Omaha daily bee., 1912-03-31

N uam which now holds back
* charges. making a reservoir
seven times as great as that of the Nile
above the dam at Assouan. Here are the
mighty locks, which will lift the biggest
OF the ocean greyhounds from the At
lantic TO the. lowest level at the end OF
this chain of the Andes, SO that they
may shoot across It and go down other
water steps into the Pacific. Here Is
where our canal and the old French
canal, cross, and where the mightIest OF
the construction work OF the Panama
canal begins. Gatun Is, in some respects,
the heart Of this greatest engineering
work Of all times. the gangllonic center
from which its nerves radlate.
came here this morning from my
hotel at Ancon. on the Pacific. ] rose
at o'clock and rode with the work
men on the railroad along the canal l
have spent all day In going over the dam
and locks with Colonel Sibert, the n.y.
draulic engineer who has charge Of the
Atlantic division OF the canal: and am
now writing these notes on the second
floor of the Gatun administration build
ing. in plain view OF the canal and the
locks. ard Of the Atlantic ocean. which
Is rolling up Its surf in Limon bay.
A Day at Gatun.
All day have been flying over the dam
and the works. / have gone up and down
the locks in a car run by a gasoline
engine. have often ridden under those
mighty chambers forty feet and more be-
low the level OF the sea, and under the
basins which when filled with water will
some day lift ships as big as the Olympic
on their way from ocean to ocean.
have been inside the mighty concrete
pipes, each as bis as the tube tunnel
through which the Pullman trains go on
their way under the river from Jersey
City to New York, and have seen the
holes as big as hogshesd which will ad-
init the waters OF the Chagres into the
floors of the locks.
have visited the Atlantic ocean where
the canal ends or begins; have flown
across the splllwsy. and. ever with my
life. 1t seems to me, resting on the bal
ance Of a hair and my heart in my throat,
have been carried in and out and
over this mighty maze Of machinery
which lifts mountains in its fingers and
carries the earth and the waters in the
palm Of its hand.
Brnin-RackinE Scenes.
The scenes are Undesirable. Even now
my head buzzes as look at the flying
steel cables which are carrying steel
hogsheads loaded with stone through the
hi
with the lightest Of gas; at the rivers OF
cars piled high with the blue rock from
Culebra cut. and at the vast moving net
work Of steel wires. railroad trains and
human beings which covers the Gatun
locks and the dam.
The Impressions which come through
the ear here are almost ar terrifying as
those through the eye. The drums Of my
head are vibrating at something like
thousand movements a second. boiler
factory would be rest cure in eompari-
son, and the shrieking Of the steam. and
the exploding Of the dynamite. the ham
mering Of steel upon steel and the thou
sand noises OF mighty machines are COM
bined into a rssplng din that makes ones
nerves the only perceptible part Of his
being. 1t Ii under such conditions that
am giving you my impressions and re-
cording some Of the notes which were
made here today at Gatun.
A Flying Machine View.
Let me first make a rough drawing Of
the scene as it looks from the roof OF
this office building on the top Of the
high hill Just over the dam. We might
be in a flying machine, for the waters
Of the ocean and those OF Gatun lake
and the canal. which lead to them. are
spread out below US as though on
map. Looking to the north. you can
follow the line OF the canal from Linon
hay right up to the locks A score Of
great dredges are now working in II.
and there Is only a small amount Of ex-
cavation. comparatively speaking. yet to
be done.
At the end OF this channel Is the ma
sonry OF the locks. now almost com
pleted. and beyond them the dam where
the waters Of the chagres are rising.
There Is now only about twenty fee; Of
water in the lake. but Il Is beautiful