PANAMA CANAL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1912, 21 November 1913, Page 10

PANAMA CANAL.

WATER RUN THROUGH. EXPLOSION OF GAMBOA DYKE. EtECTRIC SPARK FROM WASHINGTON, At two o'clock on the afternoon of October 10 President Wilsoir lightly pressed a telegraph key in his study in' the White House, Washington, ( which exploded the dynamite -in the Gamboa Dyke and removed the last obstruction to free passage from ocean to oceau through tho Panama Canal. Thus the dream of #0 years has become a, reality, and the- ambition ■■ of the United State.3 for more than 'three-quarters, of a oenturv is realised. It Was early in the Sixteenth -Century that':--Charles V of Spain ordered a survey .to be made. for a canal to connect tho Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the engineers laid out a line which tho American engin-. oers have followed almost exactly. In 1 1825 the United States first began to agitate for the construction of a eana.l to link the two -oceans, hut it : was not until 1904 that the present work was begun. This last step in the bringing of the water of two oceans together was entirely without ceremony, and only invagination could picture what the effect was to be of Dr. Wilson's slight pressure on the telegraph key. From the telegraph room in the White Houss office, which adjoins tho White Honso proper, a wire, or, as it is technically known, a "loon," had been run to the President's stu'dy on the second' floor of the White House., and tlie end of this look terminated in an ordinary telegraph key. Except that it was brand new and its bras.swork glistened it was exactly like any one of the thousands of otlier telegraph keys in every part of tho World. The-President went- to luncheon athis customary hour, and after finishing his luncheon went upstairs to his study. He was alone. No member of tho Cabinet and no officials, none of. tho .men who have had any part, directly or remotely, in. tho great work, Were with him, The President waited 9 few minutes ; then one of his secretaries announced that tho time had, cortie. The President pressed down the key, his finger lingering for a second or "two as if lis was picturing .to himnelf what had, followed from that light touch, and then he turned and went back to his office to . resume the ordinary routine - of the day. Ho had scarcely seated himself at his desk When a telegram was handed to him annenrneing that the explosion had taken place at two seconds past two,. and. was jn every Way successful. The representatives of tb.e telegraph and cable companies and the, staff of electrical expert* and engineers in Wasliingboii and Panama were a, great deal more excited oyer the ceremony thai! the President. During -tho morning the experts had made repeated tests to assure themselves that the machinery they had devised was in perfect order and that there would be no failure to explode the charge, the .largest blast of dynamite, ever used, it is said, when the- President laid Ids finger upon the ke5 r . When Dr.: Wilson pressed down the key'it released a. tiny.electric -spark which travelled 4000 miles over land and under the sea and actuated a fimall electric' switch near tho dyke. Which in turn set more powerful currents in motion, until finally there was force enough to start the complicated, .machinery which exploded the charge. From Washington tho initial spark socd to Galveston, in Texas, 1500 miles away. There it was instantaneously taken up by sensitive repeating instruments, transferr<>d to the cable at the bottom of the. Gulf of Mesiow, terminating at Goatzacoalcos, in Mexico, 800 miles away. Then it was carried over the Isthmus of Tehnautepec for 188 miles to the cable station at' Salina Cruz, on the Pacific Ocean. Then it travelled for 766 miles beneath the Pacific Oceaa, emerging at San Juan del Sur, Nicaraugua, whence still another cable carried it 718 miles to Panama. Thence it completed its long journey across the. Isthmus ef Panama to the dyke. .''-..' Although the two oceans are now united the canal will not he open to navigation for some- time. . The first craft to Use the new waterway will bo steam dredgers, whose work will be to deepen the channel and remove obstructions, - After this is done tho water will rise to operating level and the canal will, be ready for use, provided tho locks work smoothly and the preliminary tests made show that the lock machinery has satisfied the expectations of the builders. This simple ceremony, or rather absence, of -a-ii ceremony, does 1 not mean that Americans are nidifferei.it to the ■completion af the canal. On the contrary., they ate justly proud of what has been done at Panama, j but their enthusiasm is held under'restraint niittl ■ next year, when the official celebration of tho opening of the canal will take place,' and the waterway will be. thrown often to the commerce of the 'world, Then they will show their pride in the achievement of Colonel Goethals and his men, who have made it possible for ships to sail across the .Isthmus. . fH6 COURSE OF THE CANAL. ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENTS AND OBSTACLES.. The Panama. Canal, the main channel of which has been completed by. the blowing. Up of the.Gamboa dyke "which separates the artificial Gatun Lake- from the Culebra Cut, is fifty miles long from the Caribbean Sea- to the Pacific Ocean.j From, shoro to shore tho distance is measured at forty miles. It may he divided roughly Mo four -divisions. As the Channel is -entered from the Caribbean Sea at Ghristobal there is a clear ruii, due southwards, of seven miles oft thei Caribbean level to the Gatun docks.. These docks, which aro exceeded in size only by the new docks (shortly to be opened) of the -Emperor William Canal, which runs from, Kiel. to 'Bntusb-uttei, are in three (lights, and by their agency ships going tiifopgh to the Pacific will h» height of 85 feet to the level of tho great lake of Gatun. Each .of the locks is' an entirely separate -ehamhef, 1000 ft. : . lottg, 110 ft. wide, and 39} ft. deep. These ■' figures compare With a length of 1:082.ft., a Width of HSft., artd a depth of 4.5 ft. in the case of the North Sea and Baltic Canal. From tho locks Pacific-going Vessels will emerge on to the Gatun Lake,' which has been artificially formed by damming the Cbagra-s Riyor at a point about twolvo miles.from its outlet into tho Caribbean. The waters coming down fn>J» the hills, which formerly fed the upper reaches of tho Chagra-s River, now spread themselves into a great lake covering an area of l'ft4 square miles. Elaborate arrangements have been made for draining off the. siiperHuaus rain. Tho dftfti which re-, strains the waters of tlw upper valley, penning them into the great lake and preventing them from mingling with those of tho lower stream, contains % 1,1500,600 cubic yards of material. The .so-called dam, however, is. something quite other than -the'long. regular e.-irth-heap suggested, by European' uses of -the word* An entire hill a mile and «i half long has, indeed, bec-n transferred bodily and placed across the river valtev. ■ Whether this construction, will bo able .to withstand for all iiidefini'te- pwiod tho weight of water pressing on it from the lafo is ono of the problems of the future of the -Canal'. Another to be re- \ ferred to later is the power of resist- : arieo contained ill the sides of the ' .! Culebra Cut. ; ' By the expedient of forming a lake, ] on* of. the ereatest dangers by. which' i

the Canal project was faced has been converted into a source of supply of a v«ry needful element in canal construction.- . The water of the Upper sources of .tho Chagras River have, indeed, by this time overflowed from the lake ■and filled tho Culebra Cut, the next great stretch of tho Canal, through which steamers will pass .after they havo traversed the tweu:ty-.foiir miles duo south and east across the Gatun Lake. Until reeent-Jy the ia'ke was separated from the deep cbaihWl of tho Cut by the Gawtoa Dyke, which has now been. Bent sky-high, much oif itj -by a charge- of 4.0 tons of dynamite. I'rom the lata into the third stretch of the Canal, the Culebra, or "Snake," Cut, marks a contrast from the broadest to the. narrowest Canal channel. The minimum bottom width ef ilio nine-niiie-long channel through the Cut is 300 ft,—sufficient to allow' of two largo vessels coming from opposite directions to pass «me another. This contrasts with a. 1000K- channel at some points hi the Gat.un Lake. Tho problem of the future, of the dam at' Gatun lias -already- been mentioned. The otinJr gigantic cngiiieering difficulty which, momentarrly at least, has been overcome by Colonel Goetlials- is that of tho niigbty Cut. An observer who contributed his impressions to the "Morning Post" somo fifteen months, back compared the geokgical formation at this point in tho Canal to a cake, of Genoese pastry.-The mass through which tho American engineers havo been patiently-, hewing their way is composed of recent deposits of loose,, friable, volcanic scoria and debris. • The layer of . jam in the Genoeso cako Would repr'e* sent the -loose ashes, and the pastry, Bays the observer alluded to., the alternate brittle layer sif voleaii.icj-o.ck. Whether the Water, now that it has been admitted -to the Cut., will wash away, the jam and allow the heavier pastry to crush into tho Cat, filling it up temporarily at least, remains to bo seen. The problem -of slides has been repeatedly .dwelt on hy a -Colon -Corrcs■poiLd'ent of tho ''Morning Post," who has alluded to the possibility— a remote one, it is to lie hoped—that tlio two Craiuoncos, known respectively as Gold Hill and Contractor,s' Hill,, may themselves topple into the Cut. The.Cucaracha Slide, oiio of tho worst, of these obstacles, is stated -by the. French to li-aVo given trouble since lßs4i To dispose of minor disorders of "this character enormously powerful suction engines will bo employed to remove the deposits from the bed- of the Gufc Between the Out and the last stretch of, the Canal lie tho Pedro Miguel and Mkafjores looks, which will lower Pacific-going vessels to the- level of tho ocean. Erohl the Mira-florcs Lake, and lock is a channel of water to the main ocean, which is the -counterpart of tho channel on the Caribbean side from Cristobal to Gatiin. At the Pacific snd of the Canal will be a Control hoajid, connected with the various parts of tho channel by electric wires and. enabling those in charjje to keep in touch with any craft admitted to tho waters of tho Canal, Although with tho destruction of the Gamboa Dyke a waterway'from ocean to ocean will for the first time coni.e into existence, .there rem.ii.ite a- considerable amount of steam:dredgi'ng and Careful testing ivprk to ,'be accomplished. It is hoped that ships .may bo allowed -.-to pass through the Canal'at their own risk from January .1 next. The .official Opening will not toko placo : until a year later, - . . • ' -