WORLD'S COMING WONDER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 276, 18 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

WORLD'S COMING WONDER.

THE PANAMA CANAL. The coming wonder of the world will be the Panama Canal when completed. This is to happen in 1013. To show the gigantic nature of the work, it may be mentioned that the total quantity of earth excavated amounts to 214,006,594 cubic yards. Such figures have no real meaning to the ordinary mind, unless they are compared to some existing objects, the size of which can be. ct>mpreteiulcd by the eye. Those persons fortune te enough to have taken the trip up the Nile, in Egypt, have marvelled greatly at the immensity of the great pyramids. And yet, if the rock and earth dug out in making the Panama Canal were to be built up in a solid pyramid, the proportions of the Great Pyramid, or Pyramid of Cheops, would seem insignificant in comparison. The "Panama Pyramid," as it may be called, would tower nearly two and a-half times as high as Cheops, and would contain about fourteen times as much material bv volume. Tn height it would extend up into the sky nearly 1150 ft, or 200 ft l.ighe r than Eangitoto. The area covered by Cheops is slightly more than 1" acres. The "Panama. Pyramid" would extend over nearly 75 acres Note a block of ! houses, liOOft long, and its width of the same figure, and these are the measurements constantly under the eye of the observer, the "Panama Pyramid" would cover an area about nine times that of such a block. Assuming its base to be perfectly square, the "Panama Pyramid" would be three such blocks long, three, blocks wide, and its height nearly twice that of the towers of the great, United Stales skyscrapers. Tf these figures are not startling enough, let it be supposed that, the rock and earth excavated from the Panama Canal be loaded into 000 ft, steamers. About .'IO,OOO such vessels would be required, and if stretched in line, end to end. they would form a bridge of boats extending clear across the Atlantic Irom Liverpool to New ork. Suppose, again, that common dump carts, Mich as used bv contractors, were employed to carry away the dirt, over one billion carts would be needed, and if they were strung out in line they would extend no less than 160 times around the earth at the equator.