El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-05-25

~ ULEBRA, Canal Zone, Panama,
May Announcement will soon
be made that the Panama canal
is 'three-fourths completed More
than three-fourths of all the dirt to be
moved is already out OF the ditch, and
ether parts of the work are progress
ing apace.s As this modern labor of
Hercules, which is literally to divide
the continents and unite the world,
nears the final stages of completion ii
is apparent that the 80, 900 who com
pose the great. canal digging army are
determGed to keep up with their rec
ords made in the past, and to finish
the work with the cclors of victory
flying over the greatest physical OBJ
stacles man has ever set out to over
come
Some of the Obstacles.
Think of a single landslide, with
superficial area of AZ acres. slipping
foot by foot into the canal Yet the
canal diggers simply. redouble their
determination, ard declare that they
Will not let such a thing delay the
opening of the canal one single hour.
Think of increasing by one-third the
bottom width Of the canal through the
great CuIebra cut without adding a
single dollar TO the previous estimate
of the cost Of the work. Think OF in
creasing the total excavations by 81
600, 900 cubic yards-equal to a ditch
six feet deep and II wide and nearly
700 miles long-without Increase of
cost or extension of timei That is
what the Americans are doing at Pan
anna.
Two years ago the world was mar
Yelling at the health conditions OBJ
tanning on the isthmus. It compared
well with the healthiest spots on the
map. But the death rate has been
lowered from Is then to II now. Two.
years ago it was costing liz cents
yard to load dirt in CulebFa cut; today
1t costs S4-5 cents A hundred like
instances might be cited TO show what
wonderful progress there has been a.
Panama
The problems of the canal naturally
divide themselves into two general
classes-those Of digging the ditch and
those of building up the great locks
ard dams. The big ditch is rapidly
assuming its ultimate shape, and by
the time Culebra cut is down TO the
requisite depth there viii be nothing
left to do in the remainder of the
channel Already about half of tine
length of the canal is completed and
awaits only the water supply The
interior 23 miles of the big water
to the point where the Chagres river
comes into the canal. is completed but
for a finishing touch or two during
the next. dry season. Add to this the
completed sections in the shoal water
Of the Atlantic and the Pacific, and 1t
will make more than half Of the canal
finished. Nearly a third of the ditch
already is open 70 navigation The
material fleet, carrying stone and sand
and cement to the Gatun locks. for
many months has been plying up and
down the five mile section from deep
water in the Atlantic to the lower end
OF the Gatun lake On the Pacific
end ships are now coming up the canal
three miles to Balboa. and light craft
five miles further to Miraflores-
Dredees Move necessarily.
Incessantly, night and day. dredges
keep up the work Of deepening the
channel in from the Atlantic to Gatun
and in from the Pacific to Miraflores.
As one sits on the Balboa steamer
pier and watches the big sea-going
dredges, the Large self-propelling
barges. and the great tug-drawn
to sea again. with their night lights
of red. green and white all aglow. he
begins to realize how unrelenting Is
the warfare against the barriers which
divide the oceans.
The month of March witessed high
water mark in the attack Of the canal
army on the backbone of the ditch
work, which is kown as the Central
division. when upward OF 1000, 600
yards of material was taken out.
There will remain, on June l. about
10000. 600 yards Of material in Culebra
cut, out of total OF 81 1000, 600 yards
ho IS r.
maintained to the end. the cut would
be completed by November i. 1912
But allowing an average of less than
half as much per month. Culebra
ought to yield up its last shovelful OF
earth in January, 1914
A Suez Canal Every II Months,
When the work began the canal dig
gers faced the problem OF removing
1872, 000. 900 cubic yards of dirt. enough
for a real canal through level land
from Washington to New York big
through, or 40 feet deep and 100 feet
wide. On June l they will have ex-
cavated enough material to equal such
a canal from New York to Baltimore.
The canal diggers have been excavat-
ing a Suez canal every u months. and !
they could bury the great Cheops pyra-
mid in the hole they make every 26 |
days.
Almost every method of excavating |
known to the engineering world is /
brought into use at Panama At the /
entrances on both sides of the isthmus |
there are big sea going suction |
1redges. They operate over a section |
If the canal about 500 feet wide and |
over mile long. Starting at the in
and end of the section. the big 20-inch |
one on each side. operated by |
centrifugal pumps. begin work with |
such tremendous suction power that I
hey pic,1 up pieces Of anchor chains
md anything else not too big to pass