Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-06-28
A GIGANTIC UNDERTAKING.
Survey Of Work to be Done on Pana.
ma Canal.

ma Canal.
DR.. G.. A. Stephens, who has been
we'll known for a generation as a wri-
ter of stories of adventure for boys,
has recently visited Panama, where he
has had excellent opportunities for OBJ
serving the great project the nation
has undertaken there.
Americans speak glibly Of the possi-
bility of a tide-level canal at Panama.
OF this DIR. Stephens says: 1T Is not
all easy matter to estimate the exact
amount of earth which would have to
be removed to get a clear channel
across the Isthmus, thirty-five feet be-
low low tide at Colon and at LaBoca
on the Bay Of Panama. But computing
1t at the various levels, step by step
up to the Culebra, through this vast
cut and beyond, deducting what the
French appear to have done, we OBJ
tain 446, 100000 cubic yards as a very
conservative estimate Of what remains
to be removed in order to have an
open ditch from ocean to ocean, lou
| feet wide at the bottom, with 80 rect
of standing water In 1t. AS to the
length of time required, we have to
guide US only what the new French
company have done. 1t is agreed on
all hands, however, that they have
worked with fair degree Of diligence
and with honesty.
During their most successful year,
1897, the new company employed $500
men and removed, mainly in the Guile
bra cut, 100000 cubic metres, chiefly
earth. This was by far the best ever
done by the French. Adding 40 per
cent to this 100000 metres, for better
American methods and better ma
chimes, and assuming that the United
States will employ 10000 laborers In
place Of $500, we find that to remove
the 341,6OO,OO0 cubic metres forty-six
years and nine days will be required,
or until 1851. BY employing 10000 la
borers the work might be done In
about thirty-one years. More than
| &c, 900 men could not be advantageous
ly worked there. At best, therefore,
allowing nothing for contingencies or
accidents, a tidewater canal at Pana-
ma could not be completed before 1896
so that few of the present generation
would see it.
Immense Cost Of Tidewater Canal.
LAS to the cost of tidewater canal
at Panama, reckoning laborers' wages
at only a dollar a day, and the sala-
ries of engineers, foremen, ETC., at
equally reasonable rates; adding pres
ent cost, figures for machinery, tools,
explosives, transportation, hospital
equipment and maintenance, with the
thousand other minor expenses, and to
this the interest on the money as used
for thirty years, at per cent; I am
unable to find the amount called for
to construct a tidewater canal at less
than s570,O0O,O00, or adding the price
of the canal from the French company,
500 900, ,OOO."
Magnitude Of the Project.
DR.. Stephens in other ways makes
more distinct than do the formal re-
ports the size of the project to which
we are already committed. The Guile
bra cut he describes as the greatest
thing Of its kind ever undertaken by
man. When complete it will be three
ffths Of mile wide at the top, falling
off to a width Of $50 feet at the bottom,
into which the great lake made by the
dam at Bohio will flow back, filling 1t
to a depth Of 35 feet. From the top
Of the Culebra on the north side OF
the cut the depth will be nearly or
quite 400 feet.
These figures, he says, convey little
idea of the tremendous quantity of
earth and rock which must be remov-
ed. It is not until one descends into
this vast trench and marks how tiny
the locomotives and great excavators
look when seen in the prodigious
depth and breadth Of the excavation
| that conception Of the herculean la
Dor dawns on the mind. 1t Is like
Niagara, and must be contemplated
for awhile. At first sight it might
be thought that a thousand men, oper-
ating 80 or 100 Of these steam excava-
tors, would dig 1t out In a year; but
by the time the visitor has walked and
climbed about the cut for an hour or
two he can readily believe that the
task may occupy 5000 men, with ma
chimes, for ten years.
The temperature in the cut he de-
scribes as intense. The lofty, bare
sides Of the excavation accumulate heat
like the walls of an oven. The seeth-
ing steam boilers add to the calorific
glow. 1t makes the eyeballs ache and
the lungs feel dry and hot.
1T is no place." says DR.. Stephens.
"for a white mans unprotected head.
A cork helmet, or green umbrella, or
both, are necessary to his safety. 1t
makes me shudder to think Of the hu-
man suffering implied by ten years of
labor here on the part Of 5000 men.
But only at the price of all this toll can
stately vessels steam through the
Culebra.
The French Canal company has re-
moved much earth here, but vastly
more remains to be taken out. With
the lights strung along the cutting, the
men of the night shift would have by
far the easier days work. for then the
terrible sun rays would be absent, and
the cooler night wind would be blowing
through the trench. Indeed, If but one