The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1909-04-15

sequence came of it
In 1849, however, the first company
was organized by Cornelius Vanderbilt
for the purpose of digging the Panama
Canal. He saw necessity for this canal
/ because of the fact that gold had been
. discovered in California. and, there be-
ing no transcOntinental railroad, and
hence many dangers IN crossing the
/ continent way of reaching the goldfields.
There would be but few dangers to go
( by ship around by Florida, through
canal in the ISthmus of Panama and up
the coast to California Mr.. Wander
/ bilt thought that this would be a good
investment; so he went to work. After
/ the company had spent about two mil
lion dollars, it asked aid from the gov
eminent but, being refused. work was
stopped.
Nothing more of any Importance was
| done until 1879, when a Panama Con-
gress was held in Paris. This congress
was attended by engineers from all the
| civilized world. A company was or
| ganzed and it decided to build a sea
level canal. They estimated the cost
/ at between sixty and one hundred and
| fifty million dollars. De Lesseps was
/ to build the canal and they gave him
/ one hundred sixty million dollars with
/ which to do it. This sum, however,
1 wash educed to one hundred and twenty
! million. He was to build the canal
/ twenty-nine and one half feet deep,
/ seventy-two to seventy-cight feet wide
at the bottom and ninety-tWo to one
! hundred and siXty-four feet wide at the
/ top. He employed the use of all the
/ latest machinery and expected TO
/ finish the q itch 1t very short
/ time. After working for about seven
/ years, the company found that after
/ spending nearly two hundred million
/ dollars the work was hut one third done
/ They therefore needed money badly so
/ they tried to bride for it and the result
| was the development Of one of the
| worst scanda $ in the history of France
1 besides thelbankruptcy Of the company.
/ A new company was organized III 1894
! but it was unable to continue the work
/ long.
/ In 1895 the United States government
authorized what it know as the Ludnow
/ Commission to look into the Panama
Canal progress put nothing much was
accomplished.
Then, in 1899 the Walker Commission
was sent to Panama to thoroughly eX-
anime prospects for canal. 1t report
| ed that the work that had been done
on the Canal was worth forty million
! dollars and the tools that were left
were useless.
France wanted one hundred and two
million four hundred thousand dollars
! for the work that De Lesseps had done
and the United States of Columbia
wanted ten million dollars in gold and
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
annually for nine years.
The government was undecided
whether to cut the canal through Lake
! Nicaragua or the way that De Lesseps
/ had started The House of Represen-
tatives passed a bill to the effect Of
having it go the Nicaraguan route but
it was rejected in the Senate Then a
law was passed having it go the original
| way.
France agreed to take forty million
| dollars. While all these investigations
and discussions were going on Panama
had declared herself independent Of
| United States of Columbia. Then she
let US have the privilege on the same
terms to which Columbia had agreed
By this time lock canal was decided
] y
| two thirds miles long, extending from
| where the water is six fathoms deep in
! Lemon Bay to where it is the same
depth in the Bay of Panama
| In March 1904 company was organic
ed with Walker at the head of it. In
one month they were beginning the
work which is still in progress.
| At the present time the work that is
/ l.
| tWenty-seven hundred men at work US
ing steam shovels that take twenty tons
Of dirt at a dip. Up to February, 1909,
| SiXty-twO million cubic yards of earth
had been removed leaving about one
| hundred eleven million cubic yards yet
| to be taken out. The most of the exca-
waiting has been done in Culebra Cut
This Cut is about nine miles long and
goes right through part of the Andes
Mountains. The amount of work that
is going on in that Cut is wonderful.
| They drilled twenty miles in lone month
for blasting. They use nine miles of
fuse and thousands of exploders with
about three and one half million pounds
of dynamite every month. In this way,
| with the aid of steam shovels they have
excavated l, 1868, 729 cubic yards of dirt
per month; reducing this it gives US 1876
cubic yards per minute. To carry
away this dirt it takes sixtv-two loco
motives eight hours a day. These
| figures show the immensely of the work
undertaken.
The cost of digging cubic yard of
dirt was eighty cents; but it has been
reduced to forty cents by improved
methods of work. In the same way the
cost of removing rock has been reduced
from two and one half dollars to fifty
cents cubic yard.
Another difficult part of this great
work is the building of the Gatum Dam.
| This dam is to be eight thousand feet
long, eighteen hundred feet thick and
one hundred thirty FIVE feet high. I'M
agine that if you can. This is to dam
up the River Charges and it will flood
an area of one hundred ten square miles
which is almost one sixth the area of
Garrett county.
Lately there was discussion about
this great dam. 1t was thought BY
some that there was a subterranean
lake under the site of the dam and that
it would sink. To confirm their opinions
the rock that was put in did sink, but it
proved to be nothing but the heavy rock
displacing the lighter mud and earth
This was one reason for President
Taft's trip to the canal this year. He
| took with him several eXpert engineers