The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-12-03

Washington, D. C., Dec. 3-The
 Panama Canal as it is today-as President Taft saw it upon the trip to the Zone from which he has just returned-presents the most marvellous engineering feat in the world because of its magnitude and it's bearing upon the future history of the Nations of the Earth.
 The Executives plan in inspecting the Isthmus was to gain first-hand knowledge of working conditions there. to confer with those on the ground as to future Legislation, to re- flute baselesS rumOrs of the contem- plated annexation of the Republic of Panama. to stimulate the diggers to renewed efforts, and to bring back
 that are soon to be made public in his annual message to Congress.
 Astonishing progress has been made in the canal work in the P month nee President Taft-then President elect-was last on the Zone. The work is on such gigantic scale that heretofore it has required the train ed mind of an engineer to trace the course of the ditch. It should be stated at the outset that the Panama Canal will be more of an artificially constructed river than the pr;m, reg
 ularly cut canals. with which the average American $ familiar. When which will suggest that it is a canal will be the locks. and dam spillways, of concrete. For the remainder of the distance. the interoceanic canal will appear merely as river. winding through canyons and valleys.
 At the present time 1t is predicted by canal officials that the canal will be completed by December, 1913. This does not mean that it will be actually in use by that time. It will require rainy season-eight or nine months to store up water to fill the ditch, Chief Engineer, desires that the force of men who will operate the locks and handle the vessels passing through the canal shall have several months in which to become expertly proficient in their work. The canal will be ready for commercial business by Jan. 1. 1915-the date set a year or more ago.
 The date of completion of the can al depends upon the continuance of the present speed of excavation in the so-called Culebra cut. Save for this, there is very little real digging to be done The locks and dams are more nearly completed than the Culebra cut. Upon maintenance of the present rate of progress here, and minimum of set backs, caused by caving in of the banks of ithe cut, depends the realization of the prophecy that the canal will be ready for use on Jan uary !. 1915.
 The Panama Canal is of the so-call- ed lock type, with SIX locks to obtain a height of S5 feet. The future At lantic to Pacific liner will enter a channel with bottom width of 800 feet. at Port Lirnon. around Colon. It will steam seven miles through the river-like canal. to Gatum. Here 1t will enter a series of three locks and be lifted S5 feet to the level of Ga tum lake. It will sail at full ocean speed over @ marked channel of from 1000 to 800 feet in width in this ar tificially constructed body of water for about A miles to Bas Ob spo. Here 1t will enter the Culebra cut. The cut extends for nine miles and the channel will have a bottom width of 300 feet Pedro Miguel stands at the Pacific end of the cut and here the vessel will enter a lock and be low cred 30 1-2 feet to small lake over which there is a sail of 1 1-2 miles, to Miraflores. At this point ser es of locks will lower the vessel 54 2-3 feet to the level of the Pacific Ocean, and it will sail out to sea through a channel, 8 1-2 miles in length and with a bottom width of 500 feet. Great locks, coaling stations, machine shops, and supply stations will be located at either end of the canal. From deep water on the Atlantic to deep water on the Pacific the distance will be about 50 1-2 miles.
 Canal building suggests digging, and it is for this reason that perhaps the most interesting portion of the Pan anna work to the layman. is that be- ing done in the Culebra cut. The task here is a severing of the backbone of two continents. The same chain of mountains that twists through the far west in "The States" and IS known as the Rockies appears in dwarf form on the slender link between the North and South American Continents to break out later, in majestic peaks and mountains grandeur. as the Andes, in South America. The seHering of the backbone of two continents Is a Gar gantuan surgical operation of nine miles of cutting. The French did a portion of the work, but on a small scale. At present horde of steam shovels is eating away the ground, dirt trains hustle back and forth car rying the debris, and there is con stant roar of blasting, for much or the cut is through black, volcano rock.
 At the bottom of the Culebra cut will have a width of 300 feet. From the lowest level the side walls slope up gradually to the banks. It IS here that the greatest difficulty is encoun- tered in canal digg' ng, from cave-lns of the banks. Much of the volcanic rock disintegrates under the action Of the air, and the side walls slide down to the bottom. There is no preventive measure against such accidents. All there is to do is to remove the slide. Eventually the slope at the sides will be so gentle, after hundreds of slides, that there will be no danger. Mean while they occur daily. and down . on the canal the engineers shrug thelr shoulders philosoph, cally and get down and sweat in moving the extra dirt. Up in the States citizens who don't knew better shake their heads and prophecy dire things.
 By the time the canal is completed, the passenger on a liner utilizing 1t will probably never not ce the famous Gatum Dam-notwithstandin It IS one of the marvels of multitude Of gigantic engineering feats on the Isth- mus. The beholder will see the dam as natural mountain, providentlaliy placed by Almighty hands to hold the fake in check. As a matter of fact, it is a mountain but built by human hands with infinite care and patience
 The Gatum dam will impound the waters of Gatum Lake, an irregularly shaped artificial body of water cover ing about 164 square miles. It is nearly 1 1-2 miles long, nearly 1-2 mile thick at it's base and about ll5