The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-01-19
PANAMA PUZZLE.
SHALL THERE BE A SEA-LEVEL
WATERWAY?

One Cut at Tidewater Level Would
Cost More and Take Longer to Build,
But In the End it Would be the Most
Efficient.
The investigations of the United
States engineers along the route of the
Panama Canal and in the watershed of
the Chagres River have raised the
question as to whether it would not be
more to the ultimate advantage of the
United States and of sea-going COM
nlerce in general to build the canal
on broader scale to meet the rapidly
growing dimensions of steamships, and
also whether it would not be wiser to
build it with a lower summit level, or
abolish the loekage system altogether,
and cut the canal through at one level
from ocean to ocean. Mr.. Wallace,
chief engineer of the Isthmian Canal
commission, has recently given testi-
mony before the House Committee on
Interstate and Foreign Commerce, in
which he discussed the relative advan-
tage of four distinct plans for building
the canal. Incidentally it was shown by
his testimony that the engineering diff
hculties at the site of the Bohio dam
would be greater than was formerly es-
timated. the more elaborate borings
that are now being made having shown
that the rock bottom is much lower
than was supposed, the latter borings
having been carried down to an aver
Of nf1 fao rxyffbn
bedrock.
The first plan is the one favored by
the former Canal Commission, which
calls for a dam at Bohio and a high
level canal with an elevation of 80 feet
above sea level
The second plan calls for 60-foot
summit level, with a dam go feet high
at Bohio, or else the construction of a
dam Of the same height at Gatun,
about halfway from Bohio to Colon,
the Atlantic terminus of the canal.
The adoption of 60-foot level will in
volve constructing a dam at Gamboa
to furnish water for the summit level
The Gamboa dam would control the
Chagres River; but it would necessi-
tate the provision of a spillway in the
shape of a tunnel eight miles in length
through the divide, to discharge the
surplus water of the Chagres into the
Pacific, or a tunnel four miles long to
carry these waters to the Atlantic. The
four-mile tunnel would involve the
!. construction of an auxiliary channel
for the Chagres from Gatun to the sea,
in order to carry its flood waters away
in safety. .-.
The third alternative plan contern-
plates a 30-foot summit level, with a
single lock at Miraf1ores, near the Pa
ciffc, and a single lock at Bohio. This
plan would also involve the construc-
ton of the Gamboa dam above referr-
ed to.
The fourth plan contempIates the
construction of a sea-level canal with
a tidal lock at Mirafiores, this lock be-
ing necessitated by the fact that there
is an extreme range in the tide of 20
--~fcet onst ne TaCfffc side, whereas the
fiuctuation is less than feet on the
Atlantic side. If no locks were built
on the Pacific end. the variations in
4 tide levels would produce strong cur
rents in the canal. which would rem
der navigation difficult.
The 90-foot level canal would cost
+ 5000, 100000 and take about 10 years
to complete; the 60-foot level canal
would cost $225,000, 600, and it could be
opened for traffic in 10 years and COM
pleted ini12 years; the 30-foot level
canal, which would cost $25G 900 900,
could be opened for traffic in u years
and completed in IL years; while the
sea level canal would cost $780, 1000, 900,
could be opened for traffic in Is years,
but would take 20 years to complete. In
all these estimates the controlling fac
tor, both as to cost and time of COM
pletion, is the great cut through the
mountain divide at Culebra, the
amount Of material that would have
to be removed increasing rapidly with
every foot that the summit level of the
canal is lowered.
The determination as to which of
these alternative schemes should be
adopted will call for most mature con-
siderations The problem must be look
ed at from the broadcast possible stand
point, and it must be treated in a duly
international spirit, and with a strict
eye to the future. Ships are now build
ing that call for full-load draft of be-
tween SO and 81 feet and two Of these
vessels are to have an extreme breadth
Of 81 feet 6inches. The two most i'm
portant questions relating to the canal,
if due consideration is given to the in
evitable growth in the size of steam
ships and in the volume of traffic, are
its section, that is to say, it's width
and breadth, and its summit elevation.
OF the two, the canal section is the
more important, and if the canal
should be cut on dimensions suf-
fieient not merely for existing deep
sea vessels, but for the larger vessels
of the future. The question of summit
level, as far as 1t affects future opera
ton Of che canal, is not of such vital
importance. since the difference be-
tween canal with locks and one
without is mainly question of. the
II time occupied in transit.
1t is certain that the raising by the
chief engineer of the question of al
tentative plans, among which sea-
level canal is given prominence, will
result in an agitation for the construc-
ton Of a great sea-level waterway,
which. by the way, was the original de
Lesseps idea. There is much to rec
ommend the larger plan. 1t gets rid