Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1913-03-21
Obstacles of Centuries Over
come-The Wonderful
Lock System.
SIS S. :.--.-.--..-...-.::

AT last the Panama canal is prac-
"a tically finished. Obstacles
"a which for centuries have baf-
fed the rulers and civil en-.
gineers of the world have been over
come through the energy of Colonel
George Washington Cocktails. L. S. A.
ana the persistency of Colonel W. G.
GorgaS. L. $. A.. who solved the prob
lem of sanitation in the canal zone.
The canal has been pushed to COM
pletion almost Il year before the most
sanguine observers believed it pos
sible. and many years before the gen
eral public thought it would be done
Then. too. it has been finished at d
cost Of few millions less than the
estimate of $375,OOO.OOO The amount
spent is a trifle less thar. 100000 900
in excess of that which had already
been expended by France in her I'M
successful attempts to build the canal
under De Iesseps
Monument to the American People.
If thereS has been any doubt lurking
in the minds of skeptics as to who is
the real power in this half of the
world the building of the Panama
canal by the United States will prob
ably settle that for all time 1t means
q revolution in the freight rates of the
world and the opening up of scores of
! new harborS in South America; har
! borS which heretofore were practically
/ inaccessible for commercial purposes
III the Panama canal the people have
gigantic plant that is likely to stand
/ for all time as Il monument to Ameri-
can progress.
Now, the Panama canal as construct
ed consists in the formation of two
artificial lakes covering the istlImus
from sea to sea How this was ac-
complished may better be understood
by consideration of the CONFORMATION
of the neck of land between Colon and
Panama. The island of ManZanillo
upon which Colon stands. lies largely
below water level From the shore the
ground rises in the course of seven
miles to ninety foot elevation at
Gatun. 1t then dips sharply. and from
Gatun to Obispo. distance of twenty
three miles. it maintains general
elevation of forty feet above the mean
level of the Atlantic. Obispo is the
northern entrance to the divide. and
Pedro Miguel is the southern exit. The
distance between these points is eight
miles. From Pedro Miguel to Sosa hill
on the shore of Panama bay. is a
stretch of six miles of land. hardly
anywhere exceeding ten feet above
the mean level of the Pacific ocean.
Eighty-fve Feet Elevation.
The huge dam at Gatun arrests and
impounds the waters Of the Chagres
and its continents so as to form Il lake
/ 10 square miles in extent. stretching
to Obispo. the normal water level at
eighty five feet elevation The same
| level is maintained in the Culebra cut
from Ohisp0 to Pedro Miguel This
stretcn of about thirty-two miles con
sttutcS the summit level of the canal.
| on the Pacific side of the divide a sys
/ tenn of dams designed to entrap the
| Rio Grande converts the six miles of
! of the line from Pedro Miguel to Sosa
| hill into q second lake. with n water
| level of fifty-fve feet At Gatun the
/ summit is rearhed by means of triple
| fight of duplicate locks. and a similar
ured along the canal axis, was 100000
( cubic yards More than 100000 cubic
wards of concrete masonry, quantity
unparalleled in modern building opera
tons. was required.
Centuries ago Spaniards thought of
the marvellous problem OF cutting
through the thick neck which Joined
North and South America,
1t was Balboa in 1913 who discovered
the neck that has played such an I'M
portant part In the worlds navigation
problem. The honor might have gone
to Columbus if it had not been for the
injustice which finally blighted his life
But exactly ten years after Balboa
discovery Galvao, Spanish sub
ject, suggested to his king, Charles ".
the feasibility of waterway through
the isthmus. Cortes was charged by
the king with the location Of the route,
and surveys were made.
But the action of the United states,
which finally eliminated in the actual
prosecution Of the work as a govern
mental enterprise, finds the beginning
not long after the declaration OF the
Monroe doctrine and at the beginning
Of President Jackson's term Of office.
Tho povarnmant then in control of