The Republican journal., 1916-05-18
A Visit to the Panama Canal.
BY ALFRED JOHNSON.

interesting trip to the Panama Canal
Zone. Leaving New York on the Sec
ond day of the month, l was back there
again in exactly three weeks, having
spent about half the time on the water,
with enough time at the Canal to see its
main features, and day each at Jamai-
ia, New Orleans, Augusta, Ca, and
Aiken, S. C.
We went down by way of the eastern
end of Cuba and Jamaica, and returned
via New Orleans. After the second day
out, when we got below the latitude of
Cape Hatteras, the trip was delightful
one. The sea was smooth and of that
peculiar light blue familiar to the visit
or to Bermuda or Nassau, and the rapid
transformation from the snow and ice of
New York to summer weather, warm
enough to cause the officers to don their
white duck suits and the passengers to
appear on deck in straw hats and fan
nels, was very agreeable one. The
ship, belonging to the United Fruit Co. g
fleet, though smaller than transatlan-
tic liner, was very different from the old
time "fruiter," being comfortable, arti-
ficialy ventilated throughout for the
tropics, with broad decks, and the SER
vice excellent. Among the passengers
were interesting people, some of them
tourists, who in ordinary times would
have been bound for Europe.
Shortly after passing Columbus, or
Watling's Island, war ship was seen
making for US at full speed, her bows
plunging into the seas, and throwing the
spray high in the air, and clouds of black
smoke trailing astern as it issued from
her three tunnels. AS the German raid
er "Moewe," was supposed to be in the
neighborhood, and our ship had been
under the English flag prior to this trip,
there was a tense feeling OF expectancy
among passengers and crew until our
pursuer turned out to be HIS Majesty's
Destroyer Sidney" on the look -out for
the "Moewe," and who upon passing
close alongside of US, and seeing our
American flag left US in peace, as she
hurried on to continue her patrol duty.
After day at Jamaica, where we
saw evidence of the war in the shape of
harbor defences and search lights by
night on the mountains to illuminate the
approaches to Kingston from the sea, we
proceeded across the Caribbean to Colon.
The delightful weather still followed us,
and allowed our new cargo OF Jamaica
negroes, with their families and chattels,
to live and sleep on deck.
The return journey was made via New
Orleans, in company with an interesting
lot of passengers of various nationalities
from South America, very different in
character from the tourists of our out
ward voyage. The trip from New Or
leans to New York was by rail, thus CIV
ing an opportunity to visit Augusta, Ca,
and Aiken, S. c., and further, avoiding
the disagreeable experience of approach !
ing our coast from the tropics in winter
The Canal with it's locks, cuts, dam,
and Great Lake, represents, l suppose,
the largest piece of physical work yet
accomplished by man, and you realize
this when you see it, and hear the men
who worked on it talk about it. | was
tremendously impressed by the whole
thing, as well as by what has been done
by the Sanitary Commission and the
other branches of the U. S. Service to
make the Zone healthy, and, in fact, an
agreeable place of residence.
The Gatun Locks and their mammoth
gates; the emergency gates; the electric
locomotives and railway, which help haul
and steer the ships from lock to lock; the
wonderful artificial hill, which consti-
tutes Gatun Dam, half mile thick, i'm
pounding the Chagres River and making
Gatun Lake, the outlet from which is
the spillway in Gatun Dam-the spillway
being the safety valve, as is were, of the
entire canal system; the tremendous
canon, hewn through Cuiebra Mountain,
now known as Gaillard Cut: the Pedro
Miguel and Mirafores Locks-all must
be seen for one fully to realize the I'm
believable tasks accomplished by our en-
gineers and medical men and the great
forces working under them,
All these are accomplished facts, and
with their completion has disappeared
muck of the business and hustle of the
construction days. But one must not
suppose for an instant, however, that
all the problems have been solved. Many
finishing touches remain throughout the
fifty mile length of the entire zone, and
much readjustment from the period Of
construction to that of operation is 60
ing on. The proper lighting and buoy
ing of the canal and its approaches, and
the regulation of its traffic is proving
big problem, and incidentally millions of
dollars are still being spent annually for
the proper housing of the employees.
Thus there are many things in the
Zone which attract the attention of
even the transient visitor, but | must
confine myself here to very few. pass
ing after some comments on the condl-