was, it will be remembered, the
cause OF some terrible suggestions in
congress. IT was n IOpor