Imperial Valley press., 1913-01-07

covery of the Pacific 400 pears ago is
to figure in the opening of the canal
During his visit to the zone last month
The president unequivocally indicated
that he favOrs honOring Balboa by
having the nrst ship sail from ocean
| to ocean on October 5-eXactly 400
years after the Spaniard sighted the
Of the canal. The president plans to
| issue a proclamation before March i,
fixing this date for the event. An
anti climax planned is to turn the
water into Culebra cut, the mammoth
! cash of steam shOvels through the
miniature mountains in the center of
the canal district, on July 1.
Establishment of a civil government
in the zone, to replace the military re-
| gime incident to actual construction
work by the army and navy engineers
will precede the formal and informal
| opening ceremonies.
Goethals, the master mind Of the
| canal, is the choice of President Taft
! for governor of the zone. GoethalS
has indicated that he will accept such
an appointment finish the canal if
| nothing more, putting the last touches
of perfection on his titanic achieve
| ment.
How near the canal is to actual use
was strikinSly impressed upon the
president and his party during their
inspection last month. Every foot Of
the canal was looked over. A special
train scurried from ocean to ocean for
three days. Here the president found:
All six locks about 20 per cent COM
pleted; excavation 95 per cent COM
pleted: backflling Of the giant Gatun
dam 93 per cent completed; concrete
work Of the Gatun locks-the Atlantis
entrance-9i per cent completed; the
Gatun dam over 81 per cent complnt-
ed; the spillway Of the Gatun dam
nearly 81 per cent completed; Guile
bra cut 81 per cent completed.
On December "a President Taft's
party landed at Cristobal, the American
port on the Atlantic side Of the 18TH
mus. Every inch Of the So miles 10
the extreme point of the canal break
water at the Pacific entrance was seen
before the president sailed for home
on December &c.
At Cristobal the president saw
mammoth new concrete dock, 1000
feet in length, nearly completed; also
modern concrete hotel, four stories
in height, for Uncle Sans employees
and visitors.
rs the canal looks today-imaginr
the waters of the Atlantic almost lap
ping the edges of the Gatun locks, .
lake 3 miles long-entirely artificial
10 The Culebra cut: then the stag
gering, dizzy abyss of the "cut," an
other lock at Pedro Miguel, another
lake mile long, two more docks, a
muddy channel teeming with dredges
and steam shovels, and then four miles
Of completed canal, fiued with the
emerald blue waters Of the Pacific.
That is the canal as it is today, from
Atlantic to Pacific.
Seventy-flve feet below the Gatun
locks three steam dredges are sucking
out mud from the last brief barrier of
earth to the Atlantic ocean. Flankina
this last cut is the old French canal
almost filled in with vegetation by the
magic hand Of nature in the tropics
The dixie of dirt between the locks and
the channel leading to the Atlantic is
barely quarter of a mile long Be
yond the dredges, the canal is COM
pleted for its entire distance of about
three miles to Cristobal.
A network of overhead tramways
Transporting mountains Of rock aEG
concrete are the guardians of the Gatm,