The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-07-21
Uncle Sam Has Big Job
On the Panama Canal
Continued From Page one>

ing the past year the contractor has
had from a thousand to fifteen hun
bred men working on them. The gates
are in keeping with the canal, the
largest ever built, being about eighty
feet high, hfty-fve feet wide and eight
feet in thickness.
THE gates are built of Steel" said
Mr. Sullivan. THE lower part is to
be water tight and the top air tight.
The parts for the gates are rolled and
cut to the proper sizes at the rolling
mills, but considerable work has to
be done in fitting the parts together
at the locks. Each of these gates
weighs about four hundred and fifty
tons, or in other words, nearly mil
lion pounds. They are hung as double
gates are usually placed. A person
would suppose, being so heavy, they
would work on rollers. When closed
they form an angle in the middle so
as to withstand the pressure of the
water on the upper or outside. At
Gatun, on the Atlantic side of the ca
nal. five hundred steel workers have
been busy for the past year, and only
recently succeeded in completing one
set of the gates. The concrete work
on the locks is practically COM
pleted, and they only require the gates
and operating machinery to complete
them"
cULEBRA CUT.
Mr.. Sullivan discussed interestingly
the famous CuIebra cut. He said:
1T is nine miles long and is the part
of the canal which passes through the
chain of mountains known in South
America as the Andes and in North
America as the Rocky Mountains. AT
one point in this cut from the bottom
of the canal to the top of the hill is
nearly six hundred feet The earth on
the sides Of the canal caved far be-
yond any calculations. If it were not
for the sliding earth this part of the
canal would now be completed. The
earth on the sides slides down, carry
ing with it houses and burying steam
shovels, railroads, locomotives and
way of the sliding rock. In this great
cut during the past six or seven years
one hundred steam shovels have been
digging away"
The steam shoveIs. Mr.. sullivan said.
are of the largest kind. lifting from
five to seven and a half cubic yards of
rock each load. They viii average one
lift every nineteen seconds, and it
generally requires five or six lifts to
fill a railroad car. There are from
sixteen to nineteen cars in d train and
on an average nine hundred trains
leave the cut every day for the dump
ing grounds some twenty or thirty
miles away. The commission also has
a number of dredge boats working at
each entrance to the canal.
Referring to the beginning of this
vast enterprise Mr.. Sullivan said. DE
Lessep started to build the canal in
1880. In other words, it has been thir-
ty-two years since the canal was
started. and during these thirty two
years work has never stopped, al
though at times only a very small
force was employed. The vigorous
methods of the United States have at
tracted the attention of the world. She
has had from thirty to forty thousand
men employed during the last six or
seven years. This government has
had charge of the canal since May of
1908. a little over nine years, but il
required about two years of prelimin-
airy work. Many new buildings had
to be erected and new machinery had
to be purchased and the country in
the vicinity had to be put in a good
sanitary condition. Before the United
States took over the canal, Panama
was considered one of the worst pest
holes in the world With modern
sanitary methods in force, Panama
I has proved to be almost a health re-
sort. 1t is visited annually by thou
! sands Of tourists who come down to
see Uncle Sans great work. With the
exception of the dampness during the
rainy season, the climate is delight
ful'
The canal is nearing completion, and
! It is Mr.. Sullivan's opinion that next
/ year the first vessel win probably pass
| through the canal. although the official
I opening will not occur until 1915
"A large force will be necessary for
| some years to come" he said. ''iu