The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-09-09
CANAL A GIGANTIC TASK
cURVEY OF WORK TO EE DONE
IN PANAMA.

Cut the Biggest Work of the Kind
Ever Undertaken.
Dr. G. A. Stephens, who has been
well known for generation as a
writer 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, writes the
Washington correspondent of the New
York Post.
Americans speak glibly of the posi-
bility of tide-level canal at Panama.
OF this DR.. Stephens says ut is not
an easy matter to estimate the exact
amount of earth which would have to
be removed to get clear channel
across the Isthmus, IS feet below tide
at Colon and at La Boca on the Bay of
/ Panama. But computing it at the va
!, rious levels, step by step up to the
Culebra, through this vast cut and be-
beyond, deducing what the French ap-
pear to have done, we obtain 100000
GOO cubic yards, as a very conserva-
tive estimate of what remains to be
removed in order to have an open
ditch from ocean to ocean, $50 feet
wide at the bottom with 35 feet of
standing water in it. 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
a fair degree of intelligence 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, fer better
American methods and better ma
chimes, and assuming that the United
States will employ 10000 laborers in
place of 5000, we find that to remove
the 100000 cubic metres forty-six
years and nine days will be required,
or until 1851. By employing 10000 Ia
borers the work might be done in
about thirty-one years. More than
10000 men could not be advantageous
ly worked there. At best therefore,
allowing nothing for contingencies or
accidents, tide-water canal at Pana-
ma could not be completed before
, 1850 that few of the present gen.
feration would see it.
Immense Cost of Tidewater Canal.
"As to the cost of a tidewater canal
OF Ioh
at only dollar day, and the salaries
of engineers, foremen, etc., at equally
reasonable rates; adding present cost,
figures for machinery, tools, explo-
sives, transportation, hospital equip
ment and maintenance, with the thou
sand other minor expenses, and to this
the interest on the money as used for
thirty years, at percent; | am un-
able to find the amount called for to
construct tidewater canal at less
than $50, 100000, or, adding the price
of the canal from the French company,
500 100000"
Magnitude of the Project.
DR. Stephens in other ways makes
more distinct than do the formal re-
ports the size of the project in which |
we are already committed. The Guile |
bra cut he describes as the greatest |
thing of it's kind ever undertaken by |
man. When complete it will be three
fifths of mile wide at the top, falling
off to a width of $50 feet at the bot
tom, into which the great lake made |
by the dam at Bohio will flow back, |
filling it to a depth of 35 feet. From
the top Of the Culebra on the north
side of the cut the depth will be near
ly or quite 400 feet
These figures, he says, convey little
idea of the tremendous quantity of |
earth and rock which must be re-
moved. 1t is not until one descends
into this vast trench and marks how
tiny the locomotives and great steam
excavators look when seen In the pro-
digious depth and breadth OF the ex-
cavation that a conception of the her
culean labor dawns on the mind. 1t
is like Niagara, and must be contem-
plated for awhile. At first sight it
might be thought that a thousand men,
operating 80 or 100 of these steam ex-
cavators, would dig it out in 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