The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-16

Isthmian Canal project naturally di-
 vtdes itseif into two parts. At the two
 ends they are simply digging big ditch-
 es forty-ive feet deep and 500 feet
 wide. which will have the same surface level as the ocean itself On the Att,
 iantie side this big ditch starts at deep water in Lim6n Bay and extends | seven miles to Gatun. On the Pacific | side 1t starts at deep water and ex. | tends to Mirahores. a distance of five I miles. From this 1t will be seen that
 approximately one-fourth of the whole canal will be big sea-IeveI ditch. For | the remaining thirty eight miles of the canal it is necessary to have the sur
 face of the water eighty-fiye feet hish- | CT than that Of the sealevel ends Of l the canal in order to get ships safely
 across the big continental divide at cuiebra. To get this the engineers have planned a great dam at Gatun, on the Atlantic side. and two relatively smaller ones at the Pacific side. one at Pedro Miguel called by the Americans Peter McGitl" and the other at Mira | flores. These dams will make vast lake shaped something like gourd, with the little end at Pedro Miguel, the handle being the Culebra Cut.
 The topography of the Isthmus lends itself admirably to the plans of the en- gineers. The Chagres River flows more than half way across the Isthmus along the general line of the canal crossing
 the line Of the big ditch twenty-three
 times on its way to the sea. without the canal ever going out of It's way to
 meet the river. All of these cross ings will of course be eliminated when
 the dam is completed, and with all or its windings. the ChagresI will not be able to wind out of the big Gatun Lake.
 The Chagres flows down through
 valley which gradually widens as it hears the sea. At Gatun this valley is
 about a mile wide. It terminates eH losing themselves in . coastal plain. ii is across the valley at this point that they are building the Gatun Dam ana It's accompanying locks. This dam VIII be a veritable mountain Of mud more than a mile long and q haf a mile
 wide at the base. It VIII De lso leeS ~ high. ready to dispute the passage oL inc grim old Chagreg, taking rom ns murky waters such toll as Uncle sam ard tha commerce of the world may sract This toll win be big enough Id m the largest artificial lake m tne world-a lake whose water surisoe area will be about 1oo sQuare n n1,a. naighhora have filled the lake to the rsnYired height the dam will allow tne rsst If the water to pass throu9n Ns anIiIway and on to the sea- wltnouss Surther Interruption the only oeHlanu .n heinz that 1t shall not approach sno line of the canal agaln. ent
 words it's vagrant waters VIII pc % sSn.- ~ncsd to the canal workhouse ana when shst Is filled to overfiowing. they VII VII Sa' invited 10 leave town" aS once pS | tue spillway route .Ao rrohlen Alter we have the lake, the proDien. pna. | ia to get ships up into 1t and oowh s oas l of it. They cannot go over .seoa tne uoA |
 otthar can they get up Into 1t as q
 asb wiRRles himself up over mn mn | Sar, Here is where the locks come
 Sn Thev are nothing more compieA | than a sort of Brobagandian maIlne l stairway for ships to climb. At finn there are three of these sisanliS
 stans GOO feet wide in the clear. Ano
 sSins do not like to pass on single stairway they have put partitlon in
 Ina middle of the big staircase so that | tbav 40 not need to run Into one an othsr. This partition is no small | boarded up affair, either. It IS or eon- crete and is fifty feet across atm l base and tapers up to twenty ies.. es Even with this big partition m the | r,iSdla of the staircase they will not nave to rub against the wall since thev have no feet of the clear;
 When a ship comes in from the AL lantic and wants to get into Gatun ! Lake in order to make her way acEoSS | the Isthmus, she will steam into tnS | lower lock- The big water sates s,,, WIZ sa | he closed behind her and water VIII pc 1 admitted into the lock from the oam | shove through innumerable holes In the | floor. When ahe has been lifted to the level of the next lock she goes lnto | that one and the operation IS repeated until she finds that she has climbed up eighty five feet in three steps snip ! "a tOnmOSI 1 locks gates opened and she goes into | it. Then the water Is allowed to How | into the next one until they have a l common water level Then the gate 1 ahead Is opened and the ship goes into | this lock where the performance Is re- | peated until she finds herself at sea- l level again.
 | If anyone has any doubts about the
 success of the Gatum Dam project, let | him come down here and see what IS | being done and how they are doing II. Doubting Thomas would have believed
 on less evidence than one sees here'
 With that thoroughness and attention to detail which has made the army en-
 glneers the peers of any lot or engi-
 neers on earth. Colonel Goethals ana I Major Sibert have indeed eliminated l all the elements of chance by tnnum- l erable proofs. For inRtance, they nave
 built a cross section of Gatum dam on ! Q scale or one men ko tuO AOpts UeAh6
 IdenticalIy the same materials that are going into the big dam. and in the
 same way They have put the propor-
 donate water pressure against 1t, and
 are noting the results. Through all
 thIs cross section only an occasional
 dron of water comes out into the basin
 they have arranged to catch 1t. And
 when a drop does come out 1t is as
 clear as any water that ever passed
 through q filtration bed. If the water
 of the Gatum Lake Is to honeycomf
 and eat away the heart of the Gatun
 Dam as critics have prophesied, 1t will
 have to reverse every law of experi
 mental engineering to do so.
 But even this experiment-a thor
 ouRh enough one for any couimercia,
 nrna in the world to accept the deduc-
 tlonS from 1t as established facts-doel knot satisfy the army engineers. They
 have arranged 8 large number of aux
 iIIary experiments. In one of these
 they have an iron cylinder, some foul
 feet high and some eight inches in di.
 anneter. Into this they have put thre'
 feet of the earth of which they pro
 pose so build the big dam. They have