Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-09-17

tPrepared by the National Geographic So
cety, Washington. ID. c.
Celebrating by passing the SueZ
canal in the race for world trade, the
Panama canal reached its tenth birth
dial August Is, 1924. In ten years a
great parade of vessels has carried
more than 100,000,000 tons of freight
through the canal.
But so rapidly is Panama trade in
creasing that the business for the
tenth birthday year is more than one
fourth of all that has passed through
the big Ditch" Tolls for 1924,
amounting to $24,291 900, are also
equal to one-fOurth the ten years
tolls of 97,SO3,OOO. This latter sum
is itself one-fOurth the total con-
struction cost of the Panama canal.
Profits on the transits of 1923 were
3.5 per cent of the $375,00O,O00 the
United States spent connecting the
Pacific with the Atlantic.
ON August u.s. 1914, eleven days
after Great Britain declared war on
Germany, the steamship Ancon with
a party of 200 guests of the secretary
of war, traversed the canal, opening
1t for the traffic of the world. The
first test trip was actually made on
August 3, 1914, by the steamship
Cristobal; this was the very day that
France and Germany declared war on
each other. Making its debut with
Mars, the Panama canal played such
an important part in the conflict that
its formal dedication had to be de-
layed by President Wilson to July u,
1920.
a few weeks ago the canal cele-
DRAFTED it's birthday year by tackling
successfully the biggest ship that ever
approached it's gates, Britains man.
moth of the seas, the battleship Hood
The locks are 10 feet wide and the
Hoods beam is 105 feet, its length $50
feet With two and one-half feet to
spare on either side, canal employees
brought this huge battleship through
in standard time The transit cost
England $22,319. Even the great Levi
athan cOu!1 move into the Pacific
waters with ease through the Panama
canal
America the Biggest User.
How is the Panama canal used?
Proving that it is doing all that was
predicted for it, the figures show the
canals owner Is the biggest user.
Nine-tenths of freight coming from
San Francisco, Seattle and other ports
in Pacific coast states through the
canal is destined for sister states.
Eastern and Gulf states send half
the total of their products going
through the canal to the United
States western seaboard. OF all the
traffic through the canal two-thirds
of that east-bound and one-third of
that west-bound is coastwise business.
Coastwise shipping through Panama
canal is like "going all the way round
Robin Hoods barn." but it is far more
economical for products which do not
demand speed.
The Panama canal Is a gateway of
the seas. Merchants send their prod
ucts through it as medieval traders
sent their caravans through guarded
gates of fortified cities.
In the language of engineers the
Panama canal is not a canal at all;
it is a "water bridge" 1t is said to
be the first great water bridge" in
history. The engineers term does
describe the canal more accurately
than its popular title. From the Colon
entrance, guarded from "nOrthers" by
breakwater, it Is about seven miles to
Gatun locks. At the lock gate to the
right of an incoming steamer is the
great Gatun dam, more than a mile
and half long. 1t is this dam which
raises the Chagres river to the dig
nifty of water bridge" Through
the vast, artificial lake so formed.
steamers pillow "a miles until they
reach the Culebra or Gaillard cut,
severing the mountainous backbone of
North, Central and South America.
In the eight-mile Gaillard cut the
most dramatic excavation work oc-
CURED.
AT the Pedro Miguel locks, called
"Peter Magill' locks by the Ameri-
cans, the ships step. down from their
water bridge" Crossing the mile
long Mirafiores lake they reach the
two Mirafores locks and sea level.
1t is eight miles from here to deep