The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1914-09-02
FIGHTS
TO IHVlART THE
PURPOSE OF Man
Difficulties Encounters d
through Slides in Panama
Canal Are Described.

WASHINGTON. D. c.. Sept. III
1.-THE only reason ships were not
using the Panama canal ten months |
ago when the locks were first ready
is that Nature was battling to the
last ditch in her efforts to thwart
the purpose of man to put shipway
through the vitals of proud old Gull
ebra mountain" writes William JOS
eph Showalter, magazine writer. who
visited the canal zone many times
during the progress of the work
there. in communication to the Ma
tional Geographic Society. Washing
ton, d. C.
Great Slide.
"Over $50 acres of ground lying
outside of the intended banks of the
canal, and containing over thirty
million cubic yards of material, were
swept by Nature, with silent but ter
rife force, down into the canal. he
writes: Now the onslaught demor-
allied an entire railroad system; now
1t put the compressed air and water
systems out of commission; now 1t
bottled UP one end of Culebra cut
with an avalanche OF debris; now 1t
imprisoned dirt trains and wrecked
steam shovels. Consider what the
removal of thirty million cubic
yards of material means. 1t is
enough to build sort Of Chinese
wall seven feet thick and seven feet |
high reaching from New York to
San Francisco. 1t Is more than could
be drawn by all the horses and mules
in the United States. 1t would fill
million and half big Lidgerwood |
cars. enough to make a string $4,000 |
miles long.
when you remember that each
yard of this sliding material rendered
doubly difficult the getting out OF
three yards of other material. the
true meaning of the slides begin to
appear. There have been ITO trains
going. out OF the cut one day at the
south end. only to be stopped entire
~ the next day by slide. Again
half a dozen tracks would suddenly
be put out of commission. 1t is the
greatest engineering wonder of the
age that in spite of these difficulties
1O6 100000 cubic yards of material
were rmoved from the cut in less time
than it was estimated 100000 GU
bic yards could be removed. Ana
this wonder grows when look at the /
cost sheets and see that cubic yard
was remover for an average of 60
odd cents, when it was estimated
that, unrindered- by slides. the cost
of removing a cubic yard would be
90 cents.
No Trouble Prior to 1910.
.Prior to 1910 the slides presented
no serious obstacles. Up to that year
the excavations on account OF slides
were only 1877 per cent of the to-
tai excavations. During 1910 seven
weeks were required to take care OF
the 1888 per cent of all excavations
which represented the slide debris
taken out In 1911 it required IL
weeks to take out the material the
slides brought into the cut, this ma
terial amounting to $3.50 per cent
of the total excavations for the year
During the fiscal year of 1912, 34.5
per cent of the excavations were OF
slide material whose removal requtr-
ed eighteen weeks. Forty-six per
cent Of the total excavations In 1918
we're from slides, which accounts for
twenty.four weeks work. Last year,
beginning July l. 1913. saw only
two months required for the final
bottom to be reached In the cut. out
side of the material brought In by the
slides SO that at least forty-four
weeks are chargeable against the
slides. The more than six weeks re- !
naming until the opening of the ca
nal on August 5 were taken up with
the removal OF slide debris. more
all.
zone of the wonderful things
about the building of the canal was
how Col. Goethals and Col. Gaillard
were able to drive down unit cost as
the mercury in the difficulty Their
mometer sped upward. In 1908 IL
was estimated that the cost OF re-
moving a yard of soil would be
around 90 cents for the whole cut.
In 1909 this was hammered down TO
IS 2-3 cents.