The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-01-27
PANAMA CANAL HAS
FEW INTERRUPTIONS
High Flood Cause Of Re-
cent Traffic Suspension.

where engineers had feared there
might sometime be too little, made
necessary the closing of the Pan.
anna canal to traffic for the better
part of day few weeks ago. The
reason for the suspension was an
unusually high flood in the Chagres
river which discharged into the
canal, makes possible Gatun lake
through which ships pass, and is
the chief source of water for OPP
Grating the locks. A special dam
to cost $15,500,000, is under con-
struction now, designed to prevent
an overabundance of water in the
canal in the future, and to hold an
additional supply in reserve for the
dry season. The chief damage
wrought by the flood, probably not
over $4,000, was to the uncom-
pleted dam.
IL Ships Day for 10 Years.
ION December l., 1892, exactly
6,6S2 days had passed since the
canal was opened to the commerce
Of the world; and on only a little
handful of these days had there
been no procession of ships passing
from Atlantic to Pacific or from Pa
cific to Atlantic. The few and brief
occasions when traffic was suspend
ed were for the most part during
the early days of the canals serv-
ice, when landslides had to be
cleared from one or another of the
deep cuts.
up to July 1 last, when the
canal had been open just 40 days
short of Is years, an average of
just II ships had passed through
the waterway every day-almost
half ship an hour if one takes
his statistical averages that Sc
riOusly,' says a bulletin from the
National Geographic society.
'The Panama canal is a gateway
of the seas. Merchants send their
products through it, as medieval
traders sent their caravans through
guarded gates of fortified cities. One
can see the traffic coming through
the Panama gate and tell much
of the countries from which the
goods come.
"F'rom Argentina's plains come
meat, bone, fertilizer, and tankers
with blood; from Brazil, coffee !;
from Mexico, crude oil; from the
West Indies, sugar; from the Far
East, bamboo, tea, peanuts, fire.
works, gallstones, hemp, coconut
oil and rice; from Australia,
cold storage products, beef, casein,
cheese, mutton. pork, tallow; from
California, fruit, oil, apricot seeds,
oorax, onions, walnuts; from Wash
ngton and Oregon, lumber and sal
mon; from Vancouver, wheat; from
Chile, nitrates and iodine; from
Peru, guano; and from the South
seas, copra.
~ OfiO9S " w dtSts
'In the language of engineers the
Panama canal is not 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 accurate
ly than its popular title. From
the Colon entrance, guarded from
snorthers' by breakwaters, 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 mile and a half
long. 1t is this dam which raises
the Chagres river to the dignity of
a water bridge
Through vast artificial Gatun
lake, so formed. steamers pillow "a
miles until they reach the Culebra
or Gaillard cut, severing the noun
famous backbone of North, Central
and South America. In the eight.
mile Gaillard cut. the most dramatic
excavation work occurred.
Sat 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 Mirafiores locks and sea level.
1t is eight miles from here to deep
water in the Pacific. Gatun dam
raises the water bridge to the
height of a seyen-story building"