Omaha daily bee., 1910-05-14


six inches below mean water, with a max
imum variation of eighteen inches. Should
a deeper channel ever become necessary.
however, by reason of a much greater in
crease In the draft of ships than is now
anticipated, 1t would be a simple matter to
dredge to any further required depth, and
that without any interruption OF canal
traffic. Two breakwaters will be built off
Colon to protect the canal entrance and to
make passage possible even during the
violent "northers'' which sweep in at times
during the winter months.
The Pacific Entrance.
The nne-mie sea level channel at the
Pacific end has also already been mainly
completed and in much the same way as
the Atlantic division, by dredging through
the swamps and boys Of the coast lowlands.
On both ends together, however, between
twelve and fourteen dredges are still at
work, some of them old French machines
and two of the present suction form-big
ocean steamers, they look like-now in use
in New York harbor.
A four-mile breakwater is being thrown
out to one of the small off-shore islands,
rot on account of storms, for they seldom
blow on this coatst, and never with any vio-
lence, but to prevent shoaling of the chan
mel from slit-carrying cross currents. That
breakwater is we'll toward completion.
The most peculiar thing of all about the
Pacific end of the canal as compared with
the Atlantic, is that here yne tide has a
daily rise and fall of from twenty to TWEEN
ty-two feet eleven feet above and eleven
feet below mean water. That means MOTH
inpF 70 Y,a1
except that the 5OO-foot channel will be
given a depth four feet greater than that
of the Atlantic entrance. to allow for the
passage of deeply laden vessels at ebb
tide.
The real ditch digging part of the work
is at what has come TO be known as the
Culebra cut. extending for the nine miles
from Bias Obispo to Pedro Miguel. Here
the range of the Cordlleras, which is the
connecting link between the Andes and the
Rockies, runs down to only a little more
than 300 feet above sea level. On the
Pacific side the slope is sudden, on the
Atlantic rather more gentle; but In the
nine-mile thickness Of the range there was
in the first place a whole lot of material
to be taken. There is yet--but not so
much.
CuIebra Cut.
The proposition of taking a 3O0-foot hill
and cutting a pie-shaped piece out of 1t
down to forty feet above the seattle water
SUI face is TO be eighty-fove feet, but the
canal will be forty-five feet deep-and to
have the bottom Of that slice a full
300 feet wide, that is a good deal of Job.
One hundred million cubic yards of rock
and dirt, to be exact. One can hardly
realize the magnitude of the work without
seeing it with his own eyes.
There Is now a rough average of about
| forty feet, or slightly over, still to he taken
out of the nine miles OF the ditch, from
! little or nothing at the two ends to about
seventy-five feet at the highest point. And
that means that some work has been
done.
Between the cut and the Gatum dam
there will have to be little excavation
merely the looping off of few knobs here
and there near the rise of the continental
slope. For the first eight miles In from
Gatun there will be no digging at all: IN
near Bias Obispo at the foot of the hills
the French did good deal OF excavsting
which will prove most useful. But for all
of the twenty-three miles OF what will be
open lake the work is to all intents fin.
ished. The hardest digging here was sim.
pier even than the work on several canal.
which have been built in the eastern states
There were a couple of Sivers to control
rivers which would rise higher than tn,
canal excavations, but II was only a mat
ter Of two or three feet, and that wa,
simple.
Locks and Dams.
The key pieces OF the whole canal ar,
the dams and locks-the dam and doubl,
flight at Mirafores, the twin single-lif
lock at Pedro Miguel, and more than botl
of these the great dam and triple fligh
Of locks at Gatun. The locks Throughout
the line of the waterway will be uniform
the two minor dams are but little out o.
the ordinary. And so a general description
OF the work and progress at Gatun SHOULD
give a fair idea OF the whole work
Gatun is the Atlantic water gateway OF
the isthmus. Here IL is that two or thret
good-sized rivers-the Chagres and the
Gatuncilla and several others-pour In to-
gether and swirl out between two low-lyinl
! ranges OF hills inlo the Caribbean. Bach
Of Gatun the country spreads out for mile,
Of bog and swamp and soggy morass, tn,
territory which will form the bed OF tn,
new lake Mature could hardly have de
} signed better place for a gigantic dan
and spillway and a flight OF locks.
: Across the 1900 feet between those tw,
low ranges the dam is being thrown,
/ dam lis feet high and over a third OF ,