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BUILDING THE NAOS ISLAND BREAKWATER

At both the Atlantic and Pacific ends of the canal great breakwaters have been built to afford protection to the shipping and to keep the channels free. This Naos breakwater at the Panama end is 17,000 feet long and is built of material excavated from the Culebra Cut.

dumped into the water from railroad trucks which ran along the wooden trestle shown in the picture.

The rock was

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THE PANAMA CANAL

material instead of the 110 million cubic yards the majority members of the board of consulting engineers fixed.

But suppose such a prospect would not have staggered the American people into a refusal to go further with a sea-level canal, what would we have had when it should be completed? A tortuous channel, with a tidal lock at the Pacific end in greater danger of destruction than those at Gatun; a masonry dam at Gamboa nearly twice as high as Gatun Dam and a much fairer mark for the dread man in the flying machine; a canal in which not one of the recently built big ships could be handled, making it out of date before its completion.

When the American people come to celebrate the opening of the present canal, they owe a hymn of thanksgiving to that happy fate that led them yes, led them against their will-to build a lock canal at Panama. To have pursued the course the majority of us—for I am one of that majority-wanted the United States to pursue would have involved us in one of the most calamitous undertakings in all history.

The meaning of the slides cannot be misunderstood or misinterpreted. They mean that Nature would have interposed such tremendous obstacles in the way of a sea-level cut through Culebra Mountain that even the might and power and wealth of the giant of the household of

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nations would have arrayed themselves against her in vain had that nation determined upon the wedding of the oceans by the commingling of their waters at Panama.

In conclusion, I wish to call attention. to a story that seems to find acceptance in some quarters. It is to the effect that shipping and insurance circles stand in dread of slides in the future in the canal.

There are two reasons why there is not the slightest ground for that dread, even if there should be for the story. In the first place, the canal is not going to be pronounced a finished waterway until every yard of debris that can come in has arrived and has been removed. In the second place, the United States government has pledged its solemn word, through definite legislation, to indemnify any ship-owner for delays or damages caused by the canal or its operatives. And Uncle Sam makes the process of recovery easy and prompt in its action.

When the shipping of the world passes through the great waterway, some time this year, it will behold the most wonderful shipway that ever has opened its gates to the nations of the earth. And there will be read in the majestic proportions of the present Culebra Cut the reason why a sea-level canal was not built, and why it could not be built within the toiling and money-spending power of the United States.

THE PANAMA CANAL*

BY LIEUT. COLONEL WILLIAM L. SIBERT, U. S. ARMY
ENGINEER IN CHARGE OF THE ATLANTIC DIVISION

For a map of the Panama Canal, see “Bird's-eye View of the Panama Canal,” 9 by 18 inches, in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, February, 1912, and also "Map of Central America, etc.," 12 by 19 inches, in the February, 1913, number.

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HE Panama Canal, as all know, is being built by the President of the United States through a commission of seven members, the chairman and chief engineer of which is Col. George W. Goethals, of the Corps of Engineers, United States Army. As a member of the commission and as divi

sion engineer of the Atlantic Division, I have had charge of the construction of the Gatun locks, the Gatun Dam, the breakwaters in Colon Harbor, and the excavation of the channel between the Gatun locks and the Atlantic Ocean.

If there are any people who yet hold the idea that the waters of the Atlantic

*An address to the National Geographic Society, November 29, 1913

A VIEW ON THE CHAGRES RIVER

It is the Chagres River that has made the Panama Canal possible. It supplies the water for the Gatun Lake-the largest artificial lake in the world-across which the vessels will steam for nearly two-thirds of the entire distance from coast to coast

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This picture gives some idea of the many beauty spots found along the banks of the Chagres

and Pacific will mingle in this canal, I think that two statements of fact will dispel that idea forever.

One of the statements is that for about 32 miles this canal is 85 feet above the level of the Atlantic and Pacific. The second statement is that water will not flow uphill.

HOW THE CANAL IS DESIGNED

What has really been done is that a great dam has been built across the lower end of the valley of the Chagres, entirely blocking the flow of that river to the sea. The height of the dam and spillway is so fixed that the Chagres River will rise and rise until it reaches a stage 85 feet above the level of either ocean. At this stage the Chagres River will form a lake 165 square miles in area and 45 feet above the bottom of the cut that has been made through the Continental Divide at Culebra.

The Chagres, therefore, can flow into both oceans-to the Atlantic through the

River

locks at Gatun and to the Pacific through the locks at Pedro Miguel and Miraflores. The water of the Gatun Lake not needed in passing ships through the locks goes to the Atlantic Ocean through a spillway (see page 170).

THE BREAKWATERS AT COLON

Starting at the Atlantic side, the first work that has been done is the construction of the west breakwater at Colon. It was thought that that breakwater would be sufficient to insure a safe harbor. The line of the canal at Colon is due north and south, and the most destructive storms, the "northers," are from a little west of north; so that the west breakwater will provide a safe anchorage for ships during such storms.

The prevailing winds at Colon, however, are the trade winds, that blow from the east or north and continue for more than nine months of the year. These winds do not produce a sea destructive to shipping, but they make a rough har

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