The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1913-01-07
SHIPS THROUGH .
PANAMA CANAL

t T,AlNAlIlA .kAlNAL
Continued from nrst paee.)
special train scurried from ocean to
ocean for three days.
Here is what the president found:
All six locks about seventy per cent
completed.
Excavation ninety-five per cent
completed
| Backfalling of the giant Gutan
dam ninety-three per cent completed.
Concrete work of the Gatun locks
the Atlantic entrance-ninety-fo -four
per cent completed.
The Gatun dam over ninety-seven
per cent completed.
The spillway of the Gatun dam
nearly ninety-four per cent COM
pleted.
Culebra cut ninety-four per cent
completed. -.
! Seventy-hve feet below the Gatun
locks three steam dredges are suck
ing out mud from the last brief bar
rier of earth to the Atlantic ocean.
Thanking this last cut is the. old
French canal, almost filled in with
! vegetation by the magic. hand of ma
ture in the tropics. The dixie or dirt
between the locks and the channel
leading to the Atlantic is barely a
quarter of mile long. Beyond the
dredges, the canal is completed for it's
entire distance of about three miles
to Cristobal.
A network of overhead tramways,
transporting mountains of rock and
concrete, are the guardians of the
Gatun locks. These locks-three
pairs and double-are nearly COM
pleted. Long inclined concrete run
ways for electric engines to mount
the extreme pinnacle of the locks, in
| towing vessels, are nearly finished. A
small harbor, with abutment walls,
to nestle the merchant fleets of ma
lions before entering, are almost
completed. A mammoth concrete
wall, 100 feet in height and 1000
feet in length, is being finished to
divide the entrances to the double
row of locks. Installation of steel
buffers, operated with springs of high
tension, to protect the delicate sides
of vessels, only remains to be done.
Interior work of the locks, each
1000 feet In length and 140 feet
wide and each elevated like giant
steps of a mighty marine ladder, is
practically finished. Electrical ma
chinery, hidden beneath the concrete
abuttments at the sides, is in opera
ton. President Taft saw them slowly
swing open and shut-all in three
minutes: Only the buffers remain to
be installed, and the bottom of the
locks, where men viewed from the
crest appeal like pygmies, is to be
cleaned of debris.
Mammoth Emergency Dam.
Like a mammoth steel bridge,
shimmering red in the tropic sun
above the locks, is the emergency
dam, almost completed. This dam, is
In two sections, like drawbridge, to
swing it's mighty bulk before the up.
per mouth of the locks in case the
machinery of the locks should be
broken and the locks left open.~ The
emergency dam is intended to be
swung out and dropped--a powerful
shield of steel pilates, 100 feet high
and 200 feet in width. H..
Ranking only next to Culebra cut
at the west side of the locks is thu
Gatun dam. This great mountain
has been built to harness the turbu
lent Chagres river and form grear
lake, of 164 acres. For, contrary tt
general belief, the water in the cana
is to be entirely fresh. Hardly I
drop of salt water willHenter it's por
tails. The entire canal is eighty-fivt
feet above sea level This height i.
maintained throughout almost it.
entire length, except where the dip.
to the ocean level are made by mean!
of the locks. srss.. -s.,sl...1q ss@zzz....-
AS there are three locks at Gatun
raising vessels eighty-five feet, so arr
There three locks at the Pacific end
one at Pedro Miguel and two at Nina
flores to lower vessels eighty-five feet
All of the water to: float vessels will
i be obtained from the artificial lakes
one at Gatun and the other at Mira
/ flores. But the Gatun lake, manu-
featured Literally byman, is the result
of the Gatun dam. The dam is on,
in name only. Today it appears t.
be the crest Of the small mountain
reaching from the western range o
mountains into the valley where tn,
Gatun locks lia It was built almos
j entirely with earth excavated iron
Culebra It is entirely Of dirt, ex
cept rock rtprapping al the base. /
is nearly two mills In lengt ana one