The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

Gatun dam so that it's level will be S5 feet above that of the Caribbean and the Pacific ocean at either end of the waterway. How high is S5 feet? It Is about the heighth of seven-story flat, or less than (ne-sixth the height of the Washington Monument. Let. us make the reduction even more concrete. Take some man that every one knows. You have all seen Champ Clark, the stately speaker of the house of Rep resenatives. The speaker Is six feet tall. If IA men of the, height of Champ Clark stood one on the head of the other and the last should play the part of Atlas by rising his hands he could just support the world on the level of this canal at it's highest point above the ocean. The minimum depth of the waterway is fl feet. Lean ont of your fourth story window and drop a plumb line to
 the ground You might be in canoe sounding the depth of the Panama canal. The Canal in a Nutshell :, But all this is only preliminary! I shah describe the canal in detail as l go over it. In a nutshell it is 50 miles long | from deep water in the Pacific to deep water in the Atlantic. From shore line to 1 shore line the6ength is 40 miles. In going through it the vessels enter Lincon bay, a magnificent harbor. and steam
 
 which is over seven miles long, to Gatun. The ship Is still on the level of the Caribbean when it gets to Gatun, but there it meets the great locks which, filled by the Charges. lift 1t S5 feet into l Gutun lake. I will tell you later how it goes through these locks and what the locks are like
 In the lake itself, the steamer may pass at full speed to the entrance to the culebra cut and the same level is main tained until you reach the other end of that cut at Pedro Miguel There the ves- sel enters lock and drops about the height of a three-story house into a small lake which is about ffty-five feet above sea level. That lake is yet to be made, but it will be a mile and a half long and 55 feet above the sea. At the end of the lake there are two more locks one above the other. which successively drop 1t down from the height of i've story flat to the channel and on the level of the Pacific ocean. Our ship Is now
 only eight and half miles from the ocean itself and is ready to steam off to ] China, Japan, Australia, or anywhere else ] in the Pacific.
 Ignorance About the Big Ditch That is the story of the canal in nut
 she'll but it Is one which many do not understand During the coming campaign
 we shall have stump speeches where the
 orators will speak of bringing the waters
 of the Atlantic and Pacific together.
 They do not come together here at
 Panama. and if they did they would have
 to flow uphill to height of so
 feet. The salt waters have but little to do with moving the ships from ocean to l ocean, It is the fresh water of the
 Charges river that does that work. l Nevertheless. some supposedly well m | formed men cannot appreciate this. one
 of the chief officials of the Island of Jamacia visited the canal the other day. 1 He was made much of and was taken
 over if from one side to the other. At the close he said to Col. Goethals: l 'It Is a wonderful undertaking, but 1t seems to some of our people in England dangerous one for they fear that it may affect the current of the Gulf stream and defect it."
 1 l am assured that this story is true, although at first could hardly believe it. The man referred to is the command CT of the British forces In the West frdies. stationed at Jamacia
 story somewhat similar was floating upon this imaginative Caribbean air when