Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/516

railroad tracks serving the excavators are yet fragmentary and tentatively placed to serve the purposes of investigation. In both respects the disposition of plant is far more unfavorable, both to economy and celerity of operations, than will be the case when a complete track system has been arranged and laid down to serve a large number of steam shovels operated by an experienced force.

"In the face of these disadvantageous conditions the cost of excavation has been reduced far lower than was anticipated, and it has been demonstrated that each steam shovel may be counted upon to yield an average record of at least 1,000 cubic yards per working day. The chief engineer estimates that with 100 steam shovels installed, with a complete system of tracks serving them, a yearly record of 30,000,000 cubic yards of excavation may be reached without requiring a greater output per shovel or greater speed in working than has already been attained. The rate of working could probably be reached within two years from the present time.

"With the rate of progress which now appears reasonable to anticipate, this committee believes that a sea-level canal, with a tidal lock 1,000 feet long and 100 feet usable width at Miraflores, can be completed within ten to twelve years from this time, the bottom width of the canal being 150 feet and the minimum depth of water 35 feet.

"These considerations have induced this committee to express to the Commission its unanimous judgment that with the contemplated system of working and with the rate of development which appears to be justified by the work now being performed at Culebra, a sea-level canal, free from the restriction of locks, should be adopted. This committee believes that such a canal, with terminal harbors, can be constructed for a sum not exceeding $230,500,000.

"The advantages of a sea-level canal across the Isthmus are most obvious. It would be a waterway with no restriction to navigation, and which could easily be enlarged by widening or deepening at any time in the future to accommodate an increased traffic without any inconvenience to the shipping using it, whereas a lock canal is in reality a permanent restriction to the volume of traffic and size of ships that use it. Although it is possible to design and construct locks adapted to the future transformation to a sea-level canal, that transformation cannot be made without serious inconvenience to navigation and at a cost so great as to be excessive.

"The additional cost of a sea-level canal over that of a canal with locks, with a summit level of 60 feet above mean tide, is $52,462,000, or $79,742,000 more than the estimated cost of the lock canal, with a summit level 85 feet above mean tide, proposed by the former Isthmian Canal Commission, after allowing $6,500,000 for the Colon breakwater and direct entrance not previously estimated. This committee considered this additional expenditure fully justified by the advantages secured."

From this latest report from the canal zone it would seem that there is a possibility of the Commission going back to the first plan of the old Panama Canal Company, and this seems to me, and indeed it has always seemed to me, to be a most desirable outcome of the vast amount of work, thought, and intelligence that has been given the matter. The sea-level canal will surely cost more than if it be constructed on the lock system, but it is more than probable that enough will be saved for maintenance during, say, a fifty-years' service of the canal to pay for the increased cost, and the saving to the 10,000,000 tons of shipping which it is expected will use this great highway of commerce in demurrage will more than compen-