The Savannah morning news., 1904-12-09
PANAMA CANAL onsrAcIEs.

Agitation has already begun in favor
Of sea-level canal at Panama. The
House Committee on Interstate and
| Foreign Commerce. that recently visit
ed Panama, came back pretty well con-
WINGED that there was a difficulty In
the way of lock canal not easy to
overcome, and that a sea-level canal
was the only kind of a canal that could
| be built. Senator Kittredge, who ac-
companied the committee to Panama,
entertains the same opinion, and is
making Roadway, so it is said, in the
! direction of converting the Senate to
this view.
The difficulty is the lack of a suit
able foundation for the projected dam
| across the Chagres river. The plan
that has been adopted calls for lock
canal, the water of the Chagres river
to be utilized in operating the locks.
But it seems that Mr.. Wallace, the
chief engineer, hasn't been able yet to
find foundation for the dam. He has
bored to the depth of 1876 feet on the
banks of the river without finding
rock, or anything resembling it. 1t is
said that it wouldn't be practicable to
go much deeper for a foundation.
The statement is made that Mr.. Wal
lace has a plan for taking care of the
water of the Chagres river in the
event a sea-level canal is finally de-
cided upon. The plan calls for tun-
mel through "a mountain. OF course the
water of the river must be taken care
of whether the lock plan or the sea-
level plan is adopted, but, as stated,
in the lock plan a great lake is to be
made by the construction of dam
across the river and the water used in
operating the locks.
No doubt Mr.. Wallace knows what
he is talking about when he says the
water of the river can be provided for
by means of "a tunnel, but how long
will it take to construct a tunnel, and
what will the additional cost of the
canal be? Besides the cost of excavat-
ing sea-level canal will be very much
greater than that of lock canal.
1t is probably within the bounds of
reason to say that if the plan is chang
ed the cost of the canal will be doubled
and the time of construction will be in
creased at least ten years.
And what assurance is there that Mr..
Wallace's plan for taking care of the
water of the river is practicable? One
statement is that the cost of the pro-
jected tunnel would be 100000, 900.
Estimates for great public works are
nearly always far below the real cost
When we purchased the property of
the Panama Canal Company we thought |
there was nothing in the way of the
construction of the canal that couldn't |
be overcome. The commission that in |
vestigated and reported upon the mat |
ter stated that the engineering diff |
culties could be mastered easily. And |
here, on the very threshold of the great |
work, we have 1t stated that there is |
doubt whether a foundation can be |
found for the Bohio dam that is to |
control the floods of the Chagres river |
and provide water for the locks; that |
1t looks as if the problem of getting rid |
or the rivers water will have to be |
solved in some other way and that the
canal will have to be a sea-leveI one. |
Had the French engineers discovered |
that lock canal was impractical on |
account of the impossibility of getting |
a foundation for a dam across the
Chagres river? And, if so, was our
commission that reported in favor of |
the Panama route in ignorance of the
fact? These are questions that will
be asked if the subject of changing to
a sea-level comes up in Congress, and
it looks now as if it will.