The sun., 1906-02-24
THE TRANsFORMARLE CANAL.
Another Letter Prom Prof. W. H. Burr.

Another Letter from frOi' W. H' D"''
To THE EpIroR OF THE SuN-Sir: the
marked courtesy which you showed 70 my
commun icatlo lon published In your ISSUE VI
this date, and which l highly apprec'a'e,
encourages me to address you again. not IN
the spirit OF cont roversy, because I believe
above all things that the 1sthmian Canai
situation should not be complicated or op.
scured by controversy. but simply 10 sho"
a little more fully II possible what trans
formabllty means In connection WIN the
recommended plan for tho Panama CahaL
II is obvious to every engineer AZ ieae,
that II Ia possible to transform any JOCK caha,
to sea level canal. as was formally et&teu
unanimously by the consulting board put
the truo or ressonab BILE feasibility OF such
transformation is another question oh
page 80 OF the Report OF the Board OF Con-
sultng Engineers there will be founo an
estimate OF tho cost Of Transforming ioch
canal Of essentially the same plan a. Una.
recommended the aggregate sum OF Wnioh
is S2Os. .esS. 900. without allowance Tor cohtih-
gencies and without any allowance TOT the
large sums OF money which would nave 10
be paid for the lands originally flooded by
the great terminal lakes OF the lock plan
II there be added to this the estimated cost
Of the recommends lock plan. amounting
to $3.50 705, 900, the partial cost OF the ultimate
sea level canal would be S3Is. 600 900. "hat
should be added to this sum to complete the
ultimate cost OF the sea level waterway
reached In this manner cannot be estimateo'
but 1t would be a very large amount.
heartily concur with you as to the wisdom
OF 80 constructing & lock canal. II such plan
Is to be adopted. that 1t can be ultimately
transformed to a sea level canal. l. e.. with
minimum Of difficulty and cost and concur
with you even more emphatically as TO the
wisdom OF what the President said last Sep
tember regarding the desrability OF ulti-
mately securing a sea level canal across tine
Isthmus Of Panama: but 1t seems to me that
the above official figures Of the consulting
board, in connection with the practically
indefinitely extended period over which the
work of transformation would be carried. to
say nothing Of q number Of other serious
considerations, such as Inconvenience 10
shipping during transformation. show that
the attainment Of that highly desirable end
cannot be considered feasible through the
final adoption Of the recommended plan;
also that the consulting board Is justified in
expressing its judgment that "the cost and
difficulty OF such transformation would be
90 great as to render such change imprao-
ticable from a financial standpoint until the
traffic should have so increased as TO tax the
capacity Of the lock canal or until other good
and suficent reasons existed for such
change" and that III sea level canal Ia to
be constructed in the near 1uture II Should
be built directly without frst building lock
canal
1t should also be borne in mind in conneo-
tion with the recommended plan that any
enlsr rgenient whatever OF the prism. either
vertically or horizontally. does not mean an
increased capacity to the extent OF even one
ton Of traflc. The capacity OF the proposed
lock plan is limited by the size and number
Of the locks. Until. therefore. the capacity
Of the looks to pass trafhc Is increased, the
traffic capacity Of the canal as whole will
remain unchanged. WILLIAM Fl. BURR.
NEW YORK, Feb az.